Is America addicted to cannibalism?

The recent spate of horrifying cannibal attacks could be caused by an addiction to eating human flesh. Cannibalism causes euphoria after the person turns their fantasy into a reality said Karen Hylen, a therapist at Summit Malibu Treatment Center in California.

  

In the past, cannibalism has been linked to religion or people have resorted to it for sheer survival. However now a connections has been made with addiction and mental illness.

'People who have engaged in this act report feelings of euphoria or get a ''high'' by performing the action to completion,' Ms Hylen told The Huffington Post. 

'These individuals have psychopathic tendencies and are generally not psychotic. They know exactly what they are doing.'

When cannibals finally act on their fantasies and hunt down a victim, the feeling they get from eating flesh releases dopamine in the brain and gives them a high which they want to feel again.

Ms Hylen explained that the cannibal's mind then becomes conditioned to seek out more flesh to eat and they also thrive on the process of hunting down a victim. 

The cannibal is unable to stop, according to the therapist, until someone else intervenes. The addiction is so strong it is similar to taking a drug like cocaine.

Unlike other addictions, the chances of the average person becoming addicted to cannibalism are exceptionally low. Because it is such a rare phenomenon, treating cannibals is difficult and there is no cure. 

There has been alarming rise in the number of cannibal attacks. During Memorial Day Weekend, Rudy Eugene, 31, originally from Haiti, chewed off the eyes, nose and mouth from the face of Ronald Poppo.

Eugene was eventually shot and killed by a Miami police officer after he refused to stop eating his 65-year-old victim on the MacArthur Causeway in Miami Beach. He was allegedly high on a potent drug called 'bath salts'.

Luka Magnotta, dubbed the 'Canadian cannibal', was captured in Berlin last week after he posted a video online in which he could be seen murdering his gay lover Jun Lin with an ice pick, hacking his corpse, raping some of the body parts and then eating the man's flesh, according to law enforcement officials.

The 29-year-old bisexual prostitute then had allegedly sent Lin’s hands and feet to Canadian government offices and two schools - a primary school and a private boys’ school in Vancouver.

Police arrested homeless man Brandon Deleon on June 2 when he tried to bite off a police officer’s hand after he was arrested for disturbing customers in a Miami fast food restaurant. He was high on drink and drugs. 

The homeless man repeatedly banged his head against the patrol car’s Plexiglas and yelled, ‘I’m going to eat you.’

Alexander Kinyua, a 21-year-old Kenyan college student, has been accused of killing a housemate. Kinyua, 21, a college student, used a knife to carve up Kujoe Bonsafo Agyei-Kodie, 37, before eating his heart out and parts of his brain.

Carl Jacquneaux, 43, is accused of attacking Todd Credeur at his home in Scott, Louisiana, last weekend after he became upset following a domestic issue.

Scott Assistant Police Chief Kert Thomas said: 'During the attack, the suspect bit a chunk of the victim's face off.'

Source: Dailymail