Originally posted by: Future Shock
Originally posted by: Vic
Originally posted by: skace
Originally posted by: Vic
There is no excuse for cold-blooded murder. Nor, in any civilized society, can there ever be any excuse if it wishes to continue calling itself civilized. There are only 2 victims from this incident, and neither was the person who refused to exhaust his last resource in getting the proper help he needed (which was certainly available).
You take that stance and you learn NOTHING.
Exactly what am I supposed to learn? That murder is acceptable? That giving up on one's treatment and then taking your problems out on others is a righteous course of action? If I found out I had cancer tomorrow would I be justified in a murdering spree as well?
Of course not. Nothing excuses his actions. Nothing can. Especially in his situation, being in a position of affluent privilege with access to high quality care and treatment (which he obviously did not comply with).
Now, if you people are only just realizing that your actions and words are capable of having a profound effect on others, well then... welcome to your first taste of maturity.
Hey, thanks Dr. Vic, I hadn't realized that we now know how to treat all mental illnesses with 100% effectiveness for all people...oh, wait...I guess we don't.
After a divorce, I spent some time on anti-depressants, and read a lot of the newsgroups regarding depression and it's treatment. It's NOT the medical textbooks - but people that are suffering from real depression (I wasn't, not compared to them), and usually struggling with it's treatment. You can read about people's courses of therapy who have to rotate through 5 or more different anti-depressants, because they stop working after your body adjusts for them (as far as I can tell, that does happen - and for a number of people once you've been on one anti-depressant your body doesn't work well with it if you try it again, ie., it has little effect. So some people just plain run out of options...). You can read about people signing themselves up for shock therapy, the "gold standard" in depressive treatment, even though it will destroy their memories and mental functions, because they can't live with their depression. You can basically read about a lot of ****** that makes you glad that you are not like that - and the worst cases are those with enough self-awareness to know how bad their problems are..and not have any solutions that work for them!
Yeah, people like I was, going through a rough patch, we can pop some pills and things get better - as my brother the doctor says, "just tickle those receptors a bit". But for people with hardcore
biological mental illness, it's not that simple - sometimes the best drugs don't work, sometimes the treatment is worse than the disease, and some people are simply either mis-diagnosed, or wrongly prescribed (ESPECIALLY people who see a GP instead of a psychiatrist!). Doesn't matter how much you spend, doesn't matter how hard you or even your doctor tries...there is still just a hell of a lot we don't know about the brain, and treatment for mental illness. In fact, we don't know jack in many cases...and there are lots of crazy people walking around out there because of it. Think about that next time you decide to piss someone off on the street, BTW...
This guy was biologically insane - to what degree we don't know. It's VERY likely that he had a break with reality on his way out the door... I won't deny he DID committ murder (and I feel terribly for his victims and family), and there is no escaping that and the ramifications it has on his soul should one exist. But that will have to be handled elsewhere...
But to say "he just should have gotten treatment" shows such a limited understanding of medical science that it deserves comment...
Future Shock