Although we do not yet know if Nehemiah Griego
(Albuquerque shootings) was actually suffering from some sort of mental illness
or whether he was on any psychiatric drugs, people are asking why the USA is so
obsessed with movies, guns and video games rather than on how to deal with
mental disorders when they are present.
We only know that he used to wear a lot of military
outfits and that he was home schooled. It is a mystery how he was able to
assemble an arsenal in his home. We also know that he was not allowed to watch
video games. Can there be a connection with all these things? It is obviously
too soon to make any suppositions.
One fact does emerge and that is the increasing
concern about meds that treat ADHD and other mental disorders such as
depression and autism. We know that most
anti depressants and ADHD meds tend to increase the levels of suicidal
thoughts, hallucinations and homicidal ideation.
Most of the drugs such as Paxil, Zoloft,
Ritalin and also Luvox are known to increase violent actions by as much as 10%
more than other drugs. We also know that
95% of school shootings over the last ten years or so were carried out by teens
who were on prescription medication such as Paxil, Zoloft and Ritalin.
Is there a connection with the Griego tragedy and that
of Adam Lanza at Newtown? Too soon to say but one startling fact emerges. It
is the obsession with weapons. I have
just learned that Nancy Lanza (Adam Lanza’s mother) was killed at Newtown with her own weapons. You see she was a survivalist
and kept a lot of guns so that she would have maximum protection. We know that the Griego family lived in an
isolated spot and certainly they too may have had weapons in the home for
protection.
But the Lanza case is more alarming because of the
following reasons :-
- Nancy Lanza never locked her guns up although she knew that her son was getting more and more antisocial and had behavioral problems.
- she visited a shooting range often and Adam is also known to have been there.
- as a teacher, she must have been aware of the dangers
- she had taken him to a psychiatrist because she was alarmed at his isolation.
- he would spend hours and hours on video games
- when they went out, he would have screaming fits presumably as a sort of withdrawal syndrome from being taken away from the games.
We may never know the truth. But what we do know is
that many of the medications for mental disorders and especially the meds that
treat ADHD do cause side effects and some of the rare ones include violence,
suicidal thoughts, homicide ideation and mania.
This should push us more and more towards a much safer
holistic type of treatment where behavioral therapy (or more simply, parenting
skills) together with ADHD homeopathic remedies are at the very centre of a any treatment plan.