Posted on 12/15/2012 9:39:53 AM PST by Perdogg
As we reported last night, buried inside the NYT biopic of Newtown shooter Adam Lanza was arguably one of the most important missing pieces in the story, at least so far, which could provide clues into partially explaining yesterday's tragic loss of young life, namely that the 20 year old man suffered from Asperger Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism (two conditions which are being merged in the upcoming update of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) manual of mental disorders), which has been traditionally associated with social communication difficulties, including flat affect, and one which in some clinical studies has been shown to have a causal link to violence. In other words, in addition to the surge in the debate over national gun control and access limitations (ignoring that the perpetrator of the biggest school mass murder in US history - the Bath School disaster - used openly purchased dynamite and no guns, also ignoring that in the US there are roughly 300 million firearms), perhaps there should also be a broad discussion as to the risks of social misadoption of children with autism and other social and behavioral disorders.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
hey there gov, long time no talk. Good to hear from you again. Sorry I never got back to you on the Benghazi immunity question, but its been busy here, and I didn’t want to give a response that wasn’t carefully thought out, then procrastination set in, etc.
Anyway, the mental illness question is personal for me, as I am both a family member to such a person and, according to some, a Bible-thumping neanderthal, i.e., I do believe in such things as God, angels, demons, and the human spirit.
However, I also follow the long Reformed tradition of recognizing that God has graciously given us the tools of science, which we can use to understand and solve many human ailments.
So its “both and” for me. I have seen people benefit from psychiatric treatment that wasn’t just throwing meds at the patient till something stuck, but also addressed cognitive and spiritual issues. I do not accept the premise that we are just the sum of our chemical constituents. As a Christian, while I can benefit from understanding and treating the material component of any problem, I cannot be a pure materialist. There is a God, and therefore there is everything else that that first fact implies, including the reality that we are more than a bag of chemicals, but are noble, spiritual creatures, made in the image of God, with all the respect, challenges, and high expectations, that accompany that office.
Peace,
SR
Ok, thanks for telling me, I know about these, just didn’t know the acronym. I don’t think they would be effective for autism etc, but then psychiatry seems to want an external, medical solution to almost everything - very ironic, since when it began it was known as “the talking cure”.
I'm what the shrinks call a Dreamer; I find a field of study that I like and I focus on it to the exclusion of almost everything else. Yes it makes me somewhat awkward in social settings (I don't always realize that other people aren't quite as interested in something that I find fascinating), but it hasn't stopped me from grabbing life by the horns and living it to its fullest. If anything, the fact that I analyze things to such a great extent has shown me just how fragile life truly is, so I am inclined to get the most out of every day that I am on this Earth.
Thanks for the information, I appreciate it.
Good luck and good health to you.
This Sandy Hook news coverage makes me really angry. I have one severely autistic grandchild and another who is thought to be Aspergers (different mothers). I can’t imagine either of them doing something like this. There must be thousands of people out there who could (or have) been designated Aspergers. 99.99% would never do anything as horrific as this.
On the other hand, untreated Paranoid Schizophrenics might. As I said earlier (either on this thread, or another) I have a Paranoid Schizophrenic man who works for me and is our most loyal and most dependable employee. He killed his mother about 27 years ago because of voices in his head that put him in fear of his own safety. Subsquently, he spent 13 years in the state mental hospital for the criminally insane. He’s worked for us about 6-7 years with no problem.
He is carefully managed by drugs and an army of social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and probation officers. His health insurance is through the state because of his pre-existing condition. He’s a wonderful employee and wonderful man (who spends most of his spare time volunteering through the church and through mental health organizations). He’s a smart and productive man with 2 engineering degrees, but his condition has NOTHING to do with Aspergers!
P.S. You sound like my grandson with the intense concentration on one, or two, subjects.
Thank you for your response. I did not know that and I appreciate the information. I just wish writers would stop painting this horrific tragedy (including those on this board) as the natural outcome of Asperger’s Syndrome.
Soft Sandwiches Readily Ingested?
(White Castles, perhaps?)
I am of the belief that Aspergers, OCD, bipolar, autism, ADD, SAD, ADHD, schizo, dystemia (sp?)and all the others are just manifestations of our fallen nature, and in reality there are very, very few that don’t have a touch of it on some level.
Hell, when I was a kid I could block out everything in favor of what I was focused on. I practically ignored my sister after 2nd grade. I could be sociopathic to gushingly compassionate on any given day. Very socially awkward at times. You name it. I still don’t process social information the best, but considering what our society has become, I’m not sure I care anymore anyway. In fact I think the twisted crap is magnifying and aggravating it.
Bottom line is, as the saying goes, society is but a few days away from total civil breakdown and chaos. We all have it in us, some just suppress it better than others, some are better anesthetized by societies comforts, some have better drugs, and some simply have Jesus. None of us really escape it though.
The local support groups help a lot filling the holes missed by the medical profession. They don’t “cure” anything, but sure help in retaining balance in dealing with the inherent difficulty.
Hi Ellandra,
My son is almost at the age where he can start to understand that his brain works differently and adjust his lifestyle accordingly. He already recognizes that he’s different but like I said, he isn’t at the stage in which he can work with his situation to obtain the same outcome at a different angle than a ‘normal’ person.
Have you read ‘Look Me in the Eye’? Its an autobiography of of a guy that had (undiagnosed) Aspergers. Amazing the similarities between him and my son.
Mike
I'm actually more concerned with the 3300 people who were legally slaughtered yesterday (and the day before that, and the day before that ...) with the full approval of the demonicRat Party, its sycophants in Big Media, and leftists everywhere.
Be polite.
Be courteous.
Be professional.
Be prepared to kill anyone you meet.
The more I read this thread, the more I think I’ve got some syndrome. Socially awkward in school. Bullied. A loner. I still don’t trust myself to joke around with folks for fear I will say something dumb. And yet I am happily married with two kids, good job, and I have never felt the slightest inclination to commit mass murder.
I’m not really trying to make a point. Just rambling.
” I’m actually more concerned with the 3300 people who were legally slaughtered...”
Me too. I fear Evil is winning. I truly feel surrounded by it.
Feh ... I am who and what I am ... the psych(ologists|iatrists) can pound sand. I'm glad I'm not a kid these days, though ... I hate to think what sort of label those bastards would try to stick on me.
Having read several articles on Aspergers over the last few days, trying to soak up all I can... I am just floored...
Every “symptom” listed can also be ascribed to many other relatively common social characteristics across the population.
Difficulty socializing, difficulty understanding “body language”, generally poor social skills, “laser-like” fascination with single topics/subjects (like some here an politics!!!), fidgeting, etc.
Nowhere in any of the literature is there any indication that Aspergers is connected to violence.
Yet here we go with those who want to parade “Autism Spectrum” out and about...
Question - lets just propose for a second that Autism Spectrum/Aspergers really can remove a person’s empathy... does that make them somehow not responsible for any acts that they commit?
Lets say that the shooter in the Sandy Hook school really did have “Aspergers”... had he not taken his own life - or been killed by police or other person, would he then be somehow less guilty of the murders he committed? is he somehow not responsible for his actions?
And this brings up something that I’m sure will illicit a flaming response - if someone really has no moral compass or ability to determine right from wrong, so therefore cannot be held accountable for their actions - then what can we as a society do to protect the “greater good”? Do we just pretend they don’t exist - ignoring the problem until another school shooting or other mass violence takes place, then cry about it, ban more guns, then again ignore it like we have solved the problem?
Our society has grown ever-more irresponsible - few are held accountable for their actions and decisions - from education and being employed, to criminal acts and murder - society keeps engineering “excuses” under the guise of “compassion” and “bringing attention to real disorders”.
Where are the answers for a law-abiding citizen? Am I to give up my rights for the “security” of maybe preventing another “nut” from obtaining a weapon to kill me or someone else with? Sorry - but mankind has been killing each other throughout history. Spears, swords, clubs, sticks, bones, water, rocks, etc. Where does it end?
Haven’t heard of that book before, I’ll add it to my reading list.
There’s one by Temple Grandin that was highly recommended, called “Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships”. I wish I could tell you firsthand how good it was, but dad borrowed my copy before I got the chance to read it, and I never saw it again. Hopefully that means he found it useful?
Follow the money...
There are financial incentives to the diagnosis of “syndromes”, “disorders”, and other maladies - to public schools, they get extra funding from the federal government for every student with any sort of diagnosed “disorder” or “disability”, so they WANT those diagnosis - especially of children that other wise are pretty much able to function.
Doctors and pharmaceutical companies have reason to promote such diagnosis... $billions are on the line, with new markets with each new “disorder” diagnosed...
Mental health facilities gain from insurance, government payments, etc. for every patient they “treat” - regardless of the outcome or “success”, as there is little or no means of measuring any perceived improvement...
Universities receive grants, both public and private to “research” disorders. If they don’t cough up something, the money dries up. So they WILL find something... which returns the cycle back to the beginning.
And lest we forget - the “stigma” of a “mental disorder” has begun to be replaced with the acceptance of a “disorder” that becomes and excuse - an excuse for behavior, and excuse to not hold a job, an excuse to draw benefits (after all - many disorders now graduate rapidly to “disability”).
“A “longtime” family friend said Lanza had a condition “where he couldn’t feel pain.”
Seriously? He supposedly couldn’t feel pain, so this is yet another excuse for murdering 20 children and several adults? I don’t think so...
But of course, politicians and anti-gun Marxists will tell us it was the fault of the gun...
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