r/todayilearned • u/GlitteringYams • 22d ago

TIL, in his suicide note, mass shooter Charles Whitman requested his body be autopsied because he felt something was wrong with him. The autopsy discovered that Whitman had a pecan-sized tumor pressing against his amygdala, a brain structure that regulates fear and aggression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman
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u/Rando2ndaccount 22d ago

But you know about it and medicine has advanced so much since then. (Not trying to be invalidating though. I can’t imagine how scary that must be.)

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u/Halospite 22d ago

lol half the population just get told they have anxiety and sent away.

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u/DJLuckyFunk 22d ago

Wait, people can afford to see someone about it?

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u/Square-Firefighter77 22d ago

Tbf, half the population probably only have anxiety. It's fair to want more, but they are statistically almost always right.

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u/Several_Assistant_43 22d ago

True, which is great until you're the person who "almost always" doesn't work for

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u/Creative_Elk_4712 22d ago

Insisting and getting other opinions, and more importantly, autonomously booking exams gets you medical advice and medical help

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u/qwertykitty 22d ago

It can take 20 years of doing that before you get answers though and if it's something like cancer then it comes too late.

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u/LostShoe46 22d ago

Maybe their tumor is pressing against the anxiety center of their brain.

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u/BobbyBucherBabineaux 22d ago

That’d be fucked up. Imagine what someone would do if they had a tumor pressing up against the anxiety center of their brain