Adam Lanza "in complete denial of his disease"

[MonolithImmortal]

Well, the FBI has released their Sandy Hook files. MSN news provided me this story right here to tell me about it and boy is it filled with some rancidly awful mischaracterizations of ASD.

Basically Lanza did what he did because he was autistic. Case closed.

I'll quote the article here to deny it traffic and ad revenue. Read the comments at newstimes at your own risk.

FBI releases Sandy Hook files

"Adam Lanza was in “complete denial of his disease” and never took his medication, according to a document released Tuesday by the FBI about the 20-year-old shooter in the Sandy Hook massacre.

Lanza, who had Asperger's syndrome, had become so withdrawn in late 2012 that he had not left his Newtown home in three months, and his mother was concerned about him, said the document, which was released along with 1,500 pages related to the FBI’s investigation of the worst crime in Connecticut history.
On Dec. 14, 2012, Lanza killed his mother, took her AR-15-style rifle from an unlocked closet, shot out the entrance windows of Sandy Hook School, and killed 20 first-graders and six educators.


“Two law enforcement officials arrived during the shooting, at which time the suspect ducked into a classroom and shot himself,” another FBI document reads.


Many of the documents released Tuesday had sections blocked out to conceal identities. The documents range from evidence logs and subpoenas to transcripts of interviews that were conducted in Lanza’s neighborhood.

One neighbor told the FBI a story the shooter’s mother Nancy Lanza shared that “Adam had hacked into a government computer system.”

“Adam had made it through the second level of security and when he tried to breach the third level, the screen went black and the authorities showed up at the Lanza’s door,” the FBI document reads. “Nancy had to convince the authorities that about her son was just very intelligent ... The authorities told Nancy that if her son was that smart he could have a job with them someday.”


ORIGINAL REPORT

Officials with the FBI have released more than 1,500 pages of documents related to their investigation into the Sandy Hook shooting that took the lives of 20 first-grade students and six educators at the school.

The FBI released the information Tuesday morning in three separate files, each containing more than 500 pages of information that was largely redacted of names and addresses of those interviewed by FBI agents shortly after the shooting on Dec. 14, 2012.

A preliminary search of some of the documents reveal that Adam Lanza, the shooter, was a vegan who was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome - a condition that is now considered part of the Autism Spectrum.

Nancy Lanza, his mother who was also killed, also volunteered regularly at the schools and at a local women’s shelter, the documents state. Those interested in looking at the files can check them out here. "


[email protected]

 

[Keigan]

I read a few articles earlier today, not good at all.

 

[MonolithImmortal]

A report by the Connecticut child advocate in 2014 concluded that Lanza’s autism spectrum disorder and other psychiatric problems did not cause or lead directly to the massacre

Then why keep bringing it up? Ugh I don't understand these journalists. If you're going to tell us that it's not pertinent why the hell would you bother to tell us unless you're trying to wink and nudge that it really is relevant?

 

[kay]

 

[oregano]

A few months ago I found a now out of print book in a thrift store. Newtown, An American Tragedy by Matthew Lysiak. Lysiak interviewed practically anybody he could get to talk. He noted that Peter and Ryan Lanza refused to be interviewed, but that the vast majority of people he approached talked.

Lysiak's book paints a portrait of a severely mentally ill Adam, one who was obsessed with murder and death from a surprisingly young age, and how Nancy tried again and again to get him help and NOBODY at all would listen. Most of them just blew it off, oh he's a little weird, he'll grow out of it, seemed to be the consensus of anybody who Nancy approached.

Nancy clung to the few people who showed an interest in helping Adam, such as the technology teacher at Newtown High, and when he left she pretty much gave up on Adam. She tried to get him to attend a local college, but he quickly dropped out. He spent the last THREE YEARS of his life playing extremely violent video games such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and doing research on serial killers. He corrected tiny details on the wikipedia pages of killers, at one point taking offense when a 9mm pistol was described as a ".9mm".

Starting in the spring of 2010 Adam ceased to post on wikipedia and online discussion forums. ALL he did was play shooter video games, so far as anybody knows. He barely ate or slept. He basically moved between his basement dungeon and his upstairs bedroom so that he could sleep. By then Nancy decided he was a lost cause and decided to globetrot and enjoy herself-without him-and left him TV dinners for food, which he barely touched.

Nancy had once been her son's biggest advocate, but by 2010 she gave up on him. The brick wall won. Then Adam killed her and drove to Newtown High, but there was a cop in a marked cop car parked in the lot, so he drove to Sandy Hook Elementary as plan B. It reminds me of that old Johnny Cash song Mama Tried, where the boy turns into a crook despite mama's efforts.

 

[oregano]

As of this writing, the News Times comment section doesn't seem so bad. A lot of posts from the handle "animalsandmonsters" jabbering about the spiritual meaning of Newtown and the shooting being orchestrated by some sort of supernatural devil-type figure. I suppose the "KILL ALL AUTISTICS AND CRAZIES AND BAN GUNS!" weirdos haven't gotten the opportunity to climb out of their caves yet.

 

[Riley]

Huh? I always thought Lanza committed the murders because he was a huge fan of Batman Returns and decided to kill all the firstborns in Sandy Hook.

 

[Ming of Mongo]

People just like to hear about serial killers and mass shootings. They like details. It doesn't matter much if it's true or relevant. News is an entertainment medium.

 

[Ragnahawk]

Hyper focused on death. I read something about this in a book. When we lose interests, see how bad the world etc. It was somewhere in the complete guide to aspergers syndrome.

 

[Ragnahawk]

Exactly!!! It's like most journalism; they tie something to something else regardless the facts or truth and it become news. It's "sexy" and sensationalistic, so that's what sells. In the mean time, the rest of us have to struggle to keep our disorder hidden lest we get labeled and painted with the same brush as Adam Lanza.

Journalism has some messed up parts to it yes. That doesn't mean we can't become obsessed with death. Besides the news is biased. Anybody who believes everything on the news is a simpleton that's easily manipulated.

 

[kay]

Seems like the media would get more creative and blame his veganism. You know that sorta eating habit will make you a killer everytime.( Just joking, I have no problem with vegans.)

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

Seems like the media would get more creative and blame his veganism. You know that sorta eating habit will make you a killer everytime.( Just joking, I have no problem with vegans.)

Man,that guy obviously needed some hams.

 

[MonolithImmortal]

A few months ago I found a now out of print book in a thrift store. Newtown, An American Tragedy by Matthew Lysiak. Lysiak interviewed practically anybody he could get to talk. He noted that Peter and Ryan Lanza refused to be interviewed, but that the vast majority of people he approached talked.

Lysiak's book paints a portrait of a severely mentally ill Adam, one who was obsessed with murder and death from a surprisingly young age, and how Nancy tried again and again to get him help and NOBODY at all would listen. Most of them just blew it off, oh he's a little weird, he'll grow out of it, seemed to be the consensus of anybody who Nancy approached.

Nancy clung to the few people who showed an interest in helping Adam, such as the technology teacher at Newtown High, and when he left she pretty much gave up on Adam. She tried to get him to attend a local college, but he quickly dropped out. He spent the last THREE YEARS of his life playing extremely violent video games such as Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and doing research on serial killers. He corrected tiny details on the wikipedia pages of killers, at one point taking offense when a 9mm pistol was described as a ".9mm".

Starting in the spring of 2010 Adam ceased to post on wikipedia and online discussion forums. ALL he did was play shooter video games, so far as anybody knows. He barely ate or slept. He basically moved between his basement dungeon and his upstairs bedroom so that he could sleep. By then Nancy decided he was a lost cause and decided to globetrot and enjoy herself-without him-and left him TV dinners for food, which he barely touched.

Nancy had once been her son's biggest advocate, but by 2010 she gave up on him. The brick wall won. Then Adam killed her and drove to Newtown High, but there was a cop in a marked cop car parked in the lot, so he drove to Sandy Hook Elementary as plan B. It reminds me of that old Johnny Cash song Mama Tried, where the boy turns into a crook despite mama's efforts.

Serious question. Why, oh why, if you child was this obsessed with death, violence, killing, and weapons, leave him in a house with unsecured assault weapons? Even if they never become a killer, feelings of not belonging, not being afraid of death, and feeling like a burden are some of the biggest triggers of suicide, and having easy access to firearms almost guarantees that a suicide attempt will be successful.

What really grinds my gears about stuff like this is that people who read this will, even if not consciously, remember the association between autism and Lanza, and the next time they meet one of us they'll have an unconscious bias that leads them to believe that we couldn't possibly be good parents, friends, spouses, co-workers, etc because, in the back of their mind, they think we're like Adam Lanza. There doesn't have to be any conscious discrimination going on, just a subtle implicit bias that leads to ableist discrimination.

When I was in highschool (private Christian school) I was expelled because my parents refused to have me profiled by a forensic psychologist. The administration worried that I was dangerous or something, probably due to me complaining about sensory sensitivities that I didn't understand (telling them that sometimes I just want to scream and flip over a desk and leave a room, etc). I'd never been aggressive, violent or even mean to anyone. I didn't have any macabre interests, except maybe that I liked melodic death metal. I didn't know I was autistic, and neither did they, but they decided that I was different, that different was bad, and that I need to be profiled by someone who's job had previously been with the FBI profiling killers.

With rising awareness of autism, and articles like this, I fear my experience will on become more, not less, common.

 

[Ragnahawk]

Serious question. Why, oh why, if you child was this obsessed with death, violence, killing, and weapons, leave him in a house with unsecured assault weapons? Even if they never become a killer, feelings of not belonging, not being afraid of death, and feeling like a burden are some of the biggest triggers of suicide, and having easy access to firearms almost guarantees that a suicide attempt will be successful.

What really grinds my gears about stuff like this is that people who read this will, even if not consciously, remember the association between autism and Lanza, and the next time they meet one of us they'll have an unconscious bias that leads them to believe that we couldn't possibly be good parents, friends, spouses, co-workers, etc because, in the back of their mind, they think we're like Adam Lanza. There doesn't have to be any conscious discrimination going on, just a subtle implicit bias that leads to ableist discrimination.

When I was in highschool (private Christian school) I was expelled because my parents refused to have me profiled by a forensic psychologist. The administration worried that I was dangerous or something, probably due to me complaining about sensory sensitivities that I didn't understand (telling them that sometimes I just want to scream and flip over a desk and leave a room, etc). I'd never been aggressive, violent or even mean to anyone. I didn't have any macabre interests, except maybe that I liked melodic death metal. I didn't know I was autistic, and neither did they, but they decided that I was different, that different was bad, and that I need to be profiled by someone who's job had previously been with the FBI profiling killers.

With rising awareness of autism, and articles like this, I fear my experience will on become more, not less, common.

Your missing the point. We are like Adam Lanza. Any kid down the lane without autism, put in particular circumstances has the potential to be a serial murderer. Adam Lanza could be right here with us, but due to circumstances and choices he went out to shoot up all of the people he blamed. All the people who had let him down.

 

[kay]

Man,that guy obviously needed some hams.

 

[Riley]

Huh? I always thought Lanza committed the murders because he was a huge fan of Batman Returns and decided to kill all the firstborns in Sandy Hook.

Really? No one's calling me out on this?

 

[Riley]

Also, off-topic rant:

• The Sandy Hook "truthers" should all take a long walk off a short cliff. Newsflash, you paranoid degenerates: Even if it was a "false flag operation," what in the name of Queen Sindel makes you think the victims' parents wanted the government to kill their children?! From what we saw with Tuskegee and the Gulf Of Tonkin, they wouldn't exactly try to get consent for their underhanded schemes.
• Also: Alan Heckerd. Take yer "crisis actor" theories and shove it.

 

[MonolithImmortal]

Your missing the point. We are like Adam Lanza. Any kid down the lane without autism, put in particular circumstances has the potential to be a serial murderer. Adam Lanza could be right here with us, but due to circumstances and choices he went out to shoot up all of the people he blamed. All the people who had let him down.

I get what you are saying, and I agree in that regard. We are like Lanaza in that we share the same neurotype.

What I mean when people will think we are like Lanza is that because we are autistic, we therefore are murderbombs waiting to go off. People already think that we are cold, emotionless, empathy-less, self absorbed robots. I really don't want to have people wonder when I'm going to go on a murder spree too.

We like specificity and accuracy. We are geared towards a logical and emotionally detached understanding of things. We can see that, yes, Lanza was autistic, and in that regard we are like him. Most NT's on the other hand like vague generalities driven by emotional responses geared towards preserving social identity. Autism/asperger's becomes a scapegoat for them to not have to reflect on their own complicity in societal trends that lead to mass shootings. Their social identity doesn't have to be threatened if they can just say that Adam Lanza had a "disease", which oh by the way so do those other weird people who they don't understand. Maybe "those" people need fewer rights for their own good.

 

[Mia]

There are many things about Lanza left unsaid. His parents split in a divorce, which must have had some psychological ramifications for him. His Mother volunteered at a women's shelter, which would lead me to think that she had some understanding of what it might be to experience such things. I ask myself why she volunteered at that particular place? She also seemed to have brought six weapons into the home after her divorce. Gun clubs nearby have indicated that she and her son came to shoot a few times only. That they were not regular target shooters. So it wasn't a hobby, it was related to something else, personal protection or paranoia on the part of the mother.

Several psychologists have diagnosed Lanza as schizophrenic (after the fact) which may have been co-morbid with his autism, he may have even been misdiagnosed with autism, and been schizophrenic. He received no treatment for schizophrenia but by the time of the shooting had stopped taking other meds for another condition. His Mother home-schooled him for a time, as he had difficulties at school. I'm beginning to think that the dynamic between the mother and child, both of whom could be described as paranoid is something we will never know much about. One thing is certain though, Lanza had a lot of rage toward her, as he shot her in the face.

 

[Mathalamus]

i just ignore the bit where a crime happens because the paper claimed he or she is autistic. ill say this:

autism may be a Factor in doing evil things, but it is never the sole cause. to be willing to kill other people, without remorse, there had to be other things wrong, not belonging to the autism spectrum. maybe you cannot tell the difference between games and reality. maybe there was some deep seated powerful anger or resentment, or other things.

just being autistic isn't a valid cause for this.

of course, people do not care about such things as "valid causes", so, there is little to do. some posters are right: they do need to sell the stories, and wont care who gets harmed directly or indirectly in the process.