YES, Schizophrenia Can Cause Violence Against Others.
I Believe The Shooter In Arizona Was A Sick Man,
Normal People Do NOT Kill,
'I BELIEVE '

I Know Someone With This Disorder,
These People STOP Taking Their Medication, And This Causes A Chemical Inbalance In The Brain.

People with schizophrenia are rarely violent - in my opinion, they only are when the voices get too much.

Just because we stop taking our meds does not mean we become dangerous it is very discriminating of you to say that we kill people because we are without meds. People without mental disorders commit crimes all the time. There is no such thing as normal and if that was the case everyone with schizophrenia would have murdered someone by now. I'm schizophrenic and I'm rarely violent with anyone. This post and the first comment was a very rude attack against us and it makes no sense to try and make someone have a mental disorder because they killed someone

Rosalyn Carter, who has done wonderfully supportive work for the severely mentally ill (see her books on Amazon.com) gave a talk not long ago at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. I was fortunate enough to attend it. One of the things she said was that the severely mentally ill are four times more likely to be victims of violence than they are to commit violence. Yes, that's President Jimmy Carter's wife.

Most Schizophrenics are not violent. If they are, they are violent to themselves. When I was off my medication, I was never violent towards other people.

But you got to remember, people who have been violent towards people they are being tormented in their minds. (It doesn't mean that what they did wasn't bad.) Sometimes I hear voices telling me to kill people, but I know that I would never hurt people. Some people react on those voices or hallucinations and become violent.

These people can make Schizophrenia look REALLY bad, but know that only a small (like 1%) group of schizophrenics are violent.

You know that if you ever have any question, you can come to me.

Shanese:

I never met this post to accuse or to imply that people with this disease are violent. I am aware that others kill people too. I posted this because I don't know much about this disease and this man who killed his dad and stabbed the two other people mentioned, was my niece's husband. I was told by someone that those with this disease turn violent, if they don't take their medicine and also if someone makes them mad. This was the basis of my post. Again, I did not direct this at any one person, I never met to hurt, insult or harm anyone, I was just searching for an answer from people here who are more familiar with this disease. I deeply apologize to you Shanese if I offended you. That was never my intent.

PS.

This man was on some kind of medicine for this disease and according to his family, he had stopped taking it because he felt he was ok. Again, I never met to insult or hurt anyone by my post.

What I Said About Schizophrenia People,

I Did Not Mean To Hurt ANYONE..

I Have A Family Member With This Disorder,
I'm
Only Speaking From MY Experience,
I Did Not Mean To Hurt Or Offend Anyone Either..

PLEASE Forgive Me..


Thanks, Barbara

Bgoodwin44 and OLDBIKER,
I would love to publicly apologize to the two of you for my reaction to this post it was unnecessary and very overdraumatic. This just seemed like an attack on us. Especially when bgoodwin44 singled us out by saying "these people". Schizophrenia is a soft spot for me because I've been suffering from it since I was five and it just makes me upset when people think we are violent because as everyone said we are rarely violent we may think about it but majority may never act on these feelings. Again I apologize for my reaction I see now that it was an inappropriate way to handle it.

To be honest, and this is no expert opinion by any means, but I think that it is the dillusional part of the disorder that can cause an individual to act out in a way that they may never normally behave. Schizophrenics are not automatically agressive or violent. just because they have this illness. I think the people that become violent are often times doing so because they are in a dillusional state. I am very sorry to hear about this story. It is really tragic for all people involved.