This Terrifies Me

I've written a fair amount about mental illness, especially in regards to my cousin. I have a lot of interest in the subject. I wish there was not as much stigma attached, and I believe that the vast majority of people with mental illness do not endanger other people.

But I still have a visceral reaction of complete terror when I hear stories like this one. Oh man...

A Fort Carson soldier and war veteran charged in the murder and sexual assault of a woman in Colorado last month faces accusations that he also raped a 14-year-old girl and sexually assaulted a third woman, an internal Army document states.

The document, the Commander’s Report on the suspect, Specialist Robert H. Marko, also raises serious questions about his mental state during his time at Fort Carson beginning in late 2006 and whether he should have deployed to Iraq in 2007.

It was common knowledge among his commanding officers and fellow soldiers, the document states, that Specialist Marko, who is being held without bond, believed he was an “alien dinosaur-like creature, and that he would transform from his human form into his Black Raptor form on his 21st birthday — 13 Oct 08.”

About four years ago, when we lived in an apartment, my upstairs neighbor fell into the depths of schizophrenia plus alcoholism and threatened to sexually assault me. The police did not take me seriously in the beginning. I remember several days of fortifying myself with my family, watching the locked doors, dreading any knocks. Then he went completely off the deep end, stabbed himself, was apprehended in our parking and so on.... there's more to the story but it's not exciting at all, just horribly grim.

What struck me about the whole episode is how easy it is for people (like myself) to pretend nothing is wrong until it's too late and everything falls apart. In the case of a physical problem, if you see someone walking around with a massive untreated wound on their chest, you're likely to get involved. But with some severe mental illness, you try really hard not to see, not to hear, not to make eye contact, not to engage in any way. I mean, I think people with mental illness absolutely deserve privacy and independence and to be treated like the rational responsible adults that they usually are... but the extent to which serious signs can be ignored is really amazing.

After joining the Army, his “unusual beliefs” in his Black Raptor alter-ego resulted in his being referred for psychiatric evaluations three times. Ultimately, the beliefs came to be viewed by his mental health evaluators as a religion, of sorts, like Wicca.

The first evaluation took place during basic training. The second was at Fort Carson in November 2006, before Specialist Marko was deployed to Iraq in February 2007, when he was flagged for “symptoms of mental illness.” A psychiatrist diagnosed a “schizotypal personality disorder,” which “may or may not result in some ultimate functional incapacity in the military.”

Nevertheless, the psychiatrist cleared Specialist Marko for duty “without limitations, scheduled no follow-ups” and declared him “deployable.”

[...]

He told his superiors that he had joined the Army to “get combat experience — something that he viewed as important to his Black Raptor identity.”

Are all psychiatrists insane, or just the ones that work for the military?!?