Pages

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Insights on why people 'snap' and kill

It always seems to end up with the same question. "Why am I so angry" when veterans are coming to terms with PTSD. Anger is the only emotion they allow themselves to feel until they begin to heal. Anger doesn't hurt. Anger isn't "sissy ass". Anger was good and kept them alive while people were trying to blow them up and shooting at them. Anger will keep them from feeling any kind of pain now and being attacked by the emotions they used to feel, or at least they think it will. They grind their teeth in their sleep while dreams take control. They pound their fist and drive with rage and they walk away believing they deserve better without knowing what that "better" is. They just know they don't like themselves very much or anyone else for that matter. Can we really blame them?

How would you feel knowing you did the right thing for the right reason and then end up paying for it by suffering with PTSD? Ok, honestly answering that will have caused your body temperature to rise up. Then top that one off with finally understanding you need help to heal but are told your VA claim has been denied or the DOD doesn't believe you and is ready to kick you out claiming whatever is "wrong" with you was already wrong with you before you put on your uniform.

This kind of anger, they usually keep in control and allow themselves only so much of it to come out. Then there is the kind of angry reaction they cannot control. This article makes a lot of good points but there is a part of it they have dangerously wrong. It claims that "Experts say people who suffer post-traumatic stress disorder are unlikely to act violently while experiencing a flashback. The range of emotions that a PTSD patient feels during a flashback -- fear, anxiety, dread, a sense of shock -- usually does not lead to a violent action" but with a flashback comes what they cannot control. They are not in that same room at that moment but right back in danger with their lives on the line. The fight or flight instinct takes over and it's not their wife trying to snap them back to reality, but the enemy. Much like nightmares take them back into combat and wives have tried to wake up their husbands only to be punched out, it is not their wife they thought they were lashing out at. It was the enemy in their dreams. They have no clue where they really are.

The reaction of a family member and others to a PTSD veteran goes into determining the outcome. Awareness of what PTSD is and what it does offers tools to the people in their lives. Once wives are aware of where her husband really is in his dreams, she will get up out of bed, out of range and wake her husband up. Escalated violence avoided. If she knows what a flashback is, she will not make sudden moves, or yell and startle him, but instead will use a code word they set up to snap him back into reality. Again, escalation of violence avoided.

It is frustrating to live with someone taking you on a roller coaster ride of emotions never knowing what will set them off especially if you have no clue where any of it is coming from. Hurt feelings pile onto anger and it all builds up until things get so out of control marriages end, hatred begins to replace love and marriages end badly. It all reinforces the thought that anger is the only safe feeling they can allow themselves to have because everything else just hurts too much. So on this part, they are wrong. PTSD flashbacks and nightmares can and too often do lead to violence, just as they lead to reckless driving, getting into fights on purpose and thinking that everyone is out to get you.

From the reports so far, it appears that Sgt. Russel went thru this when he was told by some he had PTSD but someone else tried to tell him he didn't. The reports that his father said regarding tests indicate that. After wanting to dedicate his life to the military, they were telling him he was no good and he must have believed they were out to get him. This we'll know more later as things come out but if it is behind what he did, we need to face it and fix it. We can't do that if the "experts" still fail to know what comes with PTSD and what causes it.

Insights on why people 'snap' and kill
Story Highlights
Schizophrenia, brain tumors, seizures, alcohol and drug abuse are risk factors

Other warning signs include feelings of hopelessness and shame

If warning signs are strong, the person should be taken to emergency room

Even 48 to 72 hours of treatment for psychosis reduces the risk of violence
By Elizabeth Landau
CNN

(CNN) -- A University of Georgia professor shot and killed his wife and two other adults in Athens, Georgia, in late April, according to police. A U.S. soldier fired on fellow troops in early May at a counseling center at a base outside Baghdad, Iraq, killing five comrades, according to authorities.

While the full stories behind these particular shootings remain unknown, psychiatrists do have some sense of why some people "snap" and become violent.

In fact, although a person's snap into violence may come as a total surprise, in most cases there is a psychological buildup to that point, said Dr. Peter Ash, director of the Psychiatry and Law Service at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

"There's a pathway to violence that starts with some thinking and then fantasizing about a plan," he said. "There may be a more explicit planning phase that other people don't particularly notice."

The fantasy of killing others may turn into intention, leading the person to track victims and obtain weapons, Ash said.

The psychological buildup to a violent outburst with the intent to kill usually takes a minimum of a few days, said Dr. Lyle Rossiter, a forensic psychiatrist in Saint Charles, Illinois. However, in highly unusual cases, a person with bipolar disorder could experience a buildup of only hours, he said.

A person who has already decided to kill someone else may develop an "eerie composure," firmly believing that the moment to turn back has passed, said Dr. Charles Raison, a psychiatrist and director of the Mind/Body Institute at Emory University.



and this they got wrong, very wrong.

If delusions can contribute to violent behavior, what about flashbacks? Experts say people who suffer post-traumatic stress disorder are unlikely to act violently while experiencing a flashback. The range of emotions that a PTSD patient feels during a flashback -- fear, anxiety, dread, a sense of shock -- usually does not lead to a violent action, Rossiter said. The association between mental illness and snapping is controversial, some say. Most people with mental illness are not violent, said Dr. Roland Segal, a forensic psychiatrist in Phoenix, Arizona.

go here for the rest

Insights on why people 'snap' and kill

No comments:

Post a Comment

If it is not helpful, do not be hurtful. Spam removed so do not try putting up free ad.