He claimed to have PTSD, and apparently had been trying to get the army to diagnose him with it.
Unsuccessfully.
From a source that I believe we cannot post from - I found information that he had been given seretonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, as well. I understand that is a problematic combination.
Well gee...it says right here on the enclosed list of side effects that it can cause HOMICIDAL tendencies and SUICIDE!
Nothing to see here...move along to the table with the petition to ban guns.
I personally know of a person who committed suicide from side effect of extreme anxiety caused by Ambien.
There's no doubt in my mind that the drugs he was taking created his current frame of mind......
Why not do a survey of all WWII vets who contracted PTSD and see if their suicide/homicide rates are any higher?
BUT good old Hollywood and the liberal press want to paint all combat vets as barely functioning human time bombs waiting to cut loose on innocent bystanders and that isn't even close to the truth. Remember all those predictions of Vietnam Vets running amok? The movies like Rambo where we vets were just one thinly-veiled insult away from complete mayhem and mass murder? Needless to say, that's all BS and everybody should know that by now. We came home, got over our nightmares and got going with life just like everybody else has done over the centuries.
I have known guys who really had unrecoverable psychological stress from war - and they generally just ended their own lives rather than bother anybody else. All this PTSD gobbledegook is just the latest signal from the non-serving public that they prefer to label rather than support.
Lopez was probably one of the many inadequate people recruited to fill the volunteer numbers we sometimes do when the volunteer stream during a war slows down. He should have been flagged a long time ago, if he had any useful leadership around.
IMHO since I have a family member diagnosed with this disorder - best thing is physical therapy (if you have health insurance that covers it) or massage therapy (Reiki) if you don’t have health insurance but be prepared to pay $80-100 per session. Saved his life. Not the hippy dippy incense burning sexual stuff.
The deaths of the relatives was months ago.
He bought the gun at the same place that Hasan did.
He was at Fort Hood for two months....the same time as Hasan.
Sorry...the guy was a closet Muslim. And the whole government take is a coverup for just another muzzie.
Then there's the story two days earlier that the FBI was looking for someone who was going to pull off a "Hasan". They said it was a different guy...but I believe they knew...and let him ride because he was a MUzzie.
Remember, suicide for the cause is a good thing in the world of Muzzies.
I took it once, given after major surgery in the hospital. Best way to describe it would be an LSD trip, I guess. Complete unreality, horrible.
Might want to look at recruiters telling enlistees to NOT mention they are taking meds and have been treated for psych problems BEFORE they show up for duty.
Might want to forward this to an investigative reporter to dig into how many recruits have had psych disorders and stopped meds prior to enlistment on advice from recruiters.
Just may be easy to find by visiting base hospitals and chewing the fat with emergency room doctors treating lots of patients with stress and anxiety disorders that are recent recruits.
Cause if you go in crazy, the Army isn’t going to help that.
Youtube search for ambien hallucinations. I watched one where a guy chased a dragon around his room. This stuff is s doctor prescribed LSD trip.
Ambien is extremely enigmatic as a drug, and truthfully, we have no real idea of how powerful it is or its side effects.
To start with, it is well known for causing “extensive sleepwalking”. A bizarre phenomenon where people still wearing pajamas get in their car and drive a mile or two before slowly steering into a wall or tree or something, while sound asleep.
Even stranger, an accidental discovery in South Africa was that it could wake some people in persistent comas.
The brain chemical GABA determines whether we are awake or asleep. Ambien is used as a sleep aid, and yet is a GABA inhibitor. This means that it suppresses the chemical that makes us sleep, but this somehow helps us to sleep.
When you have a brain injury, your brain releases extra GABA to temporarily turn off the injured part of the brain so that it can heal, even causing a coma. However, in some people, this sensitizes their brain to GABA, so that even when their GABA levels return to normal, they remain in a coma. This is the theory of how Ambien woke up people in a persistent coma, by inhibiting their normal levels of GABA.
Throwing such a powerful drug at a normal brain is risky enough; but when it is given to someone with psychological problems, it is asking for trouble.
All the talk about military suicide and violence omits some very important facts: The military is made up of individuals overwhelmingly male, young and far from home.
FACT: Males are 7 times more likely than females to commit suicide, and far more likely to be violent as well.
FACT: The Young are far more likely to commit suicide or violence than those who are children or more mature (exception: the very elderly).
FACT: Those living far from their roots are significantly more likely to commit suicide than those living close to family.
FACT: Unattached males are more likely to commit suicide or violence than those who are married or in long-term relationships.
Add all this up and the REAL question is “Who is more likely to commit suicide or violence, the SOLDIER who is unattached, far from home, male and young, OR the CIVILIAN who is unattached, far from home, male and young?”
I submit to you that it is probably the civilian.
When comparison of suicide and violence rates appear in the press, the military is compared to the general population, rather than a cohort of civilians similar in make-up to the military, a statistical method which wildly distorts the real picture.
The Iraq/Afghan theater vets can just join the large list of Vietnam vets who, castigated as a group in every news story for decades if found to have served either actually in Vietnam or just been in the service in that period. The news terms as they read of any crime or incident would always contain the words ‘who served in Vietnam’, ‘was a Vietnam vet’ and the oh so common ‘served in the Vietnam era’ placed all of them in the bizzarro world of Vets are all crazy looney toons. Biggest problem with this latest shooter will be the pulling of all vets with a PTSD rating or complaint of PTSD, having courts render them incapable of owning a firearm ‘just in case’ they go bonkers like Lopez.
Anyone else seeing some similarities with mass shooters these days?
Having mental health issues.
Being treated by psychiatrists.
Offing themselves when confronted by police, even thought they just shot a mass of people. I mean, why stop and kill YOURSELF?
The Aurora theater shooter, Adam Lanza, the Naval Yard shooter, this guy—there is a pattern emerging.
It is almost like these folks have been programmed, they do their deed, in most cases they don’t survive the incident, and the government lackeys use the incident to push for more gun control and confiscation.
Reminds of the old movie “Telefon” with Charles Bronson and Lee Remick (1977).
Here in lies a very real cure that is spiritual and simple, for PTSD. Now being used by thousands of troopers. Www.Patriot outreach.org