What are the odds of this being another William Freund?

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Normally I don't post on forums, and normally I don't want to stay anonymous, but now I do.

Sun Aug 21 2005 willfreund offered to pay me to give personal contact information about a regular in an autism chatroom. Of course I declined, I did not even have the information. But I think I have to share this information. Normally I don't post on forums, and normally I don't want to stay anonymous, but now I do. I have the chat log from the pm-conversation on my laptop.

Ah dear, just for clarifications purposes, Autism et al are listed as mental disorders and are often referred to and treated as mental illnesses. In itself, Autism is a neuro-developmental disorder. Unfortunately, by the time we hit adulthood, the government can't be bothered distinguishing between mental illnesses and neuro-developmental/behaviour disorders, so we all get lumped in together under 'mental illness'. I don't like it at all, but it appears to just be one of those things. All the same, I have trouble working out the difference; I would agree with Mish that the difference is chemical verses wiring, but then again, the wiring is apparently chemical! Still, I get the feeling that AS is more about your brain using different pathways rather than your endocrinal glands wreaking havoc!

The thing about the internet, is that it offers a lot of anonymity.
It's natural to look at this situation and wonder what we could have done or what we can do in the future. But I think the reason people are more likely to vent these kind of thoughts on forums like this is that they know that it will not really come back to there daily life.

It is similar to finding a journal someone has written before doing something like this. It is a place for them to release their frustrations and not hold back so much. The difference now with the internet is that we are all out here reading the journal as they write it, but we are still pretty powerless to do anything about it.
If we had some recourse when people talked about suicide or something, if we had some way to stop them, then they would not be as likely to talk about it here.

This same anonymity of course gives rise to the troll, and makes it almost impossible for someone to distinguish between a sincere cry for help and pathetic attempts at humor

I really don't see what could be done to help in this sort of situation.
It's just sad.

Eamonn. It’s not a question of how difficult our problems are, but how we deal with them -- that’s what matters.

With arguments like these, we waste our time arguing over how mild or severe our difficulties are instead of looking for ways to get around them. What’s the point in using an ad infinitum argument that will drag on and on and on?

I know what my limits are, but I do try and get around them in my own way. It doesn’t matter how much I could or should do, but what I feel that I can do.

All im saying is that your posts come across as disparaging to those who have commited suicide when often being too sensitive to others brought them to that point. It is always better to carry on and suicide is something i would never endorse as it wrecks lives but to be honest a lot of people carry on not out of strength but out of fear of death and their own self-preservation so there isnt always anything particularly altruistic and noble about surviving though if that is the main reason for you or anyone else holding firm then fair play to you but there is no need to insult peoples memory by calling them weak into the bargain.

Sometimes these people have been too strong by keeping things to themselves and not wanting to add any pressures to a family with enough problems. The stigma of suicide and people pretending to be anything else than dandy doesnt help things either.

A lot of autistic people have no friends or other form of communication so use this place as support but it is far from ideal as anomynous people on the internet certainly wouldnt be where id turn to if i was ever feeling really down again. There is a suicide thread though so i was wondering if one of us could have pointed that out to Will Fruend but i guess he was set on it and even if he wasnt, worrying about all these things inccessently wont help anyone i suppose.

It would be good if we could seperate the forum into funny areas, debating/argumentative areas, and supportive areas so that we could all know how to behave but i guess that is just my brain struggling to make sense of the world and how to act in it.

He could have gotten free help. All he had to do is check himself into the emergency room at a hospital, he would have easily gotten a 72 hour psych evaluation for wanting to kill people, and it doesn't take a renowned psychiatrist to see he needed long term inpatient treatment. By being a danger to himself and others, the county or State would have been legally obligated to treat him.


That's why it's better to avoid government social services like the plauge except as an absolute last resort.

Don’t you realise that while I’m disparaging others who’ve committed suicide, I’m also ridiculing myself for trying to kill myself?

When I see people who feel worthless and nihilistic, I get angry at them because they’re just as good as anyone else; it doesn’t matter how smart, successful or how appealing you are, every person has worth… simply for being alive.

I might have come off as disparaging because I have a tendency to speak how I honestly feel when communicating with others on the internet; I don’t need anyone’s approval to tell me what I should and shouldn’t say -- this is a public service, and everyone here has the choice to not read any of my comments if they come off as negative. I’m not the community’s b***h.

Anyway, enough about me, let’s continue with the discussion in regards to suicide.



I fully agree with this because I’ve been in that situation myself while I was attending secondary school, where I keep things to myself and not let my parents know about my bullying problems at school, because my father was stressed out with the job he was doing at the time (a sales-rep); I didn’t want to burden them.

Eventually, I told them how I hated attending the school I went to in Bath after I had my mental breakdown; I trashed my room because I hated myself and the people who bullied me.

I think I inherited this from my dad, who also keeps a lot of things to himself. I don’t mean to generalise, Eamonn, and I apologise if I am, but I get the impression from my father’s perspective that you have to be tough while growing up in Glasgow (yes, he’s Glaswegian), and that you couldn’t express love and affection to your family or otherwise because it seemed vulnerable and weak. Maybe this is why he does this. I’m not sure.

Anyway, I’m far more open to my problems now than I was years ago -- which helps a lot.



Yes and no. Yes, because it's the internet, and you’re talking to strangers who don’t know you at all very well, and no, because this can apply to real-life too. I bet many people who’ve told their real-life friends their problems were disappointed and distraught while they were exhibiting their lack of understanding.



Hasn’t this message board already been categorised into forums and sub-forums to solve this? I don't see the point that there should be more segregation than there is now -- it seems unecessary.

Last edited by thepeaguy on 31 Oct 2005, 1:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Peaguy, since your Dad's a fellow weegie and you didnt mean to be disparaging to people that have commited suicide i will forgive you.

OK,

The mods are now paying close attention to this thread. Because there has been a tradgedy does not mean that the rules go out the window. We mods will still continue to issue advisories and possibly warnings for rules infactions.

Be Fore Warned and watch what you say.

Thank You

Nope in life there's never an excuse for that but when you're on the net, you can't always tell if a person is telling the truth or a lie... unless you know them personally face to face... you're stuck on blind trust that you're not being used and told lies.

Deleted

Last edited by Ante on 09 Nov 2005, 8:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I second that, Ante, and if the Moderators are as unbiased as they say they are, they will do exactly that.

IP traces can only be used to determine a person's ISP and general geographical area, and only under the most ideal conditions. I (and other mods, I believe) had attempted it anyway and searched the white pages in his area for Freund. Unfortunately, there were hundreds of numbers.

I cant see someone lying about being bullied as it's not something to show off about but i suppose there are trolls and people that are addicted to sympathy that make it up though to read willfruend1's posts i was pretty convinced he was a likely target for bullying. Like i say im not trying to blame anyone here as we are not trained professionals, and i think someone posted a link to where he could get help so i guess he wasnt willing to seek it out for whatever reason.

All the computer talent here isn't always enought to track someone down. That would often require getting records from their ISP, which would require a warrant, which in turn would require the power of law enforcement. As for turning people in for buying a gun, does that mean that you want to turn me, Lowfreq50, Chamoisee and others in who use a gun responsibly? Would you try to turn in Nirrti_Rachelle or Fareeq whene they get a gun? There is less than a one in a million chance of someone buying a gun to go on a rampage. Last of all, the authorities already know when someone buys a gun; it's called a background check.

Moderators, please lock ths thread. It is no longer producing constructive discussions.

Last edited by Sean on 31 Oct 2005, 4:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

i see no need to lock this thread, sean. people are being calm now (which is incredibly difficult under the circumstances, so fair play to all), and need a space to discuss this awful situation.

i also think the threat of flaming is unnecessary, and that it's obvious why people might be more anti-gun than usual at this time.

there are already threads where guns are discussed, and so please discuss your feelings about guns and gun law there.

thank you.

Vivi
(as Mod)