When The Darker Side of Autism Rears Its Head

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This is a hyperlink to an article in Salon Magazine

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/0 ... index.html

I read that awhile ago. I was just thinking about it this morning. I'm was getting a bit nervous about taking meds and then remembered a news report on ADHD meds and then remembered this article.

I have always wanted to see a news headline something a little more similar to this:

"White, middle aged, middle class, neurotypical, heterosexual male's secret violent side rears its head again".

I mean, that would be statistically one the most accurate headlines a journalist could create.

An intriguing article, and I felt sympathy for the woman, but the conjectures of a relationship between autism and violence doesn't pass the litmus test and I rarely, if ever, see this "mysterious" representation of autism, let alone anything positive.

That's why I have to keep coming here. If stories like that were most of what I read about autism, I would be marinating in crippling fear for my daughter. It is a horrifying story. But people here post enough alternative narratives of their own lives to keep that fear at bay. So I have to keep coming here to read that althougfh my daughter might follow in this man's tragic footsteps (God I hope not!!), she might also be more like Glider18 or Maggiedoll or Age1600 or any of the people here who haven't gone down that path. Nobody knows what the future brings. I sure hope my daughter winds up like Maggiedoll (for example) and not like the man in this story. But there is nothing I can do to predict the future or ensure she winds up like posters here rather than like him...or like Sky also cited in the article.

I know someone who is in prison for murder, he will never get out...he is NT not autistic. He's had two different roommates who murdered their moms, one was sentenced to a hospital, he has a history of "Cluster" headaches so severe that he blacks out and becomes violent. The other roommate used that defense to but he was found guilty and is serving life in prison, he is also NT. I think people can be dangerous regardless of NT or AS. I guess with AS the impulse control just isn't there????? I don't know, there has to be answers because we have to do something.

Keep Reading - The same woman has another article linked at the bottom of the first, describing how she discovered that it wasn't the Autism that made her son violent - it was the Meds.



Psyche Meds Drove My Son Crazy

How about this video, depicting the darker side of heterosexual suburban love?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apwjgE0n ... 4665500.28

(Oh, this is a spoof story, in case anyone takes it seriously... it's taking the micky out of just such sensationalist nonsense as above.)

OH MY GOD!! !! !!

I went back and read that. Abilify. Effing Abilify!! !! My daughter's doctor wanted to put her on that. I googled until my eyes were sore and got really nervous at what I found and said no. Apparently, the best "no" I've ever said. Talk about dodging a bullet. OH MY GOD!! ! Effing psychiatrists.

when someone off the spectrum becomes violent, no one tries to make a link between "neuro-typicality" and violence. it's kind of ridiculous, this whole thing. instead, they would be looking for answers elsewhere--environment, history, what have you. i don't see why it should be different in this case. it could be meds. it could be that plus being put in a series of group homes. it could be anything. why is the link immediately made between "autism and violence" just because this person happened to be both?

Abilify almost never makes anyone violent. It usually turns them into zombies. (Abilify's a neuroleptic, and neuroleptics universally have that particular side-effect first on the list.) You have to remember, with psych meds, that they affect everyone differently. One person having a rare side effect doesn't mean that everyone will. For that matter, there's no guarantee you'll get even the most common side effect.

Neuroleptics like Abilify don't make very much sense for autistic people, for the most part. They are designed for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, and should be used for those, and possibly as emergency tranquilizers. Used long-term, they may improve behavior... at the cost of stunting the ability to learn. Maybe that's a boon for the teachers who have to "handle" the kid, but it's no good for the kid.

I do know some autistics get good results from neuroleptics; but I think they are in the minority--there are a whole lot more who are either uselessly taking pills and enduring side effects, or even being harmed. Probably because neuroleptics weren't designed for autism, don't have any known mechanism that would logically help autistic people, and aren't approved for autism, with the sole exception of Risperdal, which has been approved as basically a tranquilizer for people with extreme meltdowns.

Nice catch, W.


M.

I have said for many years now, that anytime you hear of a mass shooting in a public place, a seemingly random act of rage, watch the articles for the week following and every single time - without exception - you will eventually read that the shooter had been taking antidepressants and/or antipsychotics for six months to two years (or more) before the incident and had only recently gone off their meds. I may get depressed enough to do myself in, but I'll never take that Pharmaceutical Frankenstein stuff. I don't care how much good it does for some people, its a chemical game of Russian Roulette.

Last edited by Willard on 06 Feb 2010, 7:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Nice read I found it a bit to dramatic though, I know I know sad story but some things written were just to Hollywood even if they were true. When I started out reading her choice of words and comparison were just to fairytale and degrading in description.

Yes, just because he does those things he will feel much much better.
One thing I don't understand is that they alway bury individuals with these complications in distractions.
They don't need to excel in a field or surpass someones expectations to come forth as healthy and well.
They alway get sent to doctors and psychiatrists to uncover burdens and hardship that has been lying hidden till they finally explode in your face and then they wonder why it's happening. How could this be? He was doing so well! He didn't show any sign of discomfort nor complications around others and daily life. Maybe, just maybe he was enduring...? Maybe just maybe he was boiling slowly inside because this life as so many view as comforting and normal in society wasn't what he perceived as natural. And maybe he was just simply not understood by those who he thought should understand and accept him for who he is and how he acts.
No, let's throw an avalanche of academia, musical interest and hobbies his way and the little f****r will find his place in the world, a world that already is so alien to him.



*scene*
*roll credits*

Mhm, she's a real live superhero, as I finished this last bit I saw her entering a phone booth and reveal a costume underneath as she unbuttoned her blouse with an Obama pin on it.
As some have said already. Both NT and Autistic people are capable of bad deeds, why they give us such an angle status is just degrading since that makes come of as soft and defenseless when we damn well are capable of the same things, we're not afraid of the world it self we're mostly afraid of the interaction with others and the way we are meat by ignorance. The same ignorance that is displayed in this story.
She is stating and appearing as a pioneer in the revealing of the truth about these things and happenings but all she does is give us the facts about what went down and how people reacted during these hard times.
She doesn't give us a single insight in how her son was as a person or why he would do and become the way he did, no depth into the real issue just a sob story of a depiction of his and the families problems.
In there lies the real truth and solution, to understand and listen to a person that is hurting and not only understand that the person feels these things but also find out what has caused them, that's truth to me, a fact and a solution to a problem by using what you had found out.
Maybe my view on truth is a bit warped. But I don't see this rant about what has happened to be any kind of truth, to me it is a mere fact of something that can occur for both NT and Autistic individuals, well people in general.
A truth would be a usable fact or a lead that can solve or lead to an understanding to why this has happened.

If truth is to notify an imbecile population about a sad occurrence that can happen to any man instead of understanding the real truth and cause to why a person with autistic nature feels this way and converts that into anger then I am truly sorry I spoke (wrote).

Their own damn fault for viewing us as innocent angels then get surprised when we shred s**t to pieces, that should teach them that we're just the same amount of human being but just running parallel to their way of life.


Yeah, he's a real beast... or just really pissed of because mommy dedicates more time towards Obama trivia then understanding her own son.
But as long as he rocks algebra, follows Spanish soaps on TV, jams the cello and battles chess tournaments he's fine... right?

Let's all dip our feet in to the ocean and enjoy the shimmering surface but let's be surprised when nature in form of a shark thrusts up at you from below and f**k you up for disturbing his domain and all the s**t you throw in to it.

I would want an actual scientific study done here. Why? Well, because if the person wasn't taking meds, it won't be thought to be significant, and nobody will mention that they weren't taking them; whereas, if they were, it'll be strongly emphasized. So you notice things because they mention them. It would be easy to get a false impression of medication causing violence from the media, even if there weren't any cause and effect relationship at all.

You'd want to table up all the situations from the last few years where someone attempted to shoot strangers, and sort them by whether or not the person was taking medication. You'd want to compare that to the general criminal population, and the general non-criminal population, and the population of people taking psychiatric medication.

The thing is, psych meds are very commonly used; and psychiatric illness is also very common. Mental illness is more common among the population of criminals (though mentally ill people in general are not more likely to be violent).

With all of that being common, there should be, by pure chance, some mass murderers who were on psychiatric medication, or had just stopped taking it at the time they committed their murders. But how would you tell correlation from coincidence if you didn't actually do the statistics?

There is, of course, no excuse for violence. While this guy may (or may not) have been autistic, he clearly had some other mental illness that wasn't diagnosed. Perhaps he is a genuine sociopath in addition to whatever else was wrong with him.

The best thing to do when in any dangerous situation is to leave and get to someone you trust.

Damn straight. I have never been on meds, I tried some Xanor some months ago for a month because my psychiatrist thought I could try them. I told her a rather smoke some weed an mellow out, but she said that wasn't a solution, instead she urged me to try some funny little white ones, and when i stopped and got of them I coulden't recognize myself. I rather suffer or find a way to feel better then eat addicting meds that make me go bananas as soon as I'm off them after getting used to them.

No thank you.