The TRUTH(?) About the Connecticut Shootings

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@MrXxx ... can you make this thread that you started a "Sticky" in News & Current Events? Maybe that will help slow down some of the speculation going on around here.

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I think you may find some interesting facts in This Thread, provided by Yours Truly.

I agree with your points, although II think that out that such reactions are probably typical to autism. It's good to remind everyone that there's more to this (or any other) tragedy than the impact it may have on any of us personally or as a group.

There is a limit to how much time I can spend thinking about the victims before I turn my mind to matters of prevention, and the impact that various measures of prevention can have on the wider community. The victims have the sympathy of the world right now, but there are other things which need to be discussed, too.

I'm certain he would have been, but the severity depends on where you live. Possibly Connecticut is full of HFA anyways, and somewhat more accepting? but I'm only guessing.
He definitely would have been bullied a whole lot more in some districts or nations.

The media doesn't need our help to jump to the conclusion it has. Also, his brother said he had autism. Not saying that he was. Siblings sometimes think those things. My sister did years before I was diagnosed.

Also, bullying doesn't just occur in schools. That's to the person who wondered whether he was bullied in school before he was home schooled. I was bullied by my sister and pressured by my mother to not be so weird.

It's devastating what what happened to those children and teachers but I was scared enough of people. Now I'm worried they'll suspect my awkwardness is due to being autistic and they might be scared and ignorant enough to think I'm a killer.

Also, I agree with Marshall.

Things take time.

Media take and presentation brought into question...

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt218358.html

Some people cannot cope with social isolation, true, and it affects them profoundly in negative ways but not everyone! Social isolation is what some people need to function. Or, maybe it's the rare person that desires it? I am actually far better alone than with people, psychologically, so I do not automatically assume social isolation is always a horrid affair. Not sure how A.L. felt about it. How do you know he did not like being alone? Some people actually prefer it and feel more at ease.

I think people with AS (or even NT's) can go either way. I'm one of those people who are fine to be alone. I even went a whole year with barely seeing anyone, but there are some that crave company and if they had poor social skills it just makes it worse. I dunno though, my theory is that Adam may have either been treated unfairly by strict parents or was bullied. I just know what it was like for me when my mum wanted me to be normal and would just be really cold around me, and blame me for not controlling my symptoms. I tried to run away many times, and now I live far away from her and she misses me. I miss her too but I won't ever forget about the way she treated me. I feel pretty isolated from my family too at the large gatherings we have.
I've been bullied by so-called friends too, and I still can't even talk to them for a few minutes without having those feelings coming back. For ages I struggled to make friends and fit in, and then I eventually just turned against people. Now I'm just friends with people as weird as me.

Absolutely agree that being on the autism spectrum has nothing to do with capacity for/tendency towards violence, and that there are way too many articles, blogs etc circulating which seem to be taking for granted or suggesting that there is despite there being no evidence for such a link.

It appears that Adam was prone to "violent"/disruptive/uncontrollable outbursts or meltdowns from an early age or at least early adolescence, and which led to his mother removing him from school/homeschooling for periods. Was he put on drugs to control/suppress them?

Personally I suspect medication and/or food-opioid induced/aggravated mental disturbance, ( he was very thin apparently often a sign of gluten-intolerance, or other chemical intolerance, and/or metabolic issues generally, vitamin or mineral deficiencies and consequently fragile/explosive mental states ), but unfortunately the image of the shy quiet oddly dressed loner with the page-boy haircut and monosyllabic speech/responses to questions, the briefcase he was so attached to, and his love of computer games is now once again associated with a tendency to kill.

*** I was wondering whether he may have been a member/poster here? And/or his mother too ( in Parenting? ) ? We'll probably never know unless someone has noticed background details in posts in the past which fit with their life.

Very very sad, anyway. This photo of Adam looks *so* like my own son, now 13, ( currently in school after years of homeschooling, and already painfully bored, loves playing and creating computer games, and his other behaviours sound very similar ... but he's *not* prone to violent meltdowns and isn't on medication ) ... that his father thought that it *was* him when I sprang it on him without saying who it was ...

http://s19.postimage.org/82ewdvvdv/hc_p ... 121215.jpg

Last edited by ouinon on 17 Dec 2012, 6:15 am, edited 1 time in total.

The truth? We will never know the truth.

There is no way we can possibly know what the shooter thought or felt. Thus, his motives will remain a mystery.

This theory has been going around but I got to say if it wasn't for my medication I would still be a very angry person with violent thoughts. Maybe it was a case of him not being medicated. We'll never know. Well, we may know when they release that information.

Medication can have some pretty severe side effects, but not always. Sometimes it actually alleviates the behaviour.

Any stickies are Alex's decision alone.

I don't know that anything will slow down the speculation, except the truth finally coming out, whatever that may be. Speculation and politicizing of events like this develop organically. It would be like trying to slow or stop a tsunami, but even tsunamis slow and eventually calm.

I have asked if the following thread might be stickied, but haven't heard yet.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt218321.html

I really wish that one would take off more so than the others. IMHO it would make a very positive statement about us all as WP members, and the AS community as a whole, no matter what the truth turns out to be.

That thread is a great idea!

I haven't posted there 'cuz everything I can think of reads like a sappy Hallmark card, and those people deserve way more than that.

I agree. I'm usually not much of one for "Hallmark" like sentiments, as they seem kind of sappy to me usually. But that's the whole point. It's not for me. It's for them. And right now, even what might seem to me to be sappy under normal circumstances, may be just what they need to read and hear.

It's not about us.

It's about them.

Point taken ... I'll think of something ... thanx!