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Is Killing Crazy? Link Between Mental Illness & Murder

From the Show: Staying Well
Summary: According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, 1 in 4 Americans suffer from a mental illness.
Air Date: 2/10/14
Duration: 10
Host: Melanie Cole, MS
Guest Bio: Sheela Raja, PhD
sheela rajaSheela Raja, PhD, is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. She is an Assistant Professor of Dentistry and Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she teaches Health Communication and Behavioral Medicine.

She is the author of author of Overcoming Trauma and PTSD (New Harbinger Press). She received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed internship and post-doctoral training at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Boston, MA.

Dr. Raja is a regular contributor to various print and national television media outlets, including the Huffington Post, CNN and CBS-2 Chicago Morning News.
Is Killing Crazy? Link Between Mental Illness & Murder
Every day that you turn on your television, pick up a newspaper or surf the web, it seems another mass murder that has taken place.

The gun violence, bombings, stabbings and even beatings talked about daily might make you wonder why someone would ever commit these heinous crimes.

Were these just random acts of violence, or is there a link between untreated mental illness and murder?

According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, 1 in 17 Americans suffer from a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression. The vast majority of those people are not going to be violent.

So what leads one person to be violent and not the other?

There are some factors such as social isolation, having a violent background or coming from a violent background or a violent community, substance abuse and anger management issues that can all play a role in an increased risk of violence.

Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Sheela Raja, PhD, discusses warning signs to look out for, and what can drive someone to commit a mass murder.