That is such an unbearably sad story, and truly, makes me wonder how any mental health screening, or anything could have prevented such a tragic situation. I wish she would have taken her kids across the street, and told friends, relatives what she was considering doing. I just cannot imagine how she did that.

I can understand the deep, dark despair of depression. I have known what it feels like to want to end the pain. But, I will never, ever understand how someone could think of harming a child. Not for one moment will I ever understand that type of person.

The story's sad, but I found an upside for drug companies, "No medications used to treat mental illness were found in the home."

I could see a drug company using that story as an excuse to push psychotropic meds.

I've been close to taking myself out too, but what never ceases to amaze me is the number of people who end their own lives but take innocents with them as well...DUMB shits (pardon my language).

As much as you want to say I could never do that, there was one suicide attempt where I went in the car with my companion animal and turned on the gas. We survived and went home later in the night, becausse the car had a catalytic converter.

But my despair was so bad and my brain was so hurting I wanted to die and was afraid she would be put down if I wasn't here.

I am not proud of this.

Okay, here's a woman with four children, a restraining order against their abusive father, a job at Wendy's, an aging single wide trailer that's entrance is secured by a rope, and society marvels that she "suffers from the disease of depression." She suffered from the disease of poverty. What she needed was a living wage, birth control, free safe abortion on demand, and some consiousness raising. Poverty cannot be cured by a pill.

The NYT makes me want to scream. It's not depression that caused this woman to take her children one by one and hang them from their necks in the closet. Depression doesn't cause a person to commit homicide. Depression doesn't cause a man to put his child in the microwave and turn it on (although the media was quick to point out that he had been a little depressed lately). Last week I read in teh newspaper about a woman who took her little child and held her down in scalding water and then didn't get medical attention of course, and this child died an excrutiating death from her injuries. Did depression make the woman do this to her child? Last month I read about a woman who cut off her infant son's penis and blamed it on the dog. Did depression cause this? Poverty? Is it that we just can't accept that women can do heinous things, so we have to blame it on something? She murdered her children. And no, I don't identify with that kind of a person.

and now that it has come out that, in fact, she was depressed. What do you say now?

I say, so what if she was depressed. Depression may influence a person to end their own suffering but it doesn't cause you to think hey, I think I'll pop my baby in the microwave and turn it on, or hang my children in the closet. It's not depression that caused her to murder her children. There is something different about the type of person who is capable of that. Maybe she was also missing a chunk of her brain, I don't know. But, depression does not explain it.

What a tragic story. Depression often does things to us that are unexplainable, and unanticipated. I am NOT the same person when in a serious depression. I've experienced such severe and bizarre thoughts and ideations that I can't say any behavior or act would be out of the realm of possibility.

I'm a mother of a two month old and a three year old. I'm suffering from Post Partum Psychosis--the worst form of PPD.

In sane times I would never even dream of hurting my children. I don't even believe in spanking.

In insane times I can understand why that woman would want to harm her children and herself. Maybe she thought that they would have a worse life if she left them there.

What I want to say is this: I understand that she felt alone and that she felt that she didn't have any other choice. Mental illness does strange things. When sane we would never even think of such a thing. When insane our brains are overshadowed by pain.

What I'm responding to is the insinuation that people suffering from depression commit murder. That's a pretty bold statement, and it includes people like me in it. I don't identify with what she did at all. I've never dreamt of harming another person, and I don't appreciate being lumped in that category. There is something different about a person (even if the person has depression) who is capable of killing another person. It's not depression by itself. It may be depression plus something else like psychosis or even narcissism, but I still contend it's not depression alone.

Lisa - that's the entire point. Depression changes us, we are often not the same person when in the depths of depression. The extremes of a mood, be it depression or mania, can easily include intermittant psychosis.

I'm with Lisa with this one. Depression is not to blame here. The mother is to blame. I believe the media is far too eager to hysterically pin Depression as the cause for these horrific events. Depression may have been something this mother struggled with, but that doesn't mean she wasn't in control of her actions. Sometimes people can simply be monsters.

Sally, I'm not sure what to say. She should have killed the kids BEFORE they were born instead of after? Abortion would have freed her from poverty? There are some who find that way of thinking monstrous. At any rate, I don't see how it helps matters.

Jon, suffering from depression as I do, and having had very dark periods in my life, as well as knowing many, many others who have struggled with Depression, I can tell you that most of us haven't killed our children lately, no matter how down we felt. However, I have to admit that I am very uncomfortable with people identifying and defending the mother/Virginia Tech Killer/murderer of the week because they happen to share a common mental disorder. It is a pet peeve of mine, which may explain where I'm coming from when I disagree with you.

I like to believe people are free agents capable of greatness but we must make wise choices, even if we have mental impairments. Some make poor choices and look for scapegoats to drape their blame on. Others take their consequences on the chin and learn from their mistakes. I wish the mother had been more like the later than dragging her children into her world. I wish she had sought help. We can wish a lot of things, but that won't bring the children back. The real problem here is ignorance in the press. There is a world of difference between Psychotic Depression and garden variety Depression. The media shouldn't lump the two into the same category, but they do over and over again. In 2002, it was estimated that nearly 20 million Americans suffer from Depression, but thank Heaven the grand majority of them never felt compelled to kill their children. I think we are dealing with two different beasts here, and let us not forget to account for personal accountability as well.

~Douglas

The Splintered Mind - Overcoming Neurological Disabilities With Lots Of Humor And Attitude
(today's comments brought to you by Attitude)

Douglas, thank you for understanding where I'm coming from. I just really resent when the media suggest that depression leads one to commit heinous crimes. Having a history of depression myself, that starts to feel a little personal.