The Next Joe Stack: Is Irritable Male SyndromeDriving Men Over the Edge?
Jed Diamond, Ph.D. has been a marriage and family counselor for the last 44years. He is the author of 8 books, including
Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places, Male Menopause,
and
The Irritable Male Syndrome.
His forthcomingbook,
Mr. Mean: Saving Your Relationship from the Irritable Male Syndrome
willbe published in May, 2010.Diamond offers counseling to men, women, and couples in his office in Californiaor by phone with people throughout the U.S. and around the world. To receive aFree E-book on Men’s Health and a free subscription to Jed’s e-newsletter go towww.MenAlive.com. If you are looking for an expert counselor to help withrelationship issues, writeJed@MenAlive.com.According to ABC News, Joe Stack, age 53
,
topped off his single engine Piper Cherokee with fuel beforecrashing into the IRS officesin a kamikaze missiondesigned to punish the government he believed wronged him. There are millionsmore men like Joe who are angry and depressed and would rather murder anddie than to live without respect. We ignore these men at our peril.Local newspaper The Austin Statesmantweeted a link to the statementas an"Internet note left by Joe Stack, the man linked to today's plane crash." In thenote Stack talked about the reasons he came to his decision to end his own lifein such a dramatic fashion.
If you're reading this, you're no doubt asking yourself,
"Why did this have to happen?"
The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time. Thewriting process, started many months ago, was intended to be therapy in the face of thelooming realization that there isn't enough therapy in the world that can fix what is really broken.Stack writes at length about the state of the economy and claims the government hasstolen from the middle class. He writes that,
"I know I'm hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand."
Stack concludes:
“I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stopthis insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.”
Not only did Stack express is anger towards himself and those connected tothe IRS, but it seems it was extended to his wife and family. Investigators
believe Stack set fire to his house near Parmer and Metric in Northwest Austinthirty minutes before he crashed his single-engine jet into an IRS buildingThursday morning.Stack's wife, Sheryl, taught piano lessons from the home. Neighbors say Mrs.Stack and her daughter were friendly and more outgoing than Andrew JosephStack. Many in this neighborhood were shocked to learn the fire could beconnected to the plane crash."As the pieces started fitting together, it became a thing that was difficult tounderstand. How could this happen, and how could someone be so troubled bylife that they would take their own life and put other people's lives in danger aswell," neighbor Elbert Hutchins said.There are millions of men in America who could be the next Joe Stack. If weare going to prevent further tragedy, we need to better understand what is goingon with these men. To do that, we need to understand more about the IrritableMale Syndrome.
The Irritable Male Syndrome Story
In order to get a clear understanding of IMS it helps to know the story. Whenwriting my book,
Male Menopause,
I discovered how significant hormonalchanges were in the lives of these men. Though mid-life men are still reluctant torecognize how much of their lives are influenced by hormonal shifts, womenimmediately “got it.” “I
knew
there was something ‘hormonal’ about his behavior,”many women told me in talking about their mates. Now, a lot of his behavior makes sense.”Another thing that became evident was how similar mid-life male changeswere to the changes that young men go through between 15 and 25 as theymake the transition from childhood to adulthood. Both groups of males areexperiencing significant hormonal changes. Both groups went through markedemotional ups and downs. Both were sorting out and dealing with developing anew identity.I saw much stress these men were under, much of it beyond and outside their awareness. They expressed their stress in different ways. Some drank, othersbecame depressed. Some became aggressive, others withdrew and hid. Somehad heart attacks, others had nervous breakdowns.I found that men going through andropause were expressing a constellationof feelings and behaviors that seemed to express different aspects andintensities of “irritability.” These included such things as: hypersensitivity,impatience, anger, blame, defensiveness, arguing, sullenness, silence, andwithdrawal. Further these men went from being nice and considerate to being
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The Next Joe Stack: Is Irritable Male Syndrome Driving Men Over the Edge?
According to ABC News, Joe Stack, age 53, topped off his single engine Piper Cherokee with fuel before crashing into the IRS offices in a kamikaze mission designed to punish the government he believed wronged him.…
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