Mother recounts terrors of raising genius son with violence-oriented mental illness

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Leslie Eastman @ Le-gal In-sur-rect-ion:

Progressive gun control advocates were clamoring for more liberty-crushing legislation immediately after the slaughter of the young students and teachers at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School. Meanwhile, others cry “white privilege” because the most mass shooting suspects are white.

Yet, one critically important aspect continues to get lost in the intense press coverage: The failure to develop and implement serious and protective policies that address the needs of boththe mentally ill and their potential victims.

The killer, Adam Lanza, was a genius with Asperger’s syndrome who was a “Goth loner” who dressed in black and obsessed with video games. Another recent murder-suicide also involved ayoung man with Asperger’s syndrome who killed his father, his father’s girlfriend and himself at a Wyoming college campus. Jared Loughner, perpetrator of a mass murder in Tucson, AZ, that severely injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, was diagnosed with schizophrenia and underwent forcible psychotropic drug treatments.

Liza Long is a single mother of four children, one of whom is a genius with mental health problems that leads to violent reactions. She recounts her struggles in keeping her afflicted, 13-year old son, her other children, herself, and the rest of the community protected from these outbursts.

I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother

I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.

A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. His 7- and 9-year-old siblings knew the safety plan—they ran to the car and locked the doors before I even asked them to. I managed to get the knife from Michael, then methodically collected all the sharp objects in the house into a single Tupperware container that now travels with me. Through it all, he continued to scream insults at me and threaten to kill or hurt me.

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The author of the above letter, Liza Long, also writes, “With state-run treatment centers and hospitals shuttered, prison is now the last resort for the mentally ill.”
Therein lies the real challenge. Families are left to ‘deal’ with their mentally ill members. They are not equipped to do so, and neither is the broader community. Adding to the stress and anxiety which these families endure daily, is the fact that there is no help and nowhere to turn for treatment or drugs.

James Raider
yes that is terrible for a parent to have to live with that child,
and no issue to get help,
when I was 12, I end up on a job , which my sister found me,
a place who took abandon children of different ages, in different rooms of that big building,
I was a kid myself, and they gave me one room, where there was mentally problem kids,
all of them had a problem, the door had to be lock at all time, the first time I enter with a NUN
who had the charge of showing me my work,
there was a worker there repairing something,
a little boy took his hammer and swing it at us as we enter, I learn my first lesson right there,
they where from 4 to 6 years old, different mental behaviors, there was a psychiatrist coming once a month to analyse them, I spend a year there, entertaining the kids who never could go outside,
eventualy I was trusted to allow me to take them out in the close backyard, the kids listen to me
pretty well, I am a positive person so I was giving them positive thoughts wit my stories as a young kid myself, and I left after a year , my hearth broken to leave who I called my kids,
and I always wonder what happen to them as years went by,
I’m sure they where kept institutionize for life,
but those kids where from young girl pregnant alone without parents to help and going there to leave their baby, the other rooms had older children not mentally disturb, but mine where all mental cases,

@ilovebeeswarzone: #2,
What an experience that must have been for you to have lived through at a young age. Your positive energy would have helped them, even if the children did not realize your influence at the time.

If this occurred in Eastern Canada (although the same took place across North America), all such institutions were closed when provincial and federal government bureaucracies applied scalpels to spending. The mandarins running those bureaucracies couldn’t build taxpayer funded empires founded on ‘mental health’ challenges because mental disorders were and still are poorly understood, and they carry stigmas which society does not wish to address, and averts its eyes from.

Can you imagine the solitary psychiatrist you refer to in your comment being able to ‘do anything’ about all those lost Souls? Whether or not he/she cared, one person would not have been equipped to do anything. You probably did more good than the expert.

James Raider
I ran away from an uncle pervert which had the guard on me, when my parents died,
I had no choice but to find a job, and my sister got that one for me,
It was quite an experience, it matured me faster,
the NUN WHERE RUNNING THAT and they where doing a services to the young girls knocking at the door ready to have their baby, they would help and keep the babies if they
had no where to go,
it was in MONTREAL, IT WAS CALLED THE CRECHE.
you’re right the psychiatrist did not stay long,
bye

Rides A Pale Horse
very good as usual very creative
I’m on the wrong post for this one
thank you

James Raider
hi again,
I wonder how the knowledge is advance in the BRAIN SURGERY,
WE DON’T HEAR ABOUT IT, but in this era we should be able to pinpoint the lesions in the brain causing this desire to kill, like a bestial disease invader of the brain, or from birth or from silent progress
as the person ages, to culminate to horrific actions against humanity,
weird that they could instead of killing their own , be killing the animals,
but it don’t seem to be the case, why going for human been,
if there was some kind of probe insert into the brain to capture , I DON’T KNOW,
THE VIBRATIONS? OR THE VIRUS ATTACKING IT WHAT EVER CELLS OR ELECTRIC CONNECTION
between two whatever.
it is definitely a sickness or is it a birth defect that could be fix, if studied enough.
with all the scientific technology, I cannot comprehend that they did not advance on that field,
with all the prison full over crowded of criminals of all different kind, if they could advance that brain science on this only section this only subject, with the aim of reducing the inhuman behavior of some human who inherit the vice of killer. the inside of a compulsive killer brain activities,

@ilovebeeswarzone: #6,

Quite, but we’re just barely beginning to comprehend such events as how synaptic transmissions are regulated, and how communication between nerve cells is managed, we are a long distance from understanding how we might affect positive modification. It is useful that today brain functions can be viewed and studied with live human beings reacting to inputs.

Gene research will probably provide major breakthroughs of the kind you suggest. In the meantime, it is up to each family to deal with those of its members, if any, who may be suffering from mental disorders.

‘Mental disorder’ also does not always suggest a dangerous individual. Far from it. Sadly, it’s an overused catch-all phrase too often relied on to explain abhorrent crimes. Most talking heads are idiots, IMHO. There is a large percentage of our population which could be considered to have a mental disorder of some sort and to varying degree – and it is not violent.

Sometimes these crimes are just an angry killer with more hate than he can normally release otherwise.

James Raider
yes you’re touching the generalisation of it,is to be carefull
to not put them all in the same category,
and as what they try to pin that crime to all guns,
here I just did the same on all mental disorders, without thinking of that important danger of putting all on the same bags.
in the old days they have massacre who they call the witches because of their beliefs,
all of them who they pin the label on where killed, that was the same way of generalising the fact,
thank you for mentioning it,
there is definitly a danger to react on the wrong way.

and as far as genius is concern, we can also acknowledge the fact
that some derange genius took on a country and murder many of it’s citizens,
before he was showing his mental disorder unfit to lead,
that is another danger of following a person because we find it to be smart only
looking at his skill to harang the mass,
we found evidence later of that same person mental failure to be a true leader of a country.
that should give the follower a bell ring, as to search further than what is apparent to be satisfying,
when we know of the possible danger of if trigger,or challenge, how dangerous he will use his power, and it’s too late to replace him afterward,
unless the people decide to use the same violence, to destroy him at a cost of lives, like history has shown us,
and yet with all the lessons of history, citizens have disregarded it to make the same mistake very costly too.