Looking from within the school

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I was diagnosed with aspergers however I work within an elementary school as the school tech and have done so for the last 10 years.


A note on Empathy

People confuse empathy and sympathy. Aspies may not RECOGNIZE emotions in other people but that does not prevent aspies
from feeling compassion for someone who is hurting if they know someone is hurting. Not recognizing emotions in other people
is not the same as not caring about the emotions of other people. Part of a higher functioning aspies anxiety is the feeling of walking on eggshells
for fearing of offending someone unintentionally. Being on medication is not a sign of weakness its a sign of proactive management of
your issues.

A note on jealousy

The idea that a child of a teacher could be jealous of the attention that his mother gives the other kids is a feeling I have shared.

My mother was a principal and for a long time I felt resentment that she spent more time with her kids at school and more time on their problems than
she spent with me and my problems. This a completely normal feeling that many children of teachers feel. Its how you deal with it that makes the difference.

For all the people screaming "hes an aspie". You dont get committed to a mental hospital for aspergers. People with aspergers can have other issues.

The most important point

CORRELATION IS NOT CAUSATION

Aspergers did not make Adam Lanza kill his mom , the adults and the children. It didnt even make him more likely to kill those people. It
did make him standout. It did cause him problems relating to others. Whether these aggravated his other issues is stuff people will study for years
to come.

Its time to take a deep breath and not accept what "experts" say at face value but know the research actually says.

Well said.

Dear Voss749,
Excellently phrased, well thought out, and, as you said, compassionate.

Thank you.

Sylkat

Voss749: That is succinct. So true about the anxiety. Thank you for posting it.

I have to read more about this when I get the chance.

It seems that everyone gets diagnosed with some neurological/psychological disorder or another these days, so it is hard to tell whether or not he actually had a.s.d. His facial expression in his photos betray complete disconnection, yet this could be the result of psychological disturbances. Even if he did have asperger's, which possibly exacerbated whatever other disorders he had, he is still responsible for what he did, plenty of us have no intention whatsoever of inflicting violence on others, and plenty of people with no neurological or psychiatric disorders have created misery (just remember similar incidents this year and the general condition of this world).

Either way, our first thoughts should be about the people that were massacred, including six year old victims who had their entire life ahead of them.

It's frustrating though that many people are still convinced of the idea that Asperger's = lack of empathy and may have this sort of thinking for a very long time. Think about the way we treated anyone who was Muslim, or let alone, looked remotely Arab after 9/11.

People never learn from this kind of thinking/labeling. They only want to place an evil mark on anything that they have no concept or understanding of.

Different -- not less.

ruveyn