I've not seen anywhere that Cho has a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but I have seen a lot of posts asserting incorrect / incomplete information about the causes of this mental disorder. So, here is my contribution to this discussion:
Our abilities and disabilities are entirely, 100%, due to the interaction of our genes and experiences.
If Cho had schizophrenia, his mental illness was due to his genes + bullying + choices he made. None of these alone are sufficient to cause the disorder or the murders, but each was necessary to cause the tragic events. Genetic predisposition without trauma might not be sufficient to cause their disorder, nor would trauma without genetic predisposition be sufficient.
The extent to which bullying had an impact on his mental illness and behavior depends on how many genes he inherited for the disorder -- if he inherited many genes, then he may have developed the disorder with few stressful, traumatic experiences. If he inherited only a few genes for the disorder then the impact of traumatic experiences would have been greater. We can't know. It is, however, irrational to assert that genes alone or bullying alone can account for his behavior.
Causes of schizophrenia borrowed from Wiki are below - I can testify to their accuracy because I just finished teaching this material to my college class...
Substantial evidence suggests that the diagnosis of schizophrenia has a heritable component
<snip>
Childhood experiences of abuse or trauma have also been implicated as risk factors for a diagnosis of schizophrenia later in life.
<snip>
Factors such as poverty and discrimination also appear to be involved in increasing the risk of schizophrenia or schizophrenia relapse, perhaps due to the high levels of stress they engender, or faults in diagnostic procedure/assumptions. Racism in society, including in diagnostic practices, and/or the stress of living in a different culture, may explain why minority communities have shown higher rates of schizophrenia than members of the same ethnic groups resident in their home country.
<snip>
Schizophrenia is most commonly first diagnosed during late adolescence or early adulthood suggesting it is often the end process of childhood and adolescent development. Studies have indicated that genetic dispositions can interact with early environment to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia, including through global neurobehavioral deficits, a poorer family environment and disruptive school behaviour, poor peer engagement, immaturity or unpopularity or poorer social competence and increasing schizophrenic symptomology emerging during adolescence These developmental problems have also been linked to socioeconomic disadvantage or early experiences of traumatic events.
<snip>
A number of cognitive biases or deficits have been found in people diagnosed with schizophrenia. These include jumping to conclusions when faced with limited or contradictory information; specific biases in reasoning about social situations, for example assuming other people cause things that go wrong (external attribution); difficulty distinguishing inner speech from speech from an external source (source monitoring); difficulty in adjusting speech to the needs of the hearer...
<snip>
... recent studies indicate there is often a normal or even heightened level of emotionality, particularly in response to negative events or stressful social situations. Some theories suggest positive symptoms of schizophrenia can result from or be worsened by negative emotions, including depressed feelings and low self-esteem and feelings of vulnerability, inferiority or loneliness. C
<snip>
Critical and controlling behaviour by significant others (high expressed emotion) causes increased emotional arousal and lowered self-esteem and a subsequent increase in positive symptoms such as unusual thoughts. Countries or cultures where schizotypal personalities or schizophrenia symptoms are more accepted or valued appear to be associated with reduced onset of, or increased recovery from, schizophrenia.
A final point: The "Rule of Quarters" is often mentioned when discussing the prognosis for someone who is diagnosed with schizophrenia.
About 1/4 of people who receive the diagnosis will recover and never show symptoms again - no meds needed.
About 1/4 will do well with meds & therapy and may show symptoms on and off - mostly off and will lead a pretty full life.
About 1/4 will do less well and will have symptoms on and off, mostly on - will require community support to stay on meds & have housing.
About 1/4 will not do well at all and will be hospitalized for most of the remainder of their life.
I mention the rule of 1/4's because... chances are excellent that you have interacted with one of the people who fall into the 50% who will do quite well and you never knew that the person had had such a diagnosis at some point or that they had symptoms on and off.
Edit: Clarify and shorten to improve readability.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
