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Thread: Paranoid Schizophrenia and firearms ownership.

  1. #1
    was_peacemaker
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    Paranoid Schizophrenia and firearms ownership.

    Often times people with this illness are labeled, crazy, insane or a danger to society. I know two guys with diagnosed cases of it. One has been shooting several times, and has never snapped. The other guy I know started getting worse once his wife left him. He stopped taking his meds and started drinking. Totally unstable, in fact he was involved in an accidental shooting were nobody got hurt, but a friend of my took the blame so our mentally ill friend wouldn't go back to the state hospital.

    Now these are two separate people. One is fine around weapons, power tools and people. The other one has some issues but means well. With there being talk about mental illness and guns how do they want to restrict weapons. Based on specific mental illness, or based on case by case scenarios. The fact is that many head docs are liberal and anti-gun so does it boil down to a doctors opinion?

  2. #2
    Registered User LAGC's Avatar

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    You have to keep in mind that paranoid schizophrenia comes in different severity levels. At its root, it is a neurological disorder where one part of the brain is overactive, with certain neurons firing and "talking" to other parts of the brain, which manifests itself in the person afflicted "hearing voices" or in more severe cases "seeing things." (audio/visual hallucinations.) These symptoms often first show up in younger people in their 20's. Often times the "voices" piggy-back off of ambient sounds/noises in the external environment, which is why those affected often times think the radio or television is "sending them messages" or "reading their mind" or that other people are "controlling their thoughts", etc.

    So while one person who has their psychotic break, is hospitalized, accepts medication, sees the hallucinations go away and fully recognizes that the hallucinations were all coming from inside may be able to function perfectly well the rest of their life, another person who never fully accepts that the hallucinations were really figments of the imagination, may still believe some of the random "statements" or "orders" are really true, and thus are more likely to regress, go off medication, and fall back into a default state of prolonged psychosis.

    The latter are the ones you really have to watch out for, because all they need is one of their "voices" telling them to get violent one time too often, often times picking a target (like Loughner did Gabby Giffords) and they start obsessing and obsessing until they reach a critical point where the shit jumps off. Usually in a very bad way.

    But the vast majority of folks with mental illness are completely harmless, especially if they are stable on their meds. So any sort of gun prohibitions should be tailored very narrowly indeed, lest we cast a too wide a net and start, for example, telling veterans who suffer from PTSD that they can no longer bear arms -- which is complete and utter bullshit. A person should have to demonstrate clear danger to themselves or others to even THINK about taking away their guns.

    Jared Lee Loughner on the other hand was giving off red-flags all over the fucking place, should have been locked up in the funny farm long before he got a chance to even confront Giffords. But hindsight is always 20/20 and all that.
    "That tyranny has all the vices both of democracy and oligarchy is evident. As of oligarchy so of tyranny, the end is wealth; (for by wealth only can the tyrant maintain either his guard or his luxury). Both mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms." -- Aristotle, Book V, 350 B.C.E

  3. #3
    was_peacemaker
    Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by LAGC View Post
    You have to keep in mind that paranoid schizophrenia comes in different severity levels. At its root, it is a neurological disorder where one part of the brain is overactive, with certain neurons firing and "talking" to other parts of the brain, which manifests itself in the person afflicted "hearing voices" or in more severe cases "seeing things." (audio/visual hallucinations.) These symptoms often first show up in younger people in their 20's. Often times the "voices" piggy-back off of ambient sounds/noises in the external environment, which is why those affected often times think the radio or television is "sending them messages" or "reading their mind" or that other people are "controlling their thoughts", etc.

    So while one person who has their psychotic break, is hospitalized, accepts medication, sees the hallucinations go away and fully recognizes that the hallucinations were all coming from inside may be able to function perfectly well the rest of their life, another person who never fully accepts that the hallucinations were really figments of the imagination, may still believe some of the random "statements" or "orders" are really true, and thus are more likely to regress, go off medication, and fall back into a default state of prolonged psychosis.

    The latter are the ones you really have to watch out for, because all they need is one of their "voices" telling them to get violent one time too often, often times picking a target (like Loughner did Gabby Giffords) and they start obsessing and obsessing until they reach a critical point where the shit jumps off. Usually in a very bad way.

    But the vast majority of folks with mental illness are completely harmless, especially if they are stable on their meds. So any sort of gun prohibitions should be tailored very narrowly indeed, lest we cast a too wide a net and start, for example, telling veterans who suffer from PTSD that they can no longer bear arms -- which is complete and utter bullshit. A person should have to demonstrate clear danger to themselves or others to even THINK about taking away their guns.

    Jared Lee Loughner on the other hand was giving off red-flags all over the fucking place, should have been locked up in the funny farm long before he got a chance to even confront Giffords. But hindsight is always 20/20 and all that.
    Ok that is the problem with the latter friend. He will talk on a cell phone to people that are not there, sleep with large knives unshealthed, and at times makes comments that seem rather strange. The accidental shooting happened when he got a hold of my buddies 1911 and shot a bed twice in a apartment. We still can't figure out why he did it, and he really can't explain it. For the last year he has done better but his drinking scares me. When he is in a bad moment and he isn't all there, he does respond to me and recognizes me as a friend. So I think he can adjust, or has some sense of reasoning.

  4. #4
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    Why do people hate and fear psychiatrists. Mind you, most of them are fine. But in certain circumstances some warped assholes seeking self cures as a reason to get into psychiatry in the first place, could have the power to detain or free you based on seemingly arbitrary criteria. That is if you are labeled by whatever reason as questionable. Be advised totalitarian states have used the ruse of mental illness to detain enemies of the state, under the rubic if they are against the state then they must be crazy.

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