By Ryan Rana, PhD.
“Is she sleeping?” “Is he isolating?” In one of my early work experiences at a psychiatric hospital, these are the questions our renowned psychiatrist would always ask our therapy team regarding a patient who was having great difficulty. These questions would be asked of us regardless of the exact symptomology the patient was exhibiting. A helpful third question would have been, “Where are they on their grief and trauma processing work?”
There are many divergent and competing views of how to understand human behavior, “mental health,” and how it applies to violence. This small discussion won’t solve those ultimately unsolvable debates. At times, though, we may be at risk of overthinking things and missing some foundational and obvious mental health aspects that are right in front of us. The three foundations discussed in this article are sleep disturbance, co-regulating relational connections, and grief/trauma.
Illegal violence is always a mental health issue and likely has an association with all three of these foundations (among others). While there are hundreds of theories of what goes wrong in mental health (particularly to create violence), ironically it could be argued that it is a lack of safety itself that cyclically creates such a lack of safety. At the brain’s most basic and highest prioritized level is one’s own safety and survival instincts. Unsafe people feel unsafe. Threats to safety can include threats of survival, physical injury, threats to emotional security, threats to one’s sense of worth and belonging, relational threats, etc. When one or all of these are threatened, the body utilizes neurological, “upregulation.” This “upregulation” is the body gathering as much energy as possible for tasks like fight, flight, fix, freeze, fawn, or fold. Sadly, and ironically, perpetrators of violence are almost always stuck in their own, “upregulated,” fight phase of experience. This is noticeable in statements to the police and phrases seen in statement analysis where the source of the violence often lists self as actually the victim in justifying a violent act. While to the observer, such a claim seems ridiculous and disturbing (and it is), from a mental health lens it makes a space to better understand the pathway one takes toward violence which may inform protectors on how to identify and impede the harmful results.
Sleep and Mental Health
An often unseen contributor to violence, and any other damaging behavior, is significant sleep disturbance. Put simply, the body must turn itself off and reset itself physically and hormonally to have any semblance of mental health stability. Perpetrators (and generally people having significant manifestations of mental health problems) often have very significant patterns of sleep disturbance. Like the chicken or the egg debate, significant sleep disturbance is both a result of and a cause of being stuck in a “upregulated,” state. While obvious, it is important to note that from a hormonal, psychological, and even a survival level, humans can’t survive, thrive, or even think/act like themselves without order in life, including adequate sleep. Studying sleep opens a huge treasure trove of understanding human behavior – more than can be addressed in this article. We know human circadian rhythms go a long way in understanding how the body experiences cortisol (stress hormone), testosterone, adrenaline, and even human growth hormone. While certainly, most people who have sleep disturbance issues do not commit violence, people who do typically have pervasive life chaos and sleep disturbance is often present; therefore, sleep disturbance may be considered a key factor to consider when evaluating someone’s propensity toward or away from violence. Evaluators should make an effort to find out what patterns exist in this area.
The Lone Wolf and Co-Regulation
Co-regulation is the place where mental health problems heal. Mammals are meant to live, thrive, and recover from threat/pain in their “herd.” Human, mammalian brain structure most wants to survive, and does so, by connecting in effective dependence with others (as opposed to ineffective, anxious, or “co-dependent” ways of being). Put simply, co-regulation is the practice of one sharing a vulnerable or painful experience from within self and then receiving a response from a caring other. Dennis Proffitt’s research at the University of Virginia found that the human brain uses six times more blood glucose to face a challenge alone than when done with another. In investigations following a mass shooting type of incident, it is often reported that the perpetrator was a “lone wolf.” From a mental health standpoint, this is an incredibly obvious statement in that only lonely people do such things. At the risk of exaggerating the point, you will likely never hear of a human who lives in a co-regulating relationship(s) conducting violent forms of cruelty; such cruelty requires a lost, broken person who lacks the ability to regulate self and who has limited (if ever) experience of co-regulation with others. When evaluating someone’s potential likelihood of violent threat, a lens into his/her current level and history of isolation should be considered.
Grief and Trauma
Most violent offenders were once the victims of someone else’s violence or, at a minimum, suffered exposure to violence. Like a personal computer, much of human behavior operates from memory. That is, all people have experienced events (now memories) involving loss or hurt and these experiences often drastically impact how people experience and behave toward others. As discussed in hundreds of research articles and the famous book, The Body Keeps the Score (van der Kolk, 2014), human trauma history lives on within the body. This is partly because the survival-focused portion of the brain, called the limbic system, is to some degree, continually in the process of preparing for reoccurrence and therefore continually adapting to those memories. When such processing of trauma memories in a therapeutic environment is moving forward (becoming more organized granular and clear, healthily grieving, etc.) humans can grow and become stronger (eustress) having survived and learned from such painful experiences. However (and much more commonly practiced), when humans enter patterns of continually avoiding these memories altogether in order to not feel the pain within them, the body often develops maladaptive behavioral patterns (distress). This unfortunately lays the foundation for a host of many mental health problems, and in unfortunate cases, often repeats the trauma in simply a different location which may involve violence. Engaging and healthily grieving one’s story of hurt and loss is considered a cornerstone of mental health for all people and significantly decreases the likelihood of participating in illegal violence.
While there is much more to the mental health of violence, these three foundational aspects of life are important to understand the sources of and potentially predict violent behavior. At SafeHaven Security Group, the experts teach many other effective early warning systems that allow you to recognize and prevent acts of violence. You can call or email for a free assessment or to learn more about the training programs.
Consulting Psychologist, SafeHaven Security Group
www.safehavensecuritygroup.com