The Colorado Massacre: Depression Turns Deadly

Martha Adair, LLP
Therapist, New Oakland Family Centers

In the wake of the horrific act of violence in Aurora, Colorado, we do three things:

• Console the wounded and the grieving families
• Try to determine why a brilliant student could commit such evil
• Look around us for others who may be falling off the edge

Pastor Jeff Noble of Aurora’s New Life Community Church told his congregation during a Sunday morning sermon, “When our world goes periodically crazy, a flood of questions can come into our minds. The one we struggle most with is, ‘Why did God allow this?’ My response is: I don’t know.”

But ask a thousand psychiatrists and therapists to presume what twisted James Holmes mind into a ball of maniacal confusion, and all thousand will answer based on various interpretations of depression and its many devastating elements and offshoots. Continue reading →