Friday, December 28, 2012
Friday, December 21, 2012
What the media is getting wrong about the shooting in Newtown, CT – Part 2 of 5, Psychiatric disorders, developmental disabilities and trouble coping are three different things.
The
day of the shooting, Lanza’s brother said that his brother had Asperger’s. Soon the media was discussing this as a
mental illness. It’s not. Mental illnesses, or psychiatric disorders,
are mood and thought disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia, Asperger’s
is considered the mildest on the autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Neither mental illnesses nor ASDs are caused by
stress, although stress can certainly make things worse and frequently a
stressful event will trigger an episode of a mental illness. For the sake of differentiating,
I’ll put ADD, LD, PDD and the various initial disorders in the same category as
ASDs. All people who suffer from these are born that way (thank you Lady gaga, you
were rights on many points). Stress and trauma cause people to be upset, but they
are supposed to. Freud said that all he could
promise people was normal unhappiness. Psychiatric
illness, initial disorders and trauma in your life are three very different ways
of suffering.
TV
commentators were quick to way that ASDs do not make people violent. I’m sure that they were concerned about a backlash
against people with ASDs but unfortunately I have met many children on the ASD who
were extremely violent, from kids with mild Asperger’s to profoundly autistic kids
who never developed speech and were also mentally retarded. I know one child who left home to go to school
but otherwise never went outside because her behavior was uncontrollable.
Those
suffering from psychiatric illness are more likely to be the recipient of physical
abuse than the other way around.
“Experts”
on talk shows have stated that parents shouldn’t be concerned about kids who were
always shy but about kids who suddenly change into shyness when they were previously
outgoing. That isn’t true. Kids with the initial disorders and those with
psychi9atric illness, again, follow Lady Gaga’s pronouncement. At what point should families and schools be worried?
If you know anything at all about human beings,
the answer is when you feel something is wrong.
First,
we have to get all these categories straight in order to understand them. Second, we have to face that these are all serious
disorders that can have violent and tragic consequences. People really suffer from all of these; it isn’t
an issue of just being a little “weird”. Third, we still know very little about Lanza. The facts should go a long way in determining what
went on in his head.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
What the media is getting wrong about the shooting in Newtown, CT – Part 1 of 5, “Such a nice, quiet town.”
The media, especially
on the day of tragedy, made a point of saying that Newtown was a quiet suburban
area where there is rarely any crime. Those
27 people would be just as dead if they were in a big city, a rural area or small
town. The guns used have the same firepower wherever they are shot. Living in a
quiet suburban area – which just means that houses are on big lots, almost everyone
is the same race, religion or ethnicity, you have to commute to work, and you have
to get in a car to get a loaf of bread or a light bulb or anything else - is no
isolation from tragedy. I am a happy Manhattanite
who grew up somewhere in the swamps of Jersey where no one locked their doors but
there were still murders, not to mention serious car accidents that don’t occur
in cities where most people can rely on public transportation. Those of us who live in big cities do not accept
crime, nor are we indifferent to it. If someone
screams here on the street, in a park or a store, at least there are people to hear
and help out and yes, we respond and help. Meanwhile, on Monday in Afghanistan, 15 girls died
when they came upon an unexploded land mine. Compared to the rest of the world, the US is quite
safe
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
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