Violent crime attributable to mental illness is increasing at an alarming rate. On Tuesday, a mentally ill woman slashed a toddler with a butcher knife in Omaha. Police shot and killed the suspect, who was in court two years earlier and found not guilty by reason of insanity of breaking into a church rectory.
A few days earlier, a machete-wielding man who identified as Lucifer stabbed three commuters at New York City’s Grand Central Station before police intervened and shot him. Authorities report the suspect had no history of being an “emotionally disturbed person,” but his words and actions made his mental illness self-evident.
On April 7, it was learned that the suspect in the August, 2025 murder of Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina, was found “incapable to proceed” with his trial. The competency question has not yet been adjudicated, but the prospect of this man avoiding trial because of mental health problems is raising eyebrows.
These incidents represent the extremes of mental disorders, but there are tens of millions of Americans currently suffering from some form of mental illness, the most common among them being anxiety and depression. Assuming data from the World Health Organization is accurate, nearly one out of every seven people you pass on a busy sidewalk is suffering from a mental disorder.
More concerning still is that people suffering from depression are more prone to violence. A 2015 Swedish study found that “People diagnosed with depression are roughly three times more likely than the general population to commit violent crimes such as robbery, sexual offenses and assault," the Guardian reported.
The Swedish data was tragically validated on April 16 when former Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax allegedly murdered his wife before killing himself. According to court filings related to his pending divorce, he "struggles with undefined emotional and psychological issues.” The New York Post reports that after leaving office in 2022, Fairfax “apparently was drinking so heavily that he would lock himself away in the office of his family’s home where he lived among 'empty wine bottles, trash and piles of dirty laundry.'" Whatever was depressing Fairfax culminated in a murder-suicide.
Until recently, depression was most prevalent among older Americans. Senior citizens were most likely to suffer from depression as recently as 2015, but those data have shifted somewhat, given that Baby Boomer funerals number roughly 7,000 per day. The causes of depression in any person are complex but somewhat more relatable among older people.
Some face depression because of health or financial problems, while others try to cope with social isolation. Healthier and more affluent retirees can suffer mental disorders for different reasons, like a lack of purpose, loss of an identity forged over a decades-long career, and ruminating over their failure to meet the expectations they set for themselves. Uncertainty, boredom and recriminations leave many retirees untethered, drifting through life and the lives of others like so much emotional flotsam.
Depression often reflects personal circumstances ranging from the sad and unfortunate to the pitiable. It’s especially problematic among retirees who have been previously diagnosed with depressive disorders. “Depression is a very common mental illness that is highly recurrent in individuals,” according to University of Minnesota researchers Stephanie Burcusa and William Iacono. Unlike many illnesses, prior episodes of depression do not immunize against it; they exacerbate it.
Aside from crime linked to mental disorders, there are also financial costs, and the range of depression turns out to be pretty expensive. A 2019 study found, “incremental societal economic burden of MDD (major depressive disorders) was estimated at $333.7 billion.” The study concluded that this economic burden is “substantial and extends beyond healthcare costs, underscoring the impact of MDD across multiple aspects of life.”
The economic impact of depression is real, but we ought not reduce the issue to mere dollars and cents. These are human beings, people who are suffering some level of anguish in their lives. They deserve our patience, compassion and encouragement to seek whatever help they need to prevent any escalation of their illness.
There are many causes of depression, so it stands to reason there are many approaches to treating it. But a number of studies have identified an effective means of combating depression: going to church. “Research at Harvard and elsewhere indicates that, possibly due to a message of faith or hope, those who attend services are more optimistic and have lower rates of depression,” wrote Harvard Professor Tyler J. VanderWeele and co-author John Siniff in their USA Today column. They called church attendance a “miracle drug” that has been repeatedly found to reduce both depression and mortality.
There are many different kinds of churches and their therapeutic value varies. From progressive theology churches reminiscent of comedian Flip Wilson’s Church of What’s Happening Now to those focused on biblical scripture and those in between, all offer parishioners something different. It’s worth noting that what’s happening now might not be happening tomorrow, whereas the Bible offers a message that’s been unfailingly sturdy for two millennia.
It seems younger Americans are figuring this out. “Millennials and Gen Z are driving a resurgence in church attendance,” reports the Christian research group Barna. Their longitudinal study of 132,030 adults over a quarter century revealed that “Younger adults are showing spiritual curiosity and a desire for belonging.” Older people may criticize certain characteristics of these generations, but this is one youthful trend worth emulating.
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