Social Anxiety Disorder and Violence - Is there a connection?
Posted by Sylvia on September 5th, 2007
It’s that time of year when kids are going back to school. With the terror last spring at Virginia Tech where students were massacred for no apparent reason, it’s understandable how students will now be much more reluctant to attend school.
They will likely experience constant underlying fear and anxiety that the same thing will happen in their schools. A recent article insists, however, that just because a person has social anxiety disorder doesn’t mean they will become violent.
It is now learned that Seung Hui Cho, the student responsible for killing 32 and injuring 29 people on the campus, did have social anxiety disorder. It’s been suggested that this was why he turned violent.
For centuries, people have feared anyone showing signs of a mental disorder. It’s taken generations for society to understand the true meaning of mental illness and for their fear to subside. There still exists some stigma, however. People like Mr. Cho reignite that fear, not only among the general public, but among families who have family members with a mental disorder of some sort.
Social anxiety disorder is associated with a fear of being in public, of socializing with peers, and of being humiliated. It usually leads to withdrawal from friends and family, and any social situation.
Dr. Rachel Bryant is a licensed psychologist practicing in New York State who assures parents that social anxiety disorder does not lead to violent actions. While the disorder might make his or her life uncomfortable, it is other factors that lead a person to commit violent acts.
Here’s a quote from an excellent article that goes into more detail of why Mr. Cho might have done what he did. The piece also discusses the duo Klebold and Harris who killed a number of people on the Columbine campus several years ago.
You can read the entire article at http://www.slate.com/id/2164757/
The predominant initial theory, which still retains support, is that Cho suffered from anger fused with depression. With school shooters, the anger almost always begins with a loss. The definitive Secret Service study on school shooters found the killers varied in every trait except two: every shooter was male, and 98 percent had experienced a significant loss, grievance, or sense of failure.
Two-thirds felt some sort of failure, and half had lost a loved one—typically meaning they’d been dumped.
Everyone gets dumped and gets dumped on. “Most of us get angry, kick a trash can, drink a beer or two, and get over it,” said Dr. Dwayne Fuselier, an expert on gunman psychology who headed the FBI’s Columbine investigation. But for a few, the anger festers. “Anger turned inward results in depression,” Fuselier said, “withdrawing from friends, relatives, etc.”
It’s important to understand mental illness so we can better react to people suffering from any of the disorders, such as social anxiety disorder and depression.
It’s interesting to note that the students who commit such tragedies isolate themselves from the rest of the student body. They are often bullied, rejected and feel that they are misunderstood.
In the meantime, it’s encouraging to read that just because a person has a mental condition doesn’t mean they will be prone to commit murder. As Dr. Rachel Bryant says, there are other factors involved.