The shooting death of a schoolgirl by an angry old man on Thursday has thrown up innumerable questions. Prime among them is – what could possibly have caused Harish Maroliya, a retired customs officer, to shoot his 14-year-old neighbour? Mental health experts feel the altercation with neighbours over repair work was just a trigger. Maroliya’s actions hint at a mental illness or psychiatric disorder.
Clinical psychologist and psychotherapist Varkha Chulani, says, “The incident shows that Moraliya was a disturbed man whose malaise went untreated.” Psychiatrists feel high stress levels coupled with plummeting tolerance levels in the city are causing a mental imbalance among many. And, Moraliya’s post-retirement state could have aggravated his mental condition. “Many people have trouble coping with retirement. They find it difficult to suddenly be out of action. Retirement blues combined with senile depression may have resulted in this extreme step,” says Malini Shah, senior counsellor, Aavishkar Centre.
Psychiatrist Harish Shetty said,. “Every building has one problem person, but it doesn’t mean that if their grievances are not addressed, they shoot people. He was 60 and given the circumstances, the probability of him being mentally ill is quite high,” he adds. Mental health experts also say people seeking help with anger management are on the rise. But, there are still many who live in denial; Maroliya could be one of them.
Shah elaborates with a case of a man in his late thirties who got into fits of anger to the extent that he would hurl abuse at home, assault people on the road, slap or fling objects at colleagues. Shah said such people are called reactive or impulsive personality types.
The other is the suppressed aggression personality type. Such people are emotionally hurt either in childhood, adult life or workplace, and the anger builds inside them leading into an outburst. Shetty feels timely intervention is required in such cases. Any deviation from routine behaviour needs to be checked. If left unchecked, such people could hurt themselves or others, says Shetty.
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