What's the chance that Adam Lanza was autistic?
Well it's true, but nevertheless autism is related to every other psychiatric illness and even to a whole bunch of other illnesses, so that doesn't say that much. The correlation to have both is not that high and not everyone who kills ppl is automatically a psychopath.
_________________
"I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown." - Woody Allen
Well it's true, but nevertheless autism is related to every other psychiatric illness and even to a whole bunch of other illnesses, so that doesn't say that much. The correlation to have both is not that high and not everyone who kills ppl is automatically a psychopath.
Obsessive Personality Disorder, and schizoid personality disorders are commonly seen in studies of personality disorders and Asperger's syndrome, but anti-social personality disorder or associated disorders such as narcissistic personality disorder are rarely seen in individuals actually diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. Anti-social personality disorder has been associated in a few cases of PDDNOS, and in the limited research that has been done with Autistic Disorder and Personality Disorders there is little association of any co-morbid personality disorder.
Difficulties with Theory of Mind and Empathy is common in others disorders such as ADHD, developmental language disorders, Schizophrenia, and right brain disorders.
Some associate Anti-Social Personality Disorder with Autism because of the word empathy, but interestingly enough the word empathy currently is not even listed specifically as a word in the DSMIV-TR diagnostic criteria for Anti-Social Personality Disorder. Aspects of a lack of pro social emotions associated with empathy such as remorse and a lack of regard for the safety of others is listed, but a lack of empathy is actually listed as a criteria trait for Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissocial_ ... #DSM-IV-TR
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissist ... -TR_301.81
http://www.gnc.gu.se/digitalAssets/1349 ... utism-.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2705351/
http://www.gnc.gu.se/digitalAssets/1349 ... utism-.pdf
Adam was definitely evil, whether through a conscious or subconscious decision based on his final moments here (whether predetermined to do what he did or not based on all events leading up to it). No religious mumbo, just that "evil" can explain his final actions just as whatever mental disorder he had prior to that can explain his "odd" social behavior.
There is "evil" (and by extension evil people). Some may call it anti-social or narcissistic PD (looking at you, Cohen), whilst others may call it murder; it's still evil in the end.
No jumbo, it's just that there's bad and good in the world. Sometimes only a few are bad, sometimes the majority.
Is good and bad in everyone? Probably to some extent when pushed in the right direction (yep, that lovely "empathy" thingy people like to think is a pillar of righteousness -- nope), but there's people who're often just one or the other for most of their behavior.
Here a study: Distinct cortical correlates of autistic versus antisocial traits in a longitudinal sample of typically developing youth.
_________________
"I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown." - Woody Allen
If you look at the Columbine shooting, several people gave false information to reporters, and there's no truly logical or rational reason why some of them did so. At this point, I'm still going to hold out on believing this until I see someone who actually diagnosed Lanza say so. This seems unlikely.
Boulevard press. I avoid it for a reason. I'm not going to pay for something that says trivial stuff like "celebrity X is now divorced with celebrity Y" or generalizes "all *insert type of people* are a possible danger to us!". The final nail in my personal boulevard press coffin was the statement "people who play "killergames" (<- idiotic term used for the shooter genre of games here in Germany) are most likely killers/mass murderers/public/school shooters".
I play them too but I never killed anybody.
So what?
I'm German, does that mean I'm a little Hitler/nazi who shoots everybody who admits he's jew?
No.
I'm most of my time at home and being busy with my obsession. Does that mean I am planning a rampage?
No.
According to media and stereotypes, I would always fit the stereotypes of a killer/mass murderer.
Here is an example. The example lists stereotypes I heard/read created by media concerning what makes you a mass murderer (warning: heavy usage of sarcasm):
- I am a human - Check.
- I am a withdrawn person and live my life mostly within my room - Check.
=> of course, this automatically means I am a sociopath, misanthrope, psychopath, etc. - Autocheck. - I am male - Check.
- I am white - Check.
- I have the hair colour of some other random mass murderer in history - Check.
- I have short/mid/long hair - Check.
- I think a lot - Check.
- I was bullied a lot for a long time - Check.
- I am single - Check.
- I have just a few friends - Check.
- I am ending my teenage years - Check.
=> of course, if I end my teenage years, I will fit into the other criteria: 20-something year old male white guy who was bullied - Autocheck1.
==> of course, this automatically means if I grow out of that group, I'll hit the 30-something year olds - Autocheck2.
===> I'm older than that? No problem - Autocheck3. - I am spending most of my time in front of the PC - Check.
- I am definitely not normal in behaviour (and am suspected to have AS and soon am working on a diagnosis) - Check (eventually double-check later).
- I have troubles socializing (in school) - Check.
=> of course, this automatically means I am considered a nerd/geek/failure/whatsoever - Autocheck. - I make checklists - Check.
- I believe in a god (which, of course, automatically means I'm some religious terrorist
) - Check.
- I play (first person) shooters/"killergames" - Check.
- I'm a German - Check.
=> of course, this automatically means I am a (neo-)nazi and thus overly violent - BIG AUTOCHECK. - I listen to *insert music genre here* - Check.
=> in case it's more than one (x), check x times - Autocheck*x. - I actually check my checklist - Check.
- I now think check as a word looks and is funny - Check.
If I had to believe media stereotypes concerning what makes you a mass murderer, I would have been dead since long (either by suicide or by police) and there would be no living people on this planet anymore (so in that case, most likely suicide).

The best you can do is probably ignore such statements and move on with your life. Time usually makes people forget that, the killergame statement was forgotten too by now. It just happened that now the trend is: Everybody who is in the slightest mentally/socially disabled (apparently even if you are additionally physically disabled and in a wheelchair) runs in danger of being seen as such a person. After the next incident it will be people who listen to heavy metal music again or some other dumb "stereotype" (you can't really call that, it has no long-livity as stereotypes do in my opinion).
Don't be silly, Heavy Metal doesn't make people kill each other, it only makes people kill themselves. It's Industrial Metal that makes people shoot up schools!

_________________
Cinnamon and sugary
Softly Spoken lies
You never know just how you look
Through other people's eyes
Autism FAQs http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt186115.html
nonneurotypical
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 9 Aug 2009
Age: 55
Gender: Male
Posts: 60
Location: From the US, but in the UK
This is one of the most interesting bits of speculation I've read about Adam Lanza:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/we-can-work-it-out/201212/was-adam-lanza-undiagnosed-schizophrenic
Has anyone come across anything about any outside resources being used by Nancy Lanza to help with Adam? Any support groups for parents of children with asperger's? Any therapists, care providers, counselors, or anything like that? I'm wondering if Nancy Lanza was living in denial and didn't want to acknowledge something more. I'm assuming it is probably much easier for a parent to tell people her child has a developmental disability than some other more stigmatizing diagnosis.
I hope the toxicology and police report shed some light on the situation. If I'm correct in guessing that there is more to Adam's known problems, I hope it will bring to the forefront the issue of people having a difficult time accepting and acknowledging behavior that is well outside of normal for fear of the stigma of mental illness. I am all in favor of de-stigmatizing mental illness so people will more readily acknowledge it in themselves and those close to them and seek help sooner (or at all).
nonneurotypical
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

Joined: 9 Aug 2009
Age: 55
Gender: Male
Posts: 60
Location: From the US, but in the UK
If they ever release the toxicology results at least we can know if he was intoxicated in one way or another.
This is one of the most interesting bits of speculation I've read about Adam Lanza:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/we-can-work-it-out/201212/was-adam-lanza-undiagnosed-schizophrenic
Has anyone come across anything about any outside resources being used by Nancy Lanza to help with Adam? Any support groups for parents of children with asperger's? Any therapists, care providers, counselors, or anything like that? I'm wondering if Nancy Lanza was living in denial and didn't want to acknowledge something more. I'm assuming it is probably much easier for a parent to tell people her child has a developmental disability than some other more stigmatizing diagnosis.
I hope the toxicology and police report shed some light on the situation. If I'm correct in guessing that there is more to Adam's known problems, I hope it will bring to the forefront the issue of people having a difficult time accepting and acknowledging behavior that is well outside of normal for fear of the stigma of mental illness. I am all in favor of de-stigmatizing mental illness so people will more readily acknowledge it in themselves and those close to them and seek help sooner (or at all).
We also know that mom took her mentally disturbed son to the shooting range. While we don’t know what went on behind closed doors, we have to wonder if Adam was raised in a paranoid, rage-filled environment. Was he abused and/or taught violence? When a mother keeps six assault rifles in the same house as a child who is mentally ill, she is all but giving that child a license to kill. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that Adam was beyond enraged to have shot his mother in the face. Clearly, school officials need to be more vigilant and intervene in reporting families in need of assistance. In retrospect, one now sees that the writing was on the wall that Adam was destined to fall. The question is why nobody heard the call?
There was some good information in that article, but the paragraphs quoted above, seem to be from someone that is distanced from gun culture in the US. Pretty good evidence too that the audience discussing articles in psychology today, are of the non-gun loving variety because it didn't turn out as a anti/pro-gun debate.
There is nothing mentioned to this point about Adam Lanza's mother that would suggest what the author suggests in this comment, but it is worth noting this article came only 6 days from the event where speculation was all over the place.
A PBS frontline special recently released a report that Lanza had Sensory Processing Disorder that was noted in an Individualized Education Plan, in elementary school, so it appears that he was at least getting support for that one issue for some period of time. I suspect there is more medical information available that hasn't been publicly released, including the toxicology report. If reports are true the mother was seeking inpatient crisis care for Lanza it doesn't seem to make sense that the guns were made easily available to him for his own safety, per a suicide risk. I suppose we will learn more about this in the future if a full investigative report is released to the public at some point in time, which I understand was going to take months. If the mother was seeking inpatient crisis support, there was obviously a clear indication that his problem was not going without notice, or an understanding of needed additional support. If so, it is unfortunate that did not happen.
Ichinin
Veteran

Joined: 3 Apr 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,653
Location: A cold place with lots of blondes.
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