Going Postal and Falling Stockbrokers Watch Thread

ReverseEngineer · **Joined:** Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:00 am **Posts:** 3557

Brought up in a recent thread was the increasing likelihood of distraught members of society either committing suicide or "Going Postal" and randomly killing people around them.

I'm starting this thread to keep track of all the suicides and postal events that come up in the news. Today's installment, 2 Dead in shooting on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas in Little Rock.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/27/us/27campus.html?hp

This would be about the 3rd Campus Postal event in the last 2 years. Seems to be picking up some speed.

Reverse Engineer

katkinkate · **Posted:** Mon Oct 27, 2008 4:27 am

What makes you think the incident is connected to the crisis?

Barbara · **Posted:** Mon Oct 27, 2008 4:38 am

A friend of mine, top rank professor in biochemistry, told me that in the scientists community everybody knows what to blame for people going postal and killing friends/relatives: Prozac.

Every time a father kills kids, a student kills fellow students, a son kills parents, they say "He was depressed, he was curing depression blah blah". You can translate: "He was using Prozac".

My friend explained to me that Prozac creates thoughs and desire of killings in some frail minds, and it's vastly proved through researches. But nobody does anything to stop this.

ReverseEngineer · **Joined:** Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:00 am **Posts:** 3557

katkinkate wrote:

What makes you think the incident is connected to the crisis?

I'm not sure it is, it could be random of course. Nor am I sure that the Russian Super Model who threw herself off of her Manhattan balcony was directly connected either. Nor am I sure that the mother who shot herself when she was being foreclosed on was connected, maybe she was just depressed?

I'm not looking for connections here, just frequency of occurence. Its my guess that as things get tougher, we will see more "unexplainable" incidences of random violence. "These things happen all the time" is the typical response when you identify them. Earthquakes, Asteroid Impacts, Suicides, Going Postal whatever are generally infrequent events. If however you see a marked INCREASE in such things, something statistical is going on.

Along with my Geologic and Cosmologic Watch thread, my purpose here is just to tally up such events to see if there is something statistically relevant to put a finger on.

Ludi · **Posted:** Mon Oct 27, 2008 5:05 am

Barbara wrote:

Every time a father kills kids, a student kills fellow students, a son kills parents, they say "He was depressed, he was curing depression blah blah". You can translate: "He was using Prozac"..

Because nobody ever killed anyone before the invention of Prozac.

Ludi · **Posted:** Mon Oct 27, 2008 5:06 am

Barbara wrote:

But nobody does anything to stop this.

In spite of your friend being "top" in his field, he does nothing to stop it.

Fishman · **Posted:** Mon Oct 27, 2008 5:42 am

Sorry Barbara, but thats guilt by association not causation. A similar process would be noting that firetrucks are usually at a fire thus they must be causing fires. When the Feds recently put a Black box warning on antidepressants and adolescents, the use of antidepressant use in adolescents plummeted, BUT THE NUMBERS OF SUICIDES DRAMATICLY INCREASED. Depression causes suicides not Prozac.

eXpat · **Joined:** Thu Jun 08, 2006 12:00 am **Posts:** 1922

Well, this is not proper, big "postal", just a bit

:
Kuwaiti traders protest as shares plunge

Quote:

Kuwaiti traders staged another walkout on Sunday and protested outside the stock market as shares in the oil-rich Gulf region plunged amid growing expectations of a global recession.

The traders, who deserted the stock market on Thursday, the business week's final day, left the trading chamber again after the index dived more than 300 points a few minutes after the opening.

About 30 of the traders marched to the nearby council of ministers building where the cabinet was holding an emergency session to discuss a bill to guarantee bank deposits.

"We want the government to intervene to rescue the bourse and traders.

"We want the government to buy stocks. This month, I have already lost half of my investments in the bourse," one of the protesters, Hussein Tubayekh, told AFP.

link

eXpat · **Joined:** Thu Jun 08, 2006 12:00 am **Posts:** 1922

Attac movement storms Frankfurt stock exchange (explanation from a german native speaker very much appreciated)
Video
Considering that they are german, that is proper postal! :lol:

eXpat · **Joined:** Thu Jun 08, 2006 12:00 am **Posts:** 1922

There you go...

Quote:

SANTA CLARA — A recently laid off high-tech employee opened fire Friday afternoon inside the Santa Clara office where he used to work, killing three people and sparking a massive dragnet that spread throughout the South Bay, police say. ...
"It's very unreal to me," said Nguyen, who added he did not know anyone who worked at SiPort. "With all these people being laid off, I mean, I know people are upset, but it's hard to imagine that anyone would do this."

Friday's deaths pushed to five this year's homicide tally in a city not accustomed to such spasms of violence. "It's certainly a tragedy any time someone feels like this is an action they have to take," Santa Clara police Chief Stephen Lodge said. "These are truly innocent people whose lives were taken. It's just not right."

Wu is described as 5-foot-7 and weighing 170 pounds, with black eyes and black hair. Anyone who encounters Wu is urged to keep their distance and to call Santa Clara police at 408-615-4700. If Wu is in another city, witnesses should call 911 to reach that city's police department.

linky

vision-master · **Posted:** Sat Nov 15, 2008 7:54 am

Barbara wrote:

A friend of mine, top rank professor in biochemistry, told me that in the scientists community everybody knows what to blame for people going postal and killing friends/relatives: Prozac.

Every time a father kills kids, a student kills fellow students, a son kills parents, they say "He was depressed, he was curing depression blah blah". You can translate: "He was using Prozac".

My friend explained to me that Prozac creates thoughs and desire of killings in some frail minds, and it's vastly proved through researches. But nobody does anything to stop this.

This IS so true.

eXpat · **Joined:** Thu Jun 08, 2006 12:00 am **Posts:** 1922

Trader shoots himself at Brazil financial exchange

Quote:

SAO PAULO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - A Brazilian trader shot himself on Monday in the open outcry pit of Sao Paulo's commodities and futures exchange in an apparent suicide attempt, the exchange said.

Paulo Sergio Silva, 36, a trader for the brokerage arm of Brazilian banking giant Itau, shot himself in the chest during the afternoon trading session, the exchange said, and hospital staff said he was in critical condition.
Traders said the incident happened in the interest rate futures pit, a raucous circle where on average $21 billion worth of contracts exchange hands every day.

Brazil's financial markets have taken a pounding in recent months as the global credit crunch has spread, causing massive losses for investors and companies alike.

link
No jumping out of windows yet...

Minvaren · **Posted:** Wed Nov 19, 2008 7:19 am

Fishman wrote:

Depression causes suicides not Prozac.

Yes, and no.

Depressed people are much more likely to commit suicide.
Depressed people are more likely to take prozac (or other SSRIs).
SSRIs have a habit of pushing people through this uncomfortable phase of anger/lack of sleep/etc.. before they reach clinical efficacy and the patient gets the promised relief.

You drop extra difficult-to-handle emotions on top of someone who's already not able to cope, and it can be akin to lighting a firecracker. Of course most doctors, having never been on the stuff and just reading the drug pimp literature, can't really tell you that and don't believe you when you tell them...

bratticus · **Posted:** Thu Nov 27, 2008 8:03 am

Fishman wrote:

Depression causes suicides not Prozac.

{ad-hom expletive deleted by Shannymara}

http://www.google.com/search?q=fluoxeti ... ph+suicide

Goatlady · **Joined:** Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:00 am **Posts:** 25

The problems may intensify with the lack of mental health drugs.

What happens when the drugs can no longer be purchased due to the economic downturn?

Prozac floods the brain with seretonin. Because the hormone is being supplied the body stops making seretonin. When the drug stops... there will be a gap before the body startss making it again.....

Dopamin Blockers have been proven in test in Europe to cause the brain to make new dopamin receptors in the brain's attempts to get the dopamin it needs to function.. MRIs were taken at diagnosis and again 18 months later (after a dopamin blocker is started) and confirmed the brain's changes. When the person stops the dopamin blockers - then the dopamin floods the brain intesifying the symptoms.

The argument as to whether Prozac causes suicides is less interesting to me than what happens when the person stops the Prozac....

Going Postal and Falling Stockbrokers Watch Thread

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