Michael Lake

I had been trying to understand why I had been fired over concerns about my own "mental health". I am not a violent person, which many people would agree. However, I do get worked up with anxiety and depression, and tend to dwell on issues which seem to be deeply wrong. (Part of the reason for this post).

I discovered this "profile" in a topic on the apa.org website, and realized that at a glance, someone who did not know me well could put me into this profile (even though I am not a “dangerous person”.)

What worries me is that many people with handicaps, or mental health issues could fit this profile even if there was no rational reason to call them “dangerous.” Having mental health issues/handicap is bad enough, but how do you deal with threats to your rights due to profiling such as the following?

I truly feel depressed because I was evaluated by forensic psychologist, and might have my name in a database as a potentially dangerous person without ever having made a threat to harm anyone! (All I did say was that I had considered killing myself in the past to escape the harassment of people who did not like me for having anxiety and depression. Society’s treatment of mental health was the issue that sparked my feelings, and made things worse...)

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*A "Profile" for dangerous people:
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A new theory of workplace violence

Over the last decade, a risk-management consulting firm called Incident Management Group has developed a database filled with hundreds of names. They're all people who have threatened to kill in the workplace and who have been evaluated by forensic psychologists.

Now psychologist Harley V. Stock, PhD, the managing partner of the Hallandale, Fla., firm has drawn on the database to create a new theory about why workers make threats. Stock unveiled his theory at APA's 2000 Annual Convention, Aug. 4­8.

According to Stock, workers who make threats suffer from "pathological organizational affective attachment." Characteristics include:

* Inability to detach themselves from a job and move on.

* Difficulty forming bonds with others throughout their lives.

* Past threats, whether in the current workplace or a former one.

* Belief that their employer is treating them unfairly or singling them out for some reason.

* Recurrent psychological disturbances that aren't significant enough to keep them from working--or being able to plan and carry out threats.

* Blaming a specific individual for their problems.

* Volatility, impulsivity, little emotional control and a failure to consider the consequences of their actions.

* Oversensitivity to perceived insults or threats.

* A tendency to use violence to solve problems and to threaten when they feel threatened.

--R. CLAY