PTSD doesn’t kill; alcoholism does. The Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis kills 13. “Army 2020: Generating Health & Discipline in the Force: Ahead of the Strategic Reset Report 2012″ shows bad behaviors are rooted in alcoholism.
Another Shooting Spree, Another Addict: Aaron Alexis Kills 13, Including Himself, at the Washington Navy Yard
Aaron Alexis, 34, who went on a shooting spree at the Washington Navy Yard in September, was known by friends and neighbors as a personable guy who was rarely angry. He began attending a small Buddhist temple in 2010 and became a “model” tenant and employee of one of its members, Nutpisit Suthamtewakul, owner of the Happy Bowl restaurant. Suthamtewakul reported Alexis paid his rent on time and was “always very quiet and smiling.” A pastor, Jason Williams, 37, who knew Alexis through the Happy Bowl, described him as “one of the most polite people I’ve ever met.”
However, several mental health “experts” say he exhibited textbook symptoms of schizophrenia; in August 2013 Alexis called authorities, telling them he was hearing voices and being followed by people using a “microwave machine” to disrupt his sleep. U.S. law enforcement officials told the Associated Press that he’d been suffering from “a host of serious mental issues, including paranoia and a sleep disorder.” His father told detectives investigating a prior incident in Seattle that his son had “anger management problems related to post-traumatic stress,” complained about alleged mistreatment by the Navy and claimed to be a victim of discrimination.
While some friends saw him drinking “heavily” and using profanity, he didn’t seem angry “very much.” Yet Alexis was arrested in 2004 for shooting out the tires of a vehicle in what was described as an anger-fueled “blackout.” As explained in Alcoholism Myths and Realities, “blackouts” are caused by alcoholism, which also frequently triggers “anger.” Therefore, since he was a known heavy drinker the odds that this was, in fact, an alcoholism-fueled blackout with concurrent alcoholism-fueled anger are overwhelming. Ten months later Alexis got drunk, leapt off some stairs at a nightclub and broke his ankle. He destroyed some furnishings at a nightclub in 2008, pleading out for disorderly conduct. He was arrested for discharging a firearm in 2010 in an apartment, where a neighbor, who was already living in fear of Alexis, ended up with a bullet hole in her floor and ceiling. Alexis, already an acquaintance of Suthamtewakul’s through the temple, complained about the “noise” the neighbor made; Suthamtewakul invited Alexis to become his tenant. In January 2011 Alexis received a general discharge from the Navy “after a series of misconduct issues,” after which he became a part-time employee of Suthamtewakul’s. These incidents leave little doubt that the correct diagnosis was substance addiction and that his paranoia, lack of sleep, blaming others for his problems and all of his misbehaviors were symptoms of alcoholism.
Multiple alcoholism authorities cited in Drunks, Drugs & Debits point out that where heavy drinking and problems co-exist, the underlying causative problem is alcoholism. Even if he didn’t identify it as such, Suthamtewakul confirmed this diagnosis in describing his tenant and employee Alexis as a “hardcore drinker.”
Alcohol and other-drug addiction frequently mimics or triggers mental health disorders. Whether it is mimicked or triggered doesn’t matter; alcoholism usually comes first. Recovering addicts tell us they usually triggered their alcoholism during their first drinking episode, average age 13. Because they hide their use, observers cannot get cause and effect right when bipolar disorder or schizophrenia occur years later.
Alcoholism is often called the “hidden disease,” not only because addicts frequently hide their use, but also because enablers protect addicts by keeping their secret. In addition, most addicts are “functional” over most of their drinking careers and, therefore, in the eyes of close people could “never” be alcoholics. Additionally, alcoholism masquerades as a variety of mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, sociopathy and bipolar disorder. One of these is post-traumatic stress, which Alexis’ father said he suffered from.
Post-traumatic stress used to be called shell-shock and, later, battle fatigue syndrome or combat stress reaction. The disorder (PTSD) is loosely defined as a severe anxiety disorder that may develop after a person is exposed to one or more traumatic events, such as sexual assault, serious injury or risk of death. As is typical in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM, the psychologists’ bible of personality disorders), PTSD lacks clear symptoms, but loosely requires “re-experiencing” bad situations, such as having nightmares, and avoidance or emotional detachment, including not doing things that were previously enjoyable or going to places that remind soldiers of combat. The description adds there “may also be…a strong urge to use alcohol or [other] drugs.”
Alexis’ father likely saw all of these symptoms, but the disorder didn’t have to take form in awful behaviors; these occurred only because the “strong urge to use” took form in actual use. Addictive use increases the odds of serious misbehaviors or other problems by an order of magnitude. This is implied by Captain (Ret.) Paul “Bud” Bucha, Medal of Honor recipient June 2010, who is quoted near the beginning of the Army’s report on alcohol and other-drug use and crime in Army 2020: Generating Health & Discipline in the Force: Ahead of the Strategic Reset Report 2012:
“Anybody that’s been to the gates of Hell has [post-traumatic stress]. It’s something you have to remind yourself of if you find yourself drinking too much, snapping at your kids, snapping at your wife. Go seek help. It took me 30 years to do so. Look for it now, and most important, stay sober.” (Emphasis added.)
Four “vignettes,” anecdotes of soldiers’ problems and substance use immediately following Bucha’s admonition, clearly indicate addictive use co-occurring with manslaughter, suicide and attempted suicide. Most of the rest of the anecdotes in Army 2020 either directly or indirectly indicate addictive use of alcohol and other drugs in connection with serious misbehaviors. Any of Alexis’ drunken episodes could have been included in these anecdotes.
Army 2020 found that “many health and disciplinary issues, ranging from post-traumatic stress (PTS) to illicit drug use to suicide are interrelated.” It proves that “crime generates more crime; misdemeanors are a precursor to more serious crimes….Misdemeanors and lower levels of risk taking behavior such as traffic offenses, for example, have proven to have serious and even fatal consequences.” Get Out of the Way! How to Identify and Avoid a Driver Under the Influence shows that seemingly minor traffic offenses are frequently symptomatic of a DUI and, today in the U.S., a DUI is a near-certain indicator of alcoholism. But Army 2020 doesn’t get cause and effect right, even though addictive alcohol and other-drug use is frequently included in Army 2020’s tragic stories and statistics. The story of Alexis is a microcosm of what is in this Report.
All sorts of problems in the military are blamed on PTSD, from sexual assaults, violence, murder and suicides to heavy drinking itself. Yet, nearly every story of PTSD in its more horrific manifestations reported in Army 2020 involves someone who drinks heavily or uses other drugs addictively. From countless stories of recovery—where observers don’t have a clue that afflicted people could have ever engaged in awful misbehaviors—we know that without active addiction there are nearly zero misbehaviors, much less serious ones.
I originally set out to integrate murder, sexual assaults, PTSD and substance addiction, using Army 2020 as the backdrop, hoping it would conclude that alcoholism is the usual cause of other problems, or that it exacerbates those problems. Army 2020 gets many things right (and it’s a goldmine of statistics and stories), yet its authors could not make this obvious leap. Until it does so and such a finding is acted upon by intervening in the progression of addiction, especially in service members who witness horrors overseas, there will be more Aaron Alexis-style mass murders and countless other tragedies.