Ghastly

[Bongolation]

This guy was one of my three or four closest and oldest friends, a fine guitarist, as was his son, the suspect.

Much of our conversation was about how to help this troubled kid.

Read it for yourself.

Awful.

[Horny Toad]

Link. This thread needs one.

[Sonic_Death]

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by Horny Toad

Link. This thread needs one.

Link fixed. For some reason it didn't work the first time.

[Bongolation]

I'm just speechless. I was going to call him today and see if he "survived Thanksgiving," but he really didn't.

The kid was recently under psychiatric care, and I told Mark that whatever they said, not to let them put him on psychiatric drugs because something like this was a real possibility if he reacted to them the way a lot of people do. I don't know if he listened to me or not, but the kid had started having explosive tantrums over nothing and throwing things and smashing stuff.

That was one of the reasons I was going to call.

Stabbed over fifty times with multiple knives. Can you imagine?

Jeeze.

People, take care of your youngsters!

[Dr. Cheese]

Originally Posted by Bongolation

I'm just speechless. I was going to call him today and see if he "survived Thanksgiving," but he really didn't.

The kid was recently under psychiatric care, and I told Mark that whatever they said, not to let them put him on psychiatric drugs because something like this was a real possibility if he reacted to them the way a lot of people do. I don't know if he listened to me or not, but the kid had started having explosive tantrums over nothing and throwing things and smashing stuff.

That was one of the reasons I was going to call.

Stabbed over fifty times with multiple knives. Can you imagine?

Jeeze.

People, take care of your youngsters!

If the kid is mentally ill, it most likely was not something your friend could have avoided. Most of us cannot fix a sick brain anymore than we can fix a sick pancreas.

It simply looks like two loves were ruined and many others have really been hurt.

[Bongolation]

Probably the fullest account so far.

I'm especially concerned about his daughter, a beautiful, fine young woman who had to witness this horror and be unable to stop it. She's staying with her mom now.

This wasn't a violent or abusive household. The son was just getting increasingly troubled and out of control. I'm fairly sure he'll kill himself at the first opportunity.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by Bongolation

I'm just speechless. I was going to call him today and see if he "survived Thanksgiving," but he really didn't.

The kid was recently under psychiatric care, and I told Mark that whatever they said, not to let them put him on psychiatric drugs because something like this was a real possibility if he reacted to them the way a lot of people do. I don't know if he listened to me or not, but the kid had started having explosive tantrums over nothing and throwing things and smashing stuff.

That was one of the reasons I was going to call.

Stabbed over fifty times with multiple knives. Can you imagine?

Jeeze.

People, take care of your youngsters!

Sorry for the loss of your friend, that's a horrible way to go, I hope the daughter will recover from what she witnessed.

I will say, as much as people blame them, psychiatric drugs and practitioners who perscribe them tend to have a better understanding of the workings than you or I. I'd point the finger at the perscription drugs he was stealing (going by one of the links) as having been more likely to have made things worse

[ShredderMaximus]

Wow, sorry for your loss Bongo, thats pretty horrendous. My heart definitely skipped a few beats though when I saw that it was someone fairly close to my own age from my hometown, though it turns out I didn't actually know him.

Best of wishes to the daughter.

[Chebass88]

What a scumbag. With any luck, he will realize the atrocity of what he has done, and act accordingly.

[Bongolation]

Originally Posted by i_got_a_mohawk

I will say, as much as people blame them, psychiatric drugs and practitioners who perscribe them tend to have a better understanding of the workings than you or I.

I would dispute that I have a better understanding of them than absolutely any prescribing physician I've yet met, because I've spent orders of magnitude more time educating myself about them. People don't understand that the average physician is too busy to read literature and depends on brief handouts and pitches from the drug company's representatives for virtually all their information on new drugs. This is hardly a reliable or neutral source, and their trust is badly misplaced.

The simple truth is that unless you have a lot of money or incredibly expensive insurance, you will never get competent psychiatric care in California. You will get pills, because that's what the insurance carriers will pay for, and they don't work. At best they make you more tractable to those around you.

Pills don't fix life.

I'd point the finger at the perscription drugs he was stealing (going by one of the links) as having been more likely to have made things worse

He stole some Xanax from his mom one time at her house three months ago and got caught. That was the extent of it, and it had no effect on the event, obviously.

He'd been terribly disturbed and frustrated before any of this started, though. I had suggested that he desperately needed to get some exercise and not lie around the house brooding all day, so he started working out and that was apparently helping.

He didn't hate his dad. He loved his dad. He hated his life.

The toxicology report should be interesting.

[Bongolation]

This is a fuller story I missed previously. It's substantially accurate about the family situation and the character of the family members.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by Bongolation

I would dispute that I have a better understanding of them than absolutely any prescribing physician I've yet met, because I've spent orders of magnitude more time educating myself about them. People don't understand that the average physician is too busy to read literature and depends on brief handouts and pitches from the drug company's representatives for virtually all their information on new drugs. This is hardly a reliable or neutral source, and their trust is badly misplaced.

That's why you don't go to a general practitioner but a specialist. I know a lot of physicians, and they do a heck of a lot more research than Joe Public would like to believe.

Originally Posted by Bongolation

The simple truth is that unless you have a lot of money or incredibly expensive insurance, you will never get competent psychiatric care in California. You will get pills, because that's what the insurance carriers will pay for, and they don't work. At best they make you more tractable to those around you.

Can't argue anything here, not a system I've had to deal with, thankfully.

Originally Posted by Bongolation

Pills don't fix life.

Pills can dull the emotional/psychological effects enough to let you think in an almost-straight manner.

Pills don't fix life, you fix life.

Originally Posted by Bongolation

He stole some Xanax from his mom one time at her house three months ago and got caught. That was the extent of it, and it had no effect on the event, obviously.

Apologies, that wasn't stated in the article, just said he had stolen perscription drugs.

Originally Posted by Bongolation

He'd been terribly disturbed and frustrated before any of this started, though. I had suggested that he desperately needed to get some exercise and not lie around the house brooding all day, so he started working out and that was apparently helping.

He didn't hate his dad. He loved his dad. He hated his life.

The toxicology report should be interesting.

If it was that bad, he probably needed more than exercise. Reckon he had been drinking or medicated (legally or otherwise)?


Edit - scrap the last part, covered it in the link your follow up post.

[Relic]

How damned tragic on several levels...
So sorry to hear about this