NOT GOOD, Connecticut shooter was diagnosed with Aspergers..

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This is Rudy Simone, author of "Aspergirls", who apparently has Asperger's:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwjNcYemGV0

If this doesn't prove my point...I can't imagine what would.

PS) This shooter, by all accounts, seems FAR more autistic than Rudy Simone!

It could simply be like in my case:

My primary school photos show me smiling. My high school ones don't (no expression and the usual "flat affect"). Pretty much the exact same way as Adam's. The reason being the utter depressing environment it was for someone who is left behind socially and the constant confusion and frustrations that went with that (in addition to the chaotic environment too; primary school was nice and structured).

I was just as "autistic" when younger as older too.

Dillogic, I would agree if he had stayed in school for a while but he was "homeschooled" after leaving public school and that could be a polite way of saying he spent some time someplace therapeutic for children with emotional disturbances. To me he looks like he had been given psychotropics of some kind although this cannot be confirmed. It's just what I gather from looking at the progression of his photos. There are some recent photos of him floating around the net where he does look like he is doing better though which makes you wonder if his mother thought he was improving at some point?

It did take me a while to lose my flat and angry appearance ("angry appearance" is what my mother called it; she saw my lack of emotional affect as that) after leaving high school early -- it took a few years living out in the country and away from that environment to remove this. I'm on anti-psychotics now (started more than a decade after leaving high school), and I'll smile and be jolly all the same like I was as a child (still because I'm away from the hell of high school).

It very well might not be this though; it's just possible to appear happy at one stage and utterly devoid of emotion in another, such as in my case, and without medication being involved. The underlying neurology can be the same in other words, just the environment that changes how it appears.

Antipsychotics do help people but I think for some with autism, they can make it worse. I know for a fact most drugs make me feel worse, no matter what they are. They have weird effects on me. Only drug that never does are the opiates and those work wonders which is why I avoid them like the plague. If there was such an opiate like drug that gave me the benefits without any negative affects or dependency issues, I think it would really help me but I know of no such drugs. If drugs can help you, great, but they might not always be the answer and in some, might make things worse.

We can all agree that the last thing aspies in school need is something that labels them as a potential threat. I think a dose of reality is called for here.

"Good" and "Evil" are invalid adjectives when it comes to describing AS. Having Asperger's Syndrome does not mean that you will automatically behave like a saint anymore than it would mean you would behave like a murderer. It makes you see the world differently from others, not whether or not you have a conscience.

School can be hell for an aspie. (I distinctly remember breaking down and sobbing within earshot of what seemed like the whole world on numerous occasions from the frustration and despair I felt.) It's the kind of hell where you consider options you would normally never consider. As the biggest kid in my age group and a martial artist who studied all things martial as only an aspie can, I had many such options open to me. When I considered them, I shuddered at the mental image of the damage I could've done. At that age I was all too familiar with the concepts of pain and fear, and the idea of inflicting either one on someone else was repulsive. I stayed my hand. Better to suffer as a victim than dominate as a tyrant.

That was my choice. Asperger's Syndrome did not make that choice for me.

It is only natural for people to try to find something -- ANYthing -- that they can salvage from an atrocity auch as this. Everything having anything to do with the poor, sick man who did this will be put under the microscope, and people will speculate about what they missed that might have indicated that this was going to happen. If this man turns out to have been diagnosed with AS, it will be up to aspies like us to disprove the false assumption that Asperger's Syndrome predisposes one to violence.

So, fellow aspies, remember that you aren't alone, that there ARE people out there who understand, that anyone who fears you after this crime do not do so out of malice, and that no matter what anyone on the news or in a university says YOU are the master of your own life.

When all is said and done, the choices you make are yours alone. Choose wisely.

I'm sure that they did but perhaps they got him the wrong kind of help. A therapist can easily diagnose Asperger's without knowing squat about it. I had a few bad rows with a counselor and psychologist in college both of whom flat out lied to me about having any experience or knowledge about Asperger's.

Decent article in The Irish Times today.

Blaming Asperger's for Lanza's actions is damaging to other children. And it's wrong

Here's an abstract from a 2006 paper, "Autism spectrum disorder and psychopathy: shared cognitive underpinnings or double hit"

ABSTRACT
Background. We measured psychopathic traits in boys with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
selected for difficult and aggressive behaviour. We asked (i) whether psychopathic tendencies can be
measured in ASD independent of the severity of autistic behaviour; (ii) whether individuals with
ASD with callous–unemotional (CU) traits differ in their cognitive profile from those without such
traits; and (iii) how the cognitive data from this study compare with previous data of youngsters
with psychopathic tendencies.

Method. Twenty-eight ASD boys were rated on psychopathic tendencies, autistic traits and a range
of cognitive measures assessing mentalizing ability, executive functions, emotion recognition and
ability to make moral–conventional distinction.

Results. Our results indicate that psychopathic tendencies are not related to severity of ASD. In
addition, such tendencies do not seem to be related to core autistic cognitive deficits, specifically in
‘mind-reading’ or executive function. Boys with co-occurring ASD and CU tendencies share some
behaviours and aspects of cognitive profile with boys who have psychopathic tendencies alone.

Conclusions. Callous/psychopathic acts in a small number of individuals with ASD probably reflect
a ‘double hit’ involving an additional impairment of empathic response to distress cues, which is
not part and parcel of ASD itself.

This will set up a bad example for aspies and autistics everywhere and that I understand so well, but there's another situation related to this. Why the hell did the mother buy a gun for her son when she knew something was wrong with him? She must've set up the gun rack and gave him the keys, where he knew it was accessable. Assault rifles like the Bushmaster should be accessable to the police and the military, but never to civilians.

No increase in criminal convictions in Hans Asperger's original cohort.
Hippler K, Viding E, Klicpera C, Happé F.
Source
Department of Clinical and Applied Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Abstract
Hans Asperger originally used the term "autistic psychopathy" to describe his patients on the autism spectrum, leading to a possible confusion with psychopathic disorder and delinquent behaviour. We conducted a penal register search for 177 former patients of Asperger's clinic with a childhood diagnosis of "autistic psychopathy" or features of the disorder in Austria. The mean percentage of registered convictions was similar to that in the general male population of Austria over the studied time period. A qualitative assessment of offence types in Asperger's former patients suggests that the nature of offences does not differ from that in the general population. In this original cohort of Asperger's patients, convictions were no more common than in the general male population.

Now Asperger's seems to be becoming another name for "Baby Killer". My Social Worker at the VA has this disorder documented all over my medical record. This wouldn't be so bad except that this past May I was in a car accident and I had to bring those tainted medical records' to my lawyer. He now has them and I am hoping this current label does not have a negative effect on my case. I wish to be treated like anyone else and my back hurts just as badly as it would had it happened to an NT.

PS: During all my 13 years of military service I never killed a baby or anyone else for that matter.

I think there are kids with antisocial personality disorder being misdiagnosed with Asperger's. >.< Misdiagnosis happens all the time. Clearly, if a kid is being treated for something he doesn't have, or if there is a co-morbid disorder which hasn't been addressed, there are going to be MAJOR problems and not a lot of progress.

Thank you, MikeW999. We need to focus on the direction we want to go in. I've heard that if you're a race car driver and you focus on a wall you don't want to crash into that that's exactly what will happen. Focus on our continued success and support for each other and we will get there.

Why do people always describe sociopaths when asked about Autistics? I am seriosly considering wearing "Autistic and proud" T-shirts to school just to prove that I'm not about to hide my disability because of this news, It should stir up quite a bit of contreversy. So what if the shooter had Autism, we can prove that the steryotypes about us are wrong, we can't let the last few years worth of progress crumble because of this one man's mistake

Right now I would say keep the whole being an Aspie thing quiet from NT friends' who do not know you are an Aspie. Fortunately, from the outside we look normal and don't have a stereotypical look and features'. I would guess being a blatant Aspie and sharing it with the world would not make us popular. It would be more akin to a Arab/Muslim making a high profile scene on or shortly after 9/11/01. Remember the Muslim Cleric who wanted to build that Mosque near Ground Zero? That sure angered many people. One of my friend's said that would be a "Victory Mosque" and should not be allowed. As in our cases' we are on thin ice. Please no "Proud to Be Autistic" t-shirts' cause that could simply be asking for some trouble. As is I am hoping my lawyer does not hate me for being an Aspie and did not lose any family in that unfortunate carnage in Newtown.