I write this article feeling horrified and intensely sad. In a mere six months, this is the second article I have written based on school shooting. The first, dated September 27th and in the archives of the “News and Views” section was more about how to treat survivors that have posttraumatic stress disorder. You can reference that or the link: http://helping.apa.org/articles/article.php?id=122 to learn more about a stress reaction and how to treat or prevent it. In this article, I will focus more on trying to make sense of how something like this can happen as I feel that does help in the healing process.
April 16, 2007, was a very long day. I first heard about the shootings while in my car listening to the radio. In an eerie déjà vu to the Columbine murders in 1999 the death count continued to rise as the long hours passed. The whole thing felt like a nightmare and I was pleading that this was just a hoax. Just like in 1999, however, this was no hoax and we are all left feeling empty and with our sense of security and safety in the world shattered. We all once again have to pick up the pieces and find the courage to send our kids back to school, to go to work, to continue our lives.
To start to make sense of this, we first should look at common risk factors for violence in youths and young adults (mass murderers tend to be aged 2535 years old). The number one risk for violence is a past history of violence. Closely linked to this are people who have a family history of violence. Males are higher risk for violence. There may be a history of being bullied or bullying or both. People may exhibit decreased performance in school evidenced by rapidly dropping grades. They may have major behavior changes that could include euphoric or grandiose behaviors, angry behaviors or melancholic behaviors. They may begin to abuse substances including alcohol. They may have experienced a recent rejection, especially in the form of a bad breakup. They may begin to talk more and more about death and violence and seem obsessed with it. With that they may play more violent video games, watch more shows with violent themes and listen to more music that glorifies violence. Many perpetrators of violent acts have a past history of being a victim of trauma including abuse. Early childhood risks include firesetting, bed wetting and cruelty to animals.
Despite being able to identify risk factors for violence, violent behavior itself is still hard to predict, even for professional mental health providers. People that perpetrate mass murders are even more of a mystery. They usually wind up dying as a result of their act and therefore cannot be analyzed. All that we can do is examine their lives and issues that may have led to the murders. There are some common threads for these people. In addition to the risk factors for violence already noted, they tend to be loners, sad and angry and feel alienated and rejected. They do not “snap” but have a long history of “shooting fantasies”. They may spend weeks or months planning their acts and often will have mentioned their thoughts and even plans to others. They often begin to talk about their own death. As they get more depressed and angry they likely withdraw more from society, give away possessions and express hopelessness. Unlike serial killers, they do not take joy or reach a “high” in the murders. It seems that many of them have a suicide planned to go along with their executions. There are theories that these people are trying to die a “master” instead of an “outcast”. They may be taking revenge for being a “victim” for so long. It can be a desperate attempt for some sort of power or control in a world where they have felt none; they may feel there is no solution to their feelings of anger and rejection other than murder. It seems that some are even psychotic in their shooting fantasies. The murderer at Virginia Tech fit this profile well.
It is safe to say that a major part of the reason for the recent increase in mass murders is related to mental health issues. As I have noted in previous articles, anxiety and depression are more prevalent in the United States than ever before. Concurrent to this, bullying and other aggressive behaviors are escalating in our schools. Bullying can lead to mental health problems immediately and longterm for victims. Additionally, we are inundated with violence and violent images. Violence in the media is on the rise; there are now studies that show that violent video games and media fuel violent behaviors. The violent behavior related to video games is often associated with children that do not have good parental supervision around the games. Good supervision includes limits on the amount of time exposed, talk about how they are not real, the violence is bad, and that true violence comes with horrible consequences. Parents that feel depressed or anxious and therefore overwhelmed and stressed will have a harder time doing all of this.
The solution to this infinitely disturbing problem is not simple. The issues run deep. There are issues about guns and gun control. There are issues about safety in our schools and college campuses. There are issues about the growing mental health care needs of children and families in this country that aren’t being met. There are issues about our education system losing strength in both being able to educate the masses and handle the growing behavior problems. Finally, there are issues of hate and ignorance in this country.
We may not totally understand how a person can acutally be capable of such extreme violent behavior and we may feel a loss of control in our worlds, but let’s look at what we can control: We can spend more time with our children or parents asking questions about day to day life, communicating concerns, thoughts and feelings, and educationg each other and ourselves on the issues noted above. Depression and mental illnesses can be treated. This would help control the symptoms that can be present including anger and despair as well as poor
judgment and insight. Exposure to violent entertainment and media can be controlled for our children by setting limits,
monitoring what is being watched and talking about it afterward. Bullying can be addressed; parents and schools can
communicate when bullying is present and help support the victims and handle the perpetrators. The best thing a victim can
do is to ignore the bully and inform a parent or other authority. More resources on violence and bullying may be found in the
“Safety” section on the home page of this website.
In a nutshell, the more we can learn from these horrible events, the more we can work together to prevent them and improve
society as a whole. Good luck to all of us in yet another healing process. Life does go on and it always will.