The Grievance Collector.

A Grievance Collector is the latest piece of neat jargon, to describe people who blow up and go on a sudden random killing spree. Many nations suffer this phenomenon, and nobody really pretends to understand why people do it. The Grievance Collector will be someone who is not coping with their lives, someone who feels he is being hurt by everyone around them, usually it seems by being excluded from a social standing, that is comparable with his peers. Someone who may or may not have some kind of mental disorder. In the latest and one of the most horrific examples in Newtown Connecticut, children have become the principal target for this killer, Adam Lanza. There are many other examples. The machete attack at a Birmingham school a few years ago. The Dunblane attack in Scotland and there were two attacks on young children in China also. These tragic events are often linked to mental disorder. And while it makes sense to explain that these men are suffering mental health difficulties, it doesn't help the rest of us, who have mental health problems, integrate with the community. I know for a fact that I am not likely to hurt anyone because I feel isolated or insulted by people's attitude. It doesn't stop me feeling hurt, or angry. But unfortunately, very occasionally someone with access to very powerful weapons, especially in this latest incident, will carry out these terrible crimes, attacking people who could never have personally hurt them. Over time the Grievance Collector will build up a series of hurts, insults and his anger will grow, until he snaps. Why these people decide to hurt children is an unknown part of the process. It seems they choose the most horrific thing they can possibly think of and then do it. Why these people don't choose to simply take their own lives, if they're so unhappy is also a mystery. Anders Brievik stands out as the only one who seemed to want to survive after his crime. Most seem to want to take their own lives, often as part of the plan, rather than a sudden realisation of their crime and the shame they feel afterwards. But I don't know. Maybe that is why some of them commit suicide, that it isn't part of the plan? Perhaps it is out of fear of what might happen to them - that they don't want to go to prison for the rest of their lives? Whatever it is that drives these men to kill, it is certainly at the very extreme of human behaviour, and must be understood more. The political response, whatever it might be, must be harsh and it must work. These killings cannot carry on.

The downside is how people feel about the mentally disordered person living in the community. There is a lot of fear out there. When I had a story in the Gloucestershire Echo, asking for more rights, some of the comments, seemed quite typical to me and what I would expect people to say, after seeing such a terrible crime unfold on the news in Connecticut.

Someone using the name Glosanarchy, said:

"If a schizophrenic kills your family following various previous violent episodes would you say it's OK because if they had locked him up before it would have been against his rights?

If your sibling jumped in front of a train because the mental health services didn't force treatment, it's fine you won't go running to the papers to blame it on the NHS will you?

If your entire family is burnt to death by a pyromaniac it's fine he wasn't kept locked up after his prison sentence for the protection of the general public because it would affect his human rights.

What about the human rights of the general public?”

Bonkim2003 added: "I have to agree with GlosAnarchy regards public safety being paramount. Regrettably you need to cut out an infected finger or two to save the person - likewise a few deranged harming themselves or being locked up is O.K by me. Individual rights - prisoners, mentally deranged or criminals - can rightfully curtailed if they pose a danger to the rest.”

These very unpleasant comments, posted underneath my story, illustrate just how much ignorance there is about mental illness. Uneducated people like this cannot be expected to know that the vast majority, backed up by the medical evidence, are not at risk of carrying out horrific crimes. Many of the people that go on killing sprees for example, aren't known to mental health services. But the public cannot be expected to be liberal and to hold liberal views about risk posed by mentally disordered people, even though the medical evidence shows us that we can work out those who are at high risk of violence, from their case histories. The problem is that perceived risk, is what gets you locked up, which includes the public fears, justified or not. The public and therefore the government, won't countenance the idea that people who have a full assessment, taking into account the medical evidence, about those that pose a risk or are more likely to pose a risk, can be treated differently. Many members of public want mentally ill people locked up forever, in large asylums, but are not prepared pay for it. In other words people want to be away from the mentally ill. They don't want to live next door to a mentally unwell person. They feel fearful. And incidents like those in the US are tragic for many reasons, including the affect it has on public perception of mental ill health.