State of Mind: Is mental illness really behind mass shootings?

The pattern seems to be all too familiar. A mass shooting incident happens. The country, rightly so, reacts with shock. And then the debates start everywhere from the 24-hour news cycle shows to social media. Often, the debate is reduced to a crude argument between guns or mental health as the single most contributing factor. But what if both sides of the debate are, all at once, right, wrong, and oversimplified to the point of leaving out important considerations?

While this is not a forum for debate on gun laws, there is an extensive amount of exploration that can and should be happening on the role of weapons in incidences of violent behavior. Things like the normalization of lethal weapons, what is causing a desensitization to violence, and even research that shows connections between the mere presence of a method, in this case guns, and a higher likelihood that situations become violent. We should ask the uncomfortable questions, like what potential role is played by combining accessible weapons to individuals at age 18 or 21 and the understanding that the part of the brain responsible for impulse control and risk management isn’t developed until around age 25.

While exploring those issues, it’s also important to let go of the narrative that violence is exclusively caused by those with mental disorders, or that mental illness automatically leads to violence. Instead, it’s worth considering the research that has been done on the topic and its implications. At the risk of oversimplifying the data, distilling the key takeaways of immense amounts of research is worthwhile.

First, there are many different types of mental illnesses. And research shows that most (i.e. anxiety disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders, trauma-related disorders, most depressive disorders) are not accompanied by an increased risk of violence at all.

Research has, however, shown a link between violent behavior and specific disorders, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anti-social personality disorder, and major depressive disorder. While individuals with those diagnoses are statistically somewhat more likely to commit acts of violence than the general population, the fact remains that the overwhelming majority – around 90 percent – do not. One factor that does significantly increase the likelihood of these individuals becoming violent is substance use, which begs the question of what else might be contributing to incidents of violence.

Factors like homelessness, being unemployed, witnessing or experiencing violence, a family history of violence, and living in a high-crime neighborhood have all been shown to lead to statistically significant increases in potential for violent behavior. In fact, when equalizing for these factors, there is very little difference in rates of violence between those with mental illness and the general population.

Put differently, assuming that everyone with mental illness will become violent is like assuming that everyone with a single risk factor of heart disease will have a heart attack without consideration for other factors like lifestyle, diet, exercise and family history. Instead of sensationalizing mental illness after mass shootings, it would be much more prudent and worthwhile to spend time and resources addressing the collective of factors that play a role in our country’s epidemic of violence.

The reality is that mass shooting incidents, while understandably commanding a great deal of national attention, account for only one slice of the overall pie of violence that happens across the country daily. There are, to be sure, many other occurrences of violence that don’t involve guns or mass casualties. To attempt to assign blame for the violent behavior on one specific cause is misguided, at best, and, at its worst, counterproductive and possibly even dangerous – particularly for those managing mental illness.

Bryan Busch is a licensed mental health counselor in Cedar Rapids. He also works at Folience, the parent company of The Gazette. He can be reached at bryan.busch@thegazette.com