<p>I keep thinking about the Amish families and their incredible compassion in reaching out to the family of the man who shot the students and teacher at the Amish school. </p>
<p>This Virginia Tech massacre causes me to reflect again whether I would be able to show the kind of compassion and lack of hatred that the Amish demonstrated after the massacre that affected everyone in their small, close knit community.</p>
<p>Maybe someone can address this for me.</p>
<p>The greatest rates of uninsurance in America are the working “poor” and those who own or work for a small business such as Cho’s parents. The very poor get Medicaid and SCHIP while the better off get private coverage.</p>
<p>This is assuming that Cho’s symptoms manifested in high school (more so than just being “weird”) but, if there is concern that a kid has some psychiatric diagnosis in high school, how adequate is school counseling and evaluation? If someone doesn’t have insurance, can they really get medical help that is adequate?</p>
<p>NSM, I, too have thought several times of the remarkable and stunning compassion that the Amish displayed toward the family of the man who killed the victims in the schoolhouse.</p>
<p>If someone lacks insurance, they can’t get adequate mental health care. Indeed, they may find it difficult to impossible to get any mental health care.</p>
<p>Even for people with insurance, often the coverage for mental health care is woefully inadequate.
And, if someone is poor enough to get insurance coverage from the government, they still don’t get good assistance for mental heath problems.</p>
<p>
**</p>
<p>Now if this logic prevails we should be expecting greater numbers of shooters. Right?</p>
<p>Hazmat, I don’t think that person you quoted was saying that. </p>
<p>Look at cause and effect. Nobody is concluding that those with autism will then become mass murderers. However, in reverse, people look for clues as to factors that may have contributed to the mental state of a person who carried out such a crime. It doesn’t imply that if you have X characteristic, that you will do Y. But if you do Y, there may be many contributing factors.</p>
<p>I am saying that with the huge increase in diagnosis of Autism and the lack of early services of intervention that I would conclude more shooters. I am saying that. I didn’t say ONE leads to the other…I am saying that more brain science will identify brain abnormalities. Whether one can then predict a shooter I cannot say. What I feel comfortable opining is that brain research is moving forward and more is being learned. Just as Autism is now huge and believed to have been underdiagnosed…so may it be so for brain abnormalities that indicate SMIs. Some brains are born “wrong”. That is what I am saying.</p>
<p>Did anyone post this?</p>
<p>Va. Tech shooter was laughed at
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
18 minutes ago</p>
<p>BLACKSBURG, Va. - Long before he snapped, Virginia Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui was picked on, pushed around and laughed at over his shyness and the strange way he talked when he was a schoolboy in the Washington suburbs, former classmates say. "</p>
<p>“Go back to China”…that brings me painful memories too. Kids making fun of me. But I’d never be provoked enough to shoot and kill 30 people. I think other than the autism factor and his family life, racism is also a problem. Our society needs to stop tolerating it b/c I know how it can seriously mess people up (Cho being sick even before this, imagine how it must’ve escalated). No one admits that they’re racist, but look at how kids treat each other these days and how parents are raising their kids. Actions speak louder than words, and it seems like people are constantly joking and discriminating against others. People act like its okay…like its funny, but its not. I’m not saying this excuses Cho’s massacre AT ALL - that was absolutely sick and beyond forgivable. But now I’m starting to see that the tolerance we give discrimination is all crap. It’s like we’d be better off without it, u know? And ironically, Cho’s actions has spurred hatred against Koreans. In NY and LA white punk kids and teenagers are throwing rocks. It’s like we’re stuck in one vicious cycle. There are lunatics in every race, but in addition to that, Cho and his family must’ve gone through a lot of painful experiences when they moved here as well. NO DOUBT, it was Cho’s ultimate decision to do what he did but all the stuff before that sure didn’t help.</p>
<p>A first reaction on hearing the NBC clips was that his speaking voice was quite strange in its huskiness and low pitch. A speech/voice defect, and the response of his peers to its sound, could have been the origin of his first difficulties. Difficulty in expressing oneself because of vocal pathology can cause psychological problems…folks who have had the larynx removed because of cancer have a difficult time emotionally because they have lost part of their expressive ability.</p>
<p>The Perfect Storm of issues-
Perhaps there is a case of many things, a perfect storm of outrage and madness.</p>
<p>The above mentioned disorders, years of painful alienation, combined with this tidbit mentioned on CNN by Dr Gupta yesterday.</p>
<p>People with brain injury, especially affecting the FRONTAL LOBE.
"“That part of the brain is called the orbito-frontal cortex, and that seems to be the area particularly critical to our ability to inhibit aggressive impulses,” said Neurologist Dr. Pamela Blake.</p>
<p>Blake never examined Cho and has no evidence of what prompted his rampage, but she did look at brain scans of 31 other killers and found 20 of them had damage in areas crucial to impulse control.</p>
<p>Another study found 40 percent of Texas death row inmates examined as part of the research also had damaged brains.</p>
<p>“What the end result is is an impairment in normal interactions, normal empathy, normal ways of conducting yourself in the world,” Blake said.</p>
<p>Researchers say a number of things can damage the brain: head injury, childhood physical or sexual abuse, even chronic stress, which can cause the brain to shrink in key emotion centers.</p>
<p>12 years ago my mother had a large benign tumor (which was successfully removed) in the same area of the brain, and I witnessed the intense personality changes that occured. TRULY SCARY and INTENSE.
She is fine…but someone like Cho who has many, many other issues-was not.</p>
<p>Oh, forgot to mention another contributing factor to the Perfect Storm-
This influence on a “sick” mind-</p>
<p>A report from Sky News notes that police officers believe he repeatedly watched Oldboy as part of his preparation for the killing spree. The film, which won the Grand Prix award at the 2004 Cannes film festival, has been described as “an ultra-violent movie of obsession and revenge.” It contains stylized scenes of killings and an attempted suicide, and is filled with what one critic called “punishing emotional violence.”</p>
<p>Compulsion and obsession aren’t not out of the ordinary for brain sick folks. Are you opining that this is better/worse/same as video game obsessions from other shooters?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Actually, a significant study pubished last year reported a strong link between paternal age and autism (after statistical control for maternal age):</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5768623[/url]”>Father's Age May Play Role in Autism Risk : NPR;
<p>
</p>
<p>another interesting article…</p>
<p>The Loss of Life in Virginia, and How it Could Have Been Prevented</p>
<p>Whenever a tragedy happens such as the recent shootings in Virginia, the question inevitably turns to why did it happen, and how could it have been prevented.</p>
<p>While some reports (such as here and here) have suggested the shooter in this tragedy - Cho Seung Hui - might have suffered from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder - its impossible to know with the limited amount of evidence available, and will never be known for sure. From what has been reported it does, however, seem obvious that he was seriously depressed and withdrawn, was extremely violent and had some significant delusions of persecution. Whether these symptoms add up to a serious mental illness or some type of sociopathic disorder is unknown. </p>
<p>Some factors don’t seem to point towards schizophrenia - as Cho Seung Hui did not seem to suffer from the lack of motivation (called avolition) that is so common with schizophrenia. He was able to attend college and, from the sounds of things, was attending classes regularly and finishing his assignments. Typically when a person develops schizophrenia schoolwork is the first thing that suffers, and an inability to complete schoolwork is common. </p>
<p>With regard to the question of why did it happen - it is of course impossible to know for sure. But at the same time research into mental illness and brain disorders does point to some possible answers."</p>
<p>The suggested answers in the article included:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A Difficult Early Life - news on the family has suggested that they had a difficult (low-income) family life in Korea which prompted the move to the US when the parents had a young family. </p></li>
<li><p>Social stresses of immigration to the US .</p></li>
<li><p>Cho Seung Hui’s Father worked in a Dry Cleaning company - and the family may have been exposed to higher levels of dry cleaning chemicals - which are linked to neurological damage.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Additionally, on a related topic, Dr. Michael Merzenich, the Neuroscientist at UCSF - comments in his blog on the important issues related to the complexity of mental health, and the general social environment that is also a factor in the extremely high levels of violence in America.</p>
<p>I love watching everyone try to find factors and rationalize why someone went on a shooting spree. It really is amusing…</p>
<p>It’s pointless and funny to watch people try to justify why someone went nuts and shoot up a school? News flash, it’s not justifiable or explainable, some people just lose it. “He was depressed, he was deranged, he needed help” bull, no matter what you did this kid was going to do what he wanted…some people just can’t be helped.</p>
<p>^Sounds like he had been ‘losing it’ for about 20 years imho.</p>
<p>laxatack09, so you don’t care to see that this doesn’t happen in the future, to learn from this? Maybe he was going to do what he wanted, maybe, but what if intervention helps? shouldn’t we try</p>
<p>There have been several instances around the country of people like this who had made threats, stalked, etc., who were stopped, imagine that, and they were stopped because they got help, people paid attention, people talked to each other, etc</p>
<p>So your advice would be to ignore those that are troubled? So you would say, don’t bother…</p>
<p>So far, I can think of only one thing that could have been done to prevent any of these murders – and it could only have prevented two of them.</p>
<p>If the residents of West Ambler Johnston had followed the rules, Cho would not have been able to get into their building. If VT is like most colleges, only residents of a building can get into that building using their swipe cards. The cards are programmed in such a way that they don’t work at other dorms. Cho must have gotten in because someone let him in – probably as a “tailgater” (someone who follows another person into the building before the door closes). Kids let this happen all the time.</p>
<p>Of course, even if the residents of West Ambler Johnston had been scrupulous about not letting unaccompanied nonresidents into their dorm, there was nothing that would have prevented Cho from killing someone in his own dorm, if he had been so inclined.</p>
<p>Copycats are on the prowl already. This may be a testimony to all the media attention.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/04/man_accused_of_1.html?p1=MEWell_Pos3[/url]”>http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/04/man_accused_of_1.html?p1=MEWell_Pos3</a></p>