Age of Autism Weekly Wrap Up: Congressional Autism Hearing
Dachel Media Update: Fox News' Siegel Implicates Asperger's

Age of Autism Responds to Newtown CT Autism Allegation in Media

WeepThe senseless shooting massacre that took the lives of dozens of innocent victims - most of them children - at Sandy Hook Elementary School of Newtown, Connecticut was a horrific and unprecedented tragedy. Age of Autism mourns the deaths of all innocent victims of this awful crime and offers its deepest condolences to their families. Additionally, we are deeply disturbed by the association of the perpetrator of this awful crime by various media outlets to a vulnerable community - the autism community - with rumors that he was on the autism spectrum. Regardless of whether or not the shooter truly is on the autism spectrum, we wish to make it clear that autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are in no way associated with criminal violence. More often than not, people with ASDs are the victims of such violence, not the people committing them.

As the Daily Web Newspaper of the Autism Epidemic, we fight every day to combat persistent misinformation about autism, particularly about its causes and natural history, as well as the denial of its causes. Today, we are fighting some of the most vile stigmas that can befall people with autism and disability in general, and we ask other newspapers - both online and print - as well as other media outlets in general to take a strong and public stand against such bigotry. The best way to honor the victims of this atrocity is for us as a society to work towards building a safer, healthier environment for all people - both those with and without ASDs - that is free of stigma and free of fear.

Comments

George Isaac

People, including mental health professionals are too quick to label any young person's mental health condition they can't figure out, as "Asperger's' "High functioning autism" and such. It is also a more acceptable diagnosis for many parents as the stigma is less with such a diagnosis than a diagnosis such as Bipolar Disorder or Schizophrenia. People with high functioning autism , Asperger's (whatever that may be) may have unusual interests and preoccupations but planned violence such as shooting innocent children is very unlikely to be one of them. Let us be open minded. Lanza was a tragic figure, but let's not run away with Asperger being his problem that explains his tragic actions. The issue needs more careful Info gathering and scruitiny.

Birgit Calhoun

Fanapt apparently interacts with 928 other drugs. Do we know what else the man took? What if Fanapt also interacts synergistically with mercury. Fanapt interacts with cocain. It also possibly interacts with ammoniated mercury / salicylic acid topical. I don't know what kind of symptoms are caused by this interaction. In any case, the theory should not be dismissed outright.

In any case it would be highly desirable if a person with an open mind checked out all the possibilities.

Bayareamom

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2249452/Nancy-Lanzas-chilling-instructions-babysitter-Never-turn-Adam.html

Granted, this article appeared in the DAILY MAIL, which is a total rag, BUT at TIMES, they do write up fairly good pieces on different issues. I've also found that most of what is contained within this DM article is stated in other mainstream articles as well, so there does appear to be some legitimacy as to the content.

My heart bleeds for what this kid must have gone through. To not be able to literally, physically FEEL ANYTHING must have been horrific for not only himself, but for those in his family. I just cannot imagine what this child's issues must have been like; as a Mom, it's so painful just to imagine.

This could have been MY son, if we hadn't learned through our research about vaccines at the time of our son's reactions. I still shudder to think about the Ritalin/medication issues we briefly went through, during our son's earlier years. We had our son on the lowest dosage of Ritalin possible for just three weeks, and then realized the medication was serving no useful purpose whatsoever. All these meds did for our son was cause him to stare straight ahead, like some sort of zombie. He lost his appetite, lost weight...it was awful. Then to find out years later that he simply had learning disorder issues and with proper tutoring, he overcame all of those issues and is today, just a great, normal young man. I just am so grateful that we didn't end up on this merry-go-round that I keep reading about with all these kids. It just absolutely breaks my heart.

No mention has been made in this article as to any sort of medication Adam may have been taking at the time of the shootings. Intuition tells me he most likely was taking something, or at the minimum, did in the past.

Anyway, I thought that perhaps by posting the link to this article (which I hope all of you read), will help to shed some light (and understanding) re: this sad, tragic story.

kerboblog

Clearly a case of more SSRI-induced violence.

There's no way to suggest this guy was Autistic. That's just an evil ploy by the large drug companies to cover up the fact that their products have had a causal role in another school shooting.

Jeannette Bishop

I agree the mainstream media is useless at best, except perhaps as they head towards a final narrative of events, indications of what some want the rest of us to think and do become fairly obvious. Why do they want us to see a threatening world due to "genius" young men out there "somewhere on the autism spectrum?" Of course, all while skirting any reporting of pharmaceutical involvement. But autism "has always been with us," even though these type of crimes have not.

If this is just an alibi for a more evil, calculated, cold-blooded type of crime, well I hope people start waking up to these false flags and stop being terrorized into accepting and even begging for protection from these people. It's worse than running to big pharma to fix our health problems.

Linda

Children are often exposed to drugs in utero, then coming down the birth canal, then within 12 hours of life injected with their first dose of toxins, that continues on schedule every few months for years. Within weeks, sometimes as little as 2-3 weeks, they are handed off to strangers in what we call day care to spend most of their waking hours, usually 5 days a week. Pharmaceutical feeding is substituted for the milk that enabled human evolution. When children fed pharmaceutically become ill because they are without the immune factors and nutrition in human milk, they are given antibiotics, often requiring repeated courses. At the age of 5, and sometimes before, compulsory institutionalization is begun that will last 12 years. If at any time children aren't able to cope with the demands, the schedule, the agenda, the testing, the toxins, the deprivation, the need to be free, they are shunned, ostracized, labeled as defective and drugged. At the end of the 12 years, before they are allowed to enter society, they are made to pay $100k to $200k or more, for more institutionalization. If they haven't been among the most successful test takers, and they aren't able to pay, they are saddled with crippling debt that will follow them far into adulthood. They often do not find employment once they have done what has been asked of them. When they become depressed, as a large percentage of college age students reportedly do today, they are offered drugs. Others turn not only to pharmaceuticals, but to illicit drugs and alcohol. The wounding of our young as a result of what we do to them takes many forms, but when they do not turn out well, we blame them. When they become violent, we call them monsters. We need to look at not only vaccines, but at the whole picture - at how we raise our children. Many changes have taken place over the past century in how we rear children. We, as a society, need to examine whether those changes have been good for the children. It's true that gun control is an issue, but taking away the guns won't take away the reason why those guns were used. American children are sick, some physically, some mentally, some both. We need to figure out why.

Vicki Ward

I agree with Lou. These things are not always what they
seem. I first thought this was a case of SSRI induced
homicides and suicide. Now, learning more about early reports of a manhunt for a second gunman, a captured suspect, the "mind-numbing" number of spent cartridges, with only a few minutes to fire them all, etc., I think Adam Lanza is due a presumption of innocence till proven guilty.

Mercury should be a suspect!

I agree 100% with Cherry Sperlin Misra. Newtown, CT is not that far from Danbury, CT of Mad Hatter fame and mercury pollution there remains a problem. It is entirely plausible that the shooter was mercury-poisoned from a combination of environmental and/or medical exposures. His described behaviors prior to the tragedy are certainly consistent with some of what we know CAN be caused by mercury toxicity.

Whether or not the children you know diagnosed with autism would be capable of such a crime is not evidence that no individual with mercury poisoning would be capable of such a crime. Search the web a bit, you will find there are several people whose research on mercury toxicity led them to the conclusion that mercury and other heavy metal poisons (such as manganese which is elevated in baby formulas) are linked to violent behavior. Unfortunately Bernie Windham's research into that seems to have disappeared from the web.

While I understand the desire to quickly stamp out the notion that people with autism are prone to such violence, I also think that it is important to recognize that people who are heavy metal toxic do often suffer mental problems, which may as others point out, be greatly aggravated by psychotropic drug treatments. Many parents here are also still sorting out the problems with young kids--a child's behaviors can change dramatically when the hormones of puberty enter the picture.

Getting this info out clearly could well be helpful in getting the terrible situation that exists with regards to mercury in vaccines (and amalgams) exposed for the crime that it is--and might also build some sense of urgency into the need to help poisoned individuals and find effective treatments to restore their abilities to communicate, socialize, reason, and empathize. Unfortunately, it is highly likely that no potentially informative toxicological testing will be done on the shooter's remains.

no vac

Lou,
I agree with you. It is possible that some evil individual or an organization used Adam Lanza to commit this massacre for their own benefits. We don't even know if Adam killed himself, or he was killed by his masters. Adam was clearly severely poisoned by mercury in vaccines and was mentally disturbed, as such he was an easy target for evil manipulators. I am afraid that we will not learn the truth about it for decades. I hope however that we will be able to convey to the parents how toxic and destructive vaccines are. The future of this country depends on parents refusing vaccinations.

Lou

"Calling this young man a "monster" or "evil" is simply ignorant and juvenile. I have come to expect better from this community."

IMO our war against autism began with the war against us known as "vaccination". We are now in another war, the war to make us defenseless; the war on guns.

IMO often the "shooter" is but the first victim in these clearly engineered "gun tragedies". We do not know what happened at Newton and given our experience with autism and the truth, probably never will.

There are numerous clues and we have our common sense. We should know by now, DO NOT VACCINATE and IMO we will come to learn to have nothing but commiseration for the often first victims of these engineered "gun tragedies", the "shooter".

http://newsworldwide.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/breaking-news-ct-school-shooter-killer-link-to-libor-scandal/

cmo

I would sadly hope his brain tissue is fully tested for any and all possible neurotoxins.

If Adam was 20 years old, he likely had the full load of mercury vaccines by age 5, about 800 micrograms. Plus another 375 mg for 15 flu shots if he was up to date with that mess.

How many present CDC drugs on the market have "suicide" listed in their side effects ??? They may need to update their package inserts by adding the word "homicide."

From what I see posted here so far, I would doubt their any "drug free/ or vaccine free shooters."

A few months ago, Dr. Nancy quickly "found a link" to the flu and autism... she should be able to see this simple connection.

Lou

"He said something has changed in America."

LOTS has changed.

Now we NEVER have an honest trial where we can talk to the "shooter"

o "Shooter" shoots self
o Cop shoots "shooter"
o Fort Hood US Army et al stalls trial seemingly forever
o "Shooter" somehow lives than is filled AGAINST his will with physic drugs and is "unavailable" for trial.

We NEVER have an honest trial where the TRUTH can be learned.

http://truthtroubadour.blogspot.com/2012/09/an-act-of-state-execution-of-martin.html

Bayareamom

Raymond,

One of the fathers of a little girl who was murdered has already come out and states his family FORGIVES the shooter and sends his deepest sympathies to all, including the Lanza family.

I would certainly say this lovely human being is playing with a full deck.

Link to story: http://www.news.com.au/news/father-of-sandy-hook-massacre-emilie-parker-offers-forgiveness-to-shooters-family/story-fnejlrpu-1226537781227

I understand your anger, Raymond. We're ALL angry with these absolutely senseless murders. I don't know if you're much of a believer, but there was another lovely Man who tried to teach about compassion and forgiveness, too.

I have enormous compassion for the Lanza family at this time and as I've said, my heart goes out to ALL the victims in Newton, CT.

Lisa

I attended a conference recently at Mt Sinai in New York where a slide was shown indicating that brain tumors and childhood leukemia have increased 40 percent, I believe, since 1975. Everyone on this site knows that in the 1990's childhood mercury exposure went way up. These children are poisoned, pure and simple, in my opinion. Of course, no one unstable should have access to and training in gun use either. Nevertheless, this poisoning issue receives virtually no coverage. You cannot inject huge dose of a known neurotoxin freely into a generation of children and expect no one to go off the rails. I think the word evil really applies to the doctors, government regulators and politicians who have allowed this to go on unchecked, and the journalists who refuse to use their brains and offer balanced coverage in mainstream media.

no vac

Here is another evidence that Americans are mass drugged and killed with toxic useless medications for profits. There is a sharp decline of life span of white undereducated Americans, who eat toxic industrial food, are forcefully vaccinated and drugged to death.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/us/life-expectancy-for-less-educated-whites-in-us-is-shrinking.html?pagewanted=1&ref=us

Benedetta

Hucklebee who ran for president in 2008 and now has his own show on Fox News made a comment that no one will pay attention to.

It went something like this:
When he went to school they took guns to school, they had rifles in the back of the windows of their trucks, they went hunting in the evenings after school or in the mornings before school.

They never knew there was such a thing as people coming into schools, McDonalds, churches, stores, movie theaters and doing such a thing.
He said something has changed in America.

Granted if he was asked what had changed he would not be thinking what I am thinking.

Michael B Schachter MD, CNS

What role, if any, did psychotropic medications play in this massacre?

In reviewing the posts on this article this morning, I note that several of them refer to the possibility that psychotropic drugs (and particularly antidepressant SSRI’s) may have been involved in this horrific event. Yet, the mass media only speculates that Adam Lanza’s suspected diagnosis (Asperger’s Syndrome or Autism) may have played a role.

The mass media blacks out the possible role of medications because so much of its financial support comes from pharmaceutical companies. In spite of this blackout, evidence exists that psychotropic drugs may have played a role in many (if not all) of the mass murders that have taken place over the last few years.

For a detailed examination of this issue, see Dr. Joseph Mercola’s discussion here:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/02/25/legal-system-rules-antidepressants-cause-kids-to-kill.aspx

Here is a list of drugs mentioned in the article:

"Antidepressants Top List of Most Violence-Inducing Drugs
It's certainly worth paying heed to drug interactions such as violence and homicidal leanings, both as a patient and as a concerned parent, family member or friend.

According to a 2010 study published in the journal PLoS One5, half of the top 10 drugs disproportionately linked with violent behavior are antidepressants:

1. Varenicline (Chantix): The number one violence-inducing drug on the list, this anti-smoking medication is 18 times more likely to be linked with violence when compared to other drugs
2. Fluoxetine (Prozac): This drug was the first well-known SSRI antidepressant
3. Paroxetine (Paxil): Another SSRI antidepressant, Paxil is also linked with severe withdrawal symptoms and a risk of birth defects
4. Amphetamines: (Various): Used to treat ADHD
5. Mefoquine (Lariam): A treatment for malaria which is often linked with reports of strange behavior
6. Atomoxetine (Strattera): An ADHD drug that affects the neurotransmitter noradrenaline
7. Triazolam (Halcion): This potentially addictive drug is used to treat insomnia
8. Fluvoxamine (Luvox): Another SSRI antidepressant
9. Venlafaxine (Effexor): An antidepressant also used to treat anxiety disorders
10. Desvenlafaxine (Pristiq): An antidepressant which affects both serotonin and noradrenaline"

This list is not all inclusive and many other medications could be included.

Health care givers and the public have a right to know the medical and psychiatric history of Adam Lanza and especially what medications have been prescribed to him over the last few years. They also have a right to know what medications and other substances were in his body at the time of his death.

The FDA requires a black box warning for many of these drugs, suggesting that they may increase suicidal behavior; however, no mention is made of homicidal behavior, though in my opinion, the evidence for this is overwhelming and the FDA should also include warnings of homicidal behavior in their black-box warnings.

It is time for all psychiatrists and other physicians and health care providers, who prescribe these drugs, as well as the general public, to become fully aware of the possible danger of homicidal acts being committed by certain individuals taking these drugs.

Michael B Schachter MD, CNS

Bev

My thoughts are this 20 year old killer was psychotic, possibly sleep deprived and out of touch with reality and most likely on SSRI's or antipsychotic drugs. As I sat down and watched an X-box video game for the first time last night, I was shocked and afraid of how this type of realistic violence could affect our children, especially if they are mentally ill. Now I read that the killer was an avid player of video games. Perhaps he thought he was on a "mission".

John Stone

It seems to me there may be a confluence of things here, and there may be many things to blame and not just one. The combination of an angry young man, sense of impotence, widespread glamourisation of violence, accessibility and familiarity of weapons, very possibly pharmaceuticals working in a non-benign way perhaps leading to distortions of reality, diminishment of responsibility etc. It is very naieve and convenient to turn round and say he was just a bad guy, although no doubt he was that too. But it still poses much deeper questions about culture and institutions.

This young man was no doubt utterly miserable (whatever the causes of that misery) and his response to his misery was equally deeply pathetic: those people who want to characterise him as "an evil genius" (and I have certainly seen it) rather than just pathetic and hopeless are glamourising violence and making things worse.

JanP

I have a 20 year old son, vaccine damaged who suffers with autism. He is gentle loving and kind. He has been bullied most of his life because he was an easy target. One such episode whilst away at an activity holiday in 2007 resulted in his OCD levels(previously undiagnosed) increasing to such an extent that he could no longer function, as soon as he got over one ritual another word or action produced another. We were told by the school psychologist that he needed to see a psychiatrist. Ultimately he was put on Fluoxetine (Prozac) starting on a daily dose of 4mg increasing 3 weekly until 40mg. Having sought advice from a nutrionist in 2011, and beginning a regime of vitamins and mineral supplements, these have worked wonders, he is more aware, has better concentration and is more social. We are now in the process of reducing the Fluoxetine by 4mg every 3 weeks and are currently down to 16mg. I count myself lucky that he has not been harmed like so many others taking this mind altering drugs. God Bless the children and families in Newton.

Media Scholar

I think we all need to think as Americans, and go on the offensive.

http://ssristories.com/ has been keeping a running count of these acts of violence clearly linked to SSRI usage.

Our friends at Natural Health News have a powerful take on this latest.

http://www.naturalnews.com/038353_gun_control_psychiatric_drugs_Adam_Lanza.html

In mass shootings involving guns and mind-altering medications, politicians immediately seek to blame guns but never the medication. Nearly every mass shooting that has taken place in America over the last two decades has a link to psychiatric medication, and it appears today's tragic event is headed in the same direction.

According to ABC News, Adam Lanza, the alleged shooter, has been labeled as having "mental illness" and a "personality disorder." These are precisely the words typically heard in a person who is being "treated" with mind-altering psychiatric drugs.

One of the most common side effects of psychiatric drugs is violent outbursts and thoughts of suicide.

If there is to be any legitimate debate on so-called "gun control" in the aftermath of this shooting, the only idea that makes any sense at all would be to restrict gun purchases by people currently taking psychiatric medications. But even that restriction would of course be abused by the government to take guns away from perfectly healthy, law-abiding citizens who innocently seek treatment for mild depression and who honestly have no clue that psychiatric drugs can cause violent behavior.

A far better solution here would be to outlaw psychiatric drugs that cause the violent behavior in the first place. After all, if you only outlaw guns but fail to eliminate the drugs that cause the violence, people dosed up on mind-altering meds will simply find alternate weapons to commit the same acts of violence. You don't think a crazy guy with a sword can hack up 20 or 30 kids in a school? A sword, a knife or even a pick axe can be just as deadly as a firearm.

Medications kill roughly 100,000 Americans each year according to study statistics. The actual number is either 98,000 or 106,000 depending on which study you believe.

For guns to be as deadly as medications, you'd have to see a Newton-style massacre happening ten times a day, every day of the year. Only then would "gun violence" even match up to the number of deaths caused by doctor-prescribed, FDA-approved medications.

If our goal us to stop the violence in America, we are completely dishonest if we do not consider the mental causes of violent behavior. And that starts with mind-altering psychiatric drugs which I believe have unleashed a drug-induced epidemic of violence across our nation.

Time to put down the SSRIs.

Jenny Allan

Trina Aurin says of Ryan Lanza:-
(He)"had issues that may have been overlooked or undected and for this young man to have access to firearms just rips my heart out."

Sixteen years ago in Scotland, Thomas Hamilton walked into a school gym in Dunblane Scotland, armed with four loaded handguns, all properly licenced, and discharged their contents into a previously joyful class of Primary 1 children,(5 year olds). A classroom assistant managed to gather up a few children and hide with them in the gym equipment cupboard, another nine children, survived the bullets after being taken to hospital, but the others all died, including the class teacher, Gwen Mayer, who died in a futile attempt to shield her little charges. Hamilton saved the final bullet for himself.

At that time I was teaching a primary 1 class in another part of Scotland. The 'news' about Dunblane hit at lunch time in the staffroom. The teachers were all utterly shocked and stunned, but we all knew then, that this could have happened to any one of us and our classes. Thomas Hamilton exposed gaping holes in school security and gun laws. These have now been tightened up and the ownership of handguns is now banned, for members of the public; as I write this, new legislation is going through Parliament, to restrict ownership and use of airguns too. A few years ago a baby in his mother's arms was killed by one of these guns.

'Across the pond', Ryan Lanza has been variously described as 'autistic', having 'Aspergers' and being a 'loner' with a personality disorder. Several reports have stated he was on anti psychotic medication. Like Thomas Hamilton, he seems to have been a 'loner' with a grudge against society, but there has never been any suggestion that Thomas Hamilton was autistic. In fact 'autism' and 'Aspergers' are terms which get bandied about in the press and media by just about anyone. Make no mistake; autism is a recognised condition, which can only be diagnosed by professionally qualified health personnel.

In Scotland, lessons have been learned to prevent massacres like Dunblane from happening again. Will President Obama 'bite the bullet'?

Raymond Gallup


Anybody in the media that says this killer is autistic should get an old fashioned ass whipping for their stupidity and ignorance about our children/adults with autism. It is totally impossible that an adult with autism could do what this killer did....impossible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It just goes to show how dumb and dumber the media is about autism.

no vac

My deepest sympathy to all families of murdered children.

The gunman, Adam Lanza, was 20 YO, which means he was born in 1992. This was the period, when US vaccines were most toxic and contained the greatest amounts of mercury (see VAERS). It is clear that he was poisoned and brain damaged by these vaccines (assuming he was vaccinated). He is therefore a victim of pharma mafia, CDC, FDA and other corrupted govt institutions, who are mass poisoning American children with toxic vaccines and drugs. He is their victim, who produced more victims.

The story is truly horrid. I am afraid that it will not be a wake up call, but will promote more crimes, as now all the blame for similar incidents will be put on brain damaged children and their parents, while their true perpetrators (big pharma and corrupted government agents) will continue to destroy lives of American children. Another group responsible for this crime is the Hollywood, constantly bombarding minds of youngsters with genocidal films and games. This whole business is sick.


Raymond Gallup


Anybody that feels compassion for a cold blooded killer of little children, adults and even his own mother isn't playing with a full deck. They are mentally deficient and among the politically correct, one and the same.

Again my prayers and sympathies to the families that lost loved ones at the school and no prayers and sympathies to any cold blooded killer that could do such an evil thing.

I hope that schools have armed guards hereafter to prevent evil from happening. That is what is needed since this happens much too often!!!!! Little children needed to be protected from this evil.

Trina Aurin

I agree with all of you on very different comments. My son has autism and to read/hear that this individual had autism sacares you know what out of me on how people will treat my son who is on the spectrum. Let's wait media to see what was going on with this young man. I cannot fathom at all what all the parents/siblings and all the other family members are going through - loosing anyone one this way had to tear you apart. I pray and hope recovery will be gentle and they are able to go on but with a son with autism who is gentle and kind for those who do not understand the autism spectrum will find that they are justified to look at my son with predjuice and fear forever linking him to a young man who had issues that may have been overlooked or undected and for this young man to have access to firearms just rips my heart out. I am so sorry for those that were lost and for all of the families that have to deal with this terror and sorrow and also for all of us who are parents with a child/children who are on the autism sprectrum who have to deal with all this media attention on a man who may have had autism, who definitly needed help and was not taken care of my those who might have know something was wrong.

Benedetta

Teri listed a bunch of incidences with anti depressants.

I have lived this one, so I am the expert! Well I feel like I should be, but as we all know --

Anyway.

Antidepressants works great for depression. But what if these kids are bipolar What is an anti-depressant going to do when the mania kicks in-- they cycle out of the depression into a mania still on an antidepressant.

Well if they keep taking the anti-depressant they are going to go into orbit, that means no sleep for a long time and that is were we get into psychosis - a walking sleep. Psychosis may be short lived or it may be a very long drawn out condition.

Unrecgonized vaccine injury, Kawasakis, and all that happened to my daughter and I think it happened to many others.

So when they reach their teen age years and the hormones kick in -- a parent might find their kid just sitting around in a dark room -not so much blue, but mad and angry that you stuck your nose in the door. But it passes and they are up bouncing around like a parent would think is a normal, energetic teenager who is now the life of the party and picking up every body on route to school in their car.
But then back to depression and anger, but they still are doing great in school. Confussion!

Now a parent has a choice
Ignore it - the end result of that is self medication and drug addiction -- I am living in a sea of such right now, in my community.

or not paying attention to the mania -Get them on anti - depressants --- the end result of that could very well be unrecognized bi polar one. I got very lucky on this - and this did not happen untill the mid 20s after more vaccine injuries. I also think that my daughter did not take the anti depressants all the time, but only as needed-- which drug companies tell them to take it so it will stay in your blood constantly since it takes days for it to build up. Ignoring that advice - just might have saved us???
-- and then again perhaps the mood swings were not so bad in her teen years.

There are monsters here; called the CDC, NIH, HHS, FDA, Congress that passed the 1986 law of protecting the vaccine makers, James Cherry, Boyle, Offit, how many monsters can we name???

What is your favorite monster?

Joan Campbell

Our children and young adults have been wrongly diagnosed as having autism and asbergers when in fact they should have been diagnoses as vaccine injured.
Add your voice to my list of 1,100 parents voices of vaccine injury Viewed by over 135 countries worldwide. We are all saying the same thing. A pdf can be downloaded if one wishes to share.
http://www.followingvaccinations.com/

Nora

I live in Portland Oregon and the shooter her at the Mall this week was identified as friendly and popular.
The mentiom of autism or aspergers is a method to isolate and demonize, create a scapegoat. And in doing so, they create a stereotype that the population will no longer have any sympothy for, Autism will becomed feared and those who have the diagnosis will become targets more so than they already are.
The true problem of guns being to readily available to disturbed individuals will be tucked under the carpet.

Barry

Sadly, our schools are set up to protect the mainstream 90% of the students from the 10% who are a bit odd. Instead of reaching out to the 10% by including them in classroom and group activities, schools isolate and hide them. The dumber districts punish them via no tolerance and one-size-fits all disciplinary policies. Of course, this bureaucratic cya stuff doesn't make children safer and costs millions. Yet the bureaucrats are content that they’ve done their jobs whereas in fact they have done great harm to not only the 10% and their parents, but the entire community. These wrong-headed policies trigger the tragedies waiting to happen, and our schools and judicial systems don’t even know it.
Imagine a totally different scenario where schools, churches and community organizations periodically bring together parents of both the “normal” and “odd” kids, including those on the autism spectrum, and facilitate their listening to each other and strategizing how much safer everyone would be if their “normal” kids could find ways to include and befriend the “odd” ones, both in and outside of school. Ditto for the parents of the 90%. What could they do to help parents of the 10% become less isolated? An inclusive America is much stronger than the exclusive nation we are becoming. Sure, we can continue our discussion about guns, drugs, and video games. But the real issue is how to build inclusive schools and communities that leaves no odd kid behind.

Teri Arranga

CT Teacher said:

"Vaccines are the vehicle of neurological damage. When the kids get to school, the kids are so messed up that the schools recommend counseling, which eventually leads to visits to the doctor or psychiatrist for medications. If parents try to resist medicating their child, in many cases the schools won't deal with them. These parents are pressured by both the schools and the medical profession to medicate their children, and they usually give in. Some of these medications cause problems immediately, others take awhile for the side effects to show themselves, but make no mistake, antidepressant drugs have a dark underbelly. They cause suicide and violence against others. When puberty arrives, these drugs become even more dangerous, as does mixing them with other substances. Many of these young people are being set up by the system...a system which damages or alters their brain chemistry, which then requires drugging them which alters brain chemistry even more."

CT Teacher - Thank you for connecting the dots.

Deborah Reinaeur Merlin reminded me of this:
"Schools receive additional money from the state and federal governments for every child labeled and drugged."

Susan

Open letter to all news organizations covering the tragedy in Newtown, CT:

Let me begin by saying that my heart is absolutely breaking for the parents of the victims and all those affected, either directly or indirectly, by the horrific events at Sandy Hook Elementary. I cannot begin to imagine the pain and shock, and my thoughts and prayers go out to all those parents, grandparents, families, students and teachers.

The rest of this letter is directed at the media and their coverage of the events, specifically the speculation about the shooter’s mental status. The words autism and Asperger’s has been thrown around a lot, and as the mother of a child on the autism spectrum, this unsubstantiated speculation that the shooter had some sort of autism spectrum disorder has me absolutely livid.

What exactly are you basing this speculation on? A few interviews with people that claim to have known the shooter in the past, wherein they describe him as “socially awkward,” yet “highly intelligent?” Wow. I wish you had been around when I was going through the years-long process in search of a diagnosis for my son. I never knew that diagnosis of a highly diverse, extremely complicated neurological developmental disorder could have been just as easily diagnosed by those two criteria, and by a layperson at that. Sarcasm aside, you must consider your words more carefully and think about the damage they could potentially do to those of us who are living day in and day out with this condition.

I understand that human nature drives us to reach for an explanation – any explanation – of what could drive a person to commit such a heinous act. I also understand that as caring human beings, most all of us quickly jump to the “a person has to be mentally ill, or just ‘not right in the head’ to do such a thing” rationale. I get that. I feel the same way. However, please take care before you try to label the perpetrator with a specific diagnosis – most especially with no evidence to back it up. By doing that, you potentially harm those who, in fact, do carry said diagnosis by creating a false picture to the general public of what that label means.

Autism, and autism spectrum disorders (ASD) such as Asperger’s Syndrome, have NOT been associated with violent crime, as most experts will tell you. In fact, while watching the news coverage over the past 24 hours, every time I have seen a reporter interview psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals, and the reporter brings up the speculative diagnosis of ASD and the shooter, each mental health professional immediately attempts to explain that firstly – we don’t know this person had this disorder and, secondly, ASD is NOT associated with violent, much less sociopathic, behavior. So why do you insist on trying to force this issue?

As a parent of a child on the autism spectrum, thereby a member of the “autism community,” I am extremely angry that the media would continue to do this. We (the autism community) have been working tirelessly for years to not only raise awareness of what this diagnosis is and what it means in the communities we live in, the schools our children attend, and in many cases even the families we raise those children in – all the while living the day-to-day life, and sometimes gut-wrenching work, of raising and advocating for our children. PLEASE don’t make our work even harder by continuing to speculate that the person who murdered 20 innocent children “might” have been autistic – especially with no evidence to that fact.

Our children work hard and struggle every day with stigma they don’t deserve. Don’t add more of this to the load that is already on their little shoulders. Don’t undo the years of work we have done to raise awareness. If you want to do the work of informing the public, then educate yourself first.

jen

Cherry, Terry & fdnh, I totally agree with you. As an ed assistant things are getting scary out there!

ANGUS FILES

God bless all the angels that have died...we all know where this evil stems from but pharma will never be mentioned not once..

R.I.P.


Angus

CT teacher

The hearts of everyone here in CT have been broken by this senseless tragedy. I know that people everywhere feel deepest sympathy for these devastated families. Every parent should be able to send his /her child to school believing that they will come home safely.
Schools in America have become dangerous places in recent years, not only because of the easy availability of guns, but also because of the sheer number of kids who are on prescription mind-altering drugs. These drugs are known to cause violent thoughts and behaviors. These young men who commit these horrific acts have been turned into evil monsters by these drugs. The connection between these massacres and prescription drugs is being covered up by the media, because the pharmaceutical industry calls the shots. Big Pharma is waging war on our children and we need an honest media to make the connections for the general public.
Vaccines are the vehicle of neurological damage. When the kids get to school, the kids are so messed up that the schools recommend counseling, which eventually leads to visits to the doctor or psychiatrist for medications. If parents try to resist medicating their child, in many cases the schools won't deal with them. These parents are pressured by both the schools and the medical profession to medicate their children, and they usually give in. Some of these medications cause problems immediately, others take awhile for the side effects to show themselves, but make no mistake, antidepressant drugs have a dark underbelly. They cause suicide and violence against others. When puberty arrives, these drugs become even more dangerous, as does mixing them with other substances. Many of these young people are being set up by the system...a system which damages or alters their brain chemistry, which then requires drugging them which alters brain chemistry even more. These kids limp along through the system until they explode....causing harm to other children and to themselves. This is all courtesy of the pharmaceutical industry which really controls our society.
Finally, our gun culture becomes the vehicle by which these messed up young men (mostly)cause so much mayhem.
It's not enough for the media to try to find a motive for these incidents without looking at the medication history. The public must hold their feet to the fire...make them expose the whole sordid story. Let's make the drug connection as well as the gun connection. Hopefully this will all track back to the vaccine damage that these individuals have all experienced. Harris Coulter was correct when he linked vaccines to criminality and anti-social behavior.

Bayareamom

"With all the focus/conversation/debate on parenting, gun control, insanity, monsters etc, the pharmaceutical companies once again get to slide their elephant out of the room unnoticed."

Yep, that about sums it up.

Teri Arranga

Bob Moffit - I think it's at least 1 in 6 now. Have you ever heard a stat even greater than that? Here are some stats and links:

CDC estimates of 1 child in 88 with autism – 1 in 54 boys

An estimated 43% of US children (32 million) currently have at least 1 of 20 chronic health conditions assessed, increasing to 54.1% when overweight, obesity, or being at risk for developmental delays are included; 19.2% (14.2 million) have conditions resulting in a special health care need, a 1.6 point increase since 2003.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1876285910002500

(As of the time of the report.)


Developmental disabilities are common and were reported in ∼1 in 6 children in the United States in 2006–2008. The number of children with select developmental disabilities (autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and other developmental delays) has increased, requiring more health and education services.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/05/19/peds.2010-2989.abstract

(Possibly higher now.)

Fetal death from moms receiving flu shot = increase of 4,250%

Carolyn  kylesmom

Some of my message got cut off. My point is that when given community love and support an asperger child can blossom develop social skills and be every bit as wonderful as any typical child. Even more so.

That said clearly Lanza had complicating factors.

Carolyn  kylesmom

The hero in this story, a medic in Afghanistan who risked his life and lost it to save others, attended a high school for those with autism issues and was considered to be Aspergers.

http://militarytimes.com/citations-medals-awards/recipient.php?recipientid=54175

Please google Jameson Lindskog and Aspergers for validation of this. We need to tell his story --what happens when Aspergers kids are capable of. Just like with typical kids there is a spectrum.

I knew Jameson personally as a child . He was quirky and smart and sweet.

WarriorMom

Just what our kids need...to be stigmatized that they are capable of violent acts and have social detachment disorder. Thank you Age of Autism for defending the autism community in this horrific tragedy. This man who committed this heinous crime likely had serious psychiatric problems that may have not been treated. We won't know until the truth comes out. All we can do is pray for his family and the victims and their families.

Keating Willcox

First, his brother said he was autistic, so I will take that as a working hypothesis.
Second, his mom was a target shooter and gun collector. OK, listen up, no household where there are residents with mental illness, alcohol, illegal drug, or violence issues should have any kind of firearm or large knife. Can we agree on that?
Third, a local kid said,"he was saddened by the shooting but not surprised." To me, this means that there were signs beforehand of troubled behavior.

I know the deal. Cover up problems, try to keep violent problems out of the system, hope and pray for each day without violence. Well, here we are. I believe the good people of Newtown will learn that this was all predictable and preventable, that this 20 year gave plenty of subtle warning, and that no one had the courage to place this individual in a safe but secure facility where he would harm no one.

samaxtics

I believe this article was written after the Aurora shooting:

http://www.cchrint.org/2012/07/20/the-aurora-colorado-tragedy-another-senseless-shooting-another-psychotropic-drug/

but it will likely need to be updated to include the CT school shooting.

With all the focus/conversation/debate on parenting, gun control, insanity, monsters etc, the pharmaceutical companies once again get to slide their elephant out of the room unnoticed.

Bayareamom

Raymond,

I respectfully disagree with you. This young man was most likely a victim of his own circumstances as well, just as surely as these others became HIS VICTIMS. I realize this young man's actions were so horrific that it is hard to see find any sort of compassion for this young man. But I DO feel compassion for what must have been a horrific emotional existence for him. Clearly he needed help and for whatever reason, he didn't receive it. The consequences are all too obvious.

Bayareamom

Quote from Peter Breggin's website (one of my heroes):

• "Antidepressants cause emotional anesthesia and numbing or sometimes euphoria, providing a fleeting, artificial relief from emotional suffering.

• Neuroleptic or antipsychotic drugs disrupt frontal lobe function, causing a chemical lobotomy with apathy and indifference, making emotionally distressed people more submissive and less able to feel.

• Mood stabilizers slow down overall brain function, dampening emotions and vitality.

• Benzodiazepines suppress overall brain function, sedating the individual, with temporary relief of tension or anxiety at the cost of reduced mental function.

• Stimulants blunt spontaneity and enforce obsessive behaviors in children, making them less energetic, less social, less creative and more obedient"

"The individual taking the drugs or the doctor, family and classroom teacher can mistakenly interpret these effects as an improvement when they reflect dysfunction of the brain and mind. As an egregious example, millions of school children are prescribed these drugs because schools find them easer to deal with when their spontaneity is impaired and when they become more compulsively obedient.

In the long run, all psychiatric drugs tend to disrupt the normal processes of feeling and thinking, rendering the individual less able to deal effectively with personal problems and with life’s challenges. They worsen the individual’s overall mental condition and produce potentially irreversible harm to the brain."

Link: http://breggin.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=187&Itemid=93

Bayareamom

Cherry and Teri,

I agree with BOTH of you. I was just telling my husband last night that I thought that perhaps this boy was vaccine damaged and then was ultimately put on prescription medication. As Teri mentioned above, it is always with a little journalistic digging that the ultimate truth comes out about these mass killings; MOST of these acts are, tragically, committed by kids who are on some type of prescription meds (something Big Pharma is want to acknowledge - go figure).

Years ago, a psychiatrist told my husband and I that our son simply needed Ritalin and all his learning disorder issues would be fixed. When the Ritalin didn't work, this same psychiatrist told us that MORE meds were needed, such as Adderall. At that point, we'd already been told that the Ritalin was not working by our son's teachers (he was on the lowest dosage possible); when the suggestion came to pour more drugs down our son's throat, I told this psychiatrist that he could take his 15 minute assessment of our son and stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

Years later, we found out through Children's Oakland Hospital that our son did NOT have ADHD as this psychiatrist had proclaimed, but that he was a normal young man with a few learning disorder issues; tutoring and one-on-one teaching assistance, worked.

I would never call this poor kid a monster, although yes, his actions certainly were. This was, it seems to me, a kid crying out for help, possibly LONG before these horrific killings occurred. Unfortunately, no one seemed to be picking up on the cues, for whatever reason, and this is the sad, tragic result.

My heart bleeds for the Lanza family and all the families caught up in this horrendous tragedy.

Bob Moffitt

@Teri

Unfortunately, the frequency of these types of incidents is likely to increase .. considering the CDC .. 10 years ago .. reported that 1 in 10 children suffer some type of childhood development disorder.

How many of these children were prescribed psychotrophic drugs to modify their "behavior" .. while ignoring what may have been the underlying "cause" of their problems to begin with?

Here is a site listing psychotropic medications that are required by the FDA to have a "black box" warning regarding possible changes in behavior .. including suicide. If you scroll down .. you will reach the children medications:

http://tinyurl.com/c5n35tm

One more thing. The usual "knee jerk" response is to blame easy access to "guns" whenever some tragedy like this occurs.

Consider .. the Secretary of Defense recently reported they are mystified by the inexplicable increase in suicides .. reported to be 1 a day .. which is more than the courageous men and women we have lost in Iraq and Afghanistan to hostile action.

Since easy access to guns has always been available to members of the military .. what could possibly explain the recent phenomenon of suicides.

Could it be the introduction of heavily prescribed psychotrophic drugs as a means to cope with depression and anxiety from the added stress of numerous deployments?

Raymond Gallup


I believe calling this serial killer of 20 innocent little children and 6 adults who tried to protect those children, a monster is correct. A cold blooded killer of children and adults is no human being. This killer wasn't someone with autism either.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the innocent children and adults that were killed by this cold blooded killer. I'm sorry, but no thoughts and prayers by me for the killer. He was old enough to know he was doing evil.

first do no harm

125 times more ethyl mercury than the EPA's safe limit in childhood vaccines all through the 1990's and early 2000's + mass prescribing of psychotropic drugs to treat an epidemic of neuropsychiatric disorders + availability of semi-automatic weapons = disastrous consequences in a small fraction of the population.

Let's reserve words like "evil" for the medical authorities responsible for harming and drugging a generation of children, and for the politicians who have made guns as available as the video games which inspire the violence.

Teri Arranga

Hi Cherry -- Indeed! Did something precede the prescription? I'm going to post something here now that I posted to FB before my other comments yesterday. I debated about posting everything at once in my first AoA comment, but I decided to go for a conversation instead. So, here goes:
The news has said "personality disorder." Was it a personality disorder brought on years ago in the first place somehow by pharmaceutical preparations of some sort? Or was it more recently brought on or exacerbated by pharmaceutical preparations of some sort? Why don't we hear more about that? So maybe there can be a prescription to allegedly take care of the adverse effects of the prescriptions?

So, Cherry, might setups have been an Rx or injection during the preconception or prenatal periods or an injection neonatally, postnatally, or later on?

Cherry Sperlin Misra

Thankyou Teri Arranga for bringing in the role of mind-altering drugs. I missed this crucial element. But I would say, take a step backwards and see what caused the boy to be put on those drugs -what was causing his paranoia, depression and schizophrenia. Despite what many want us to believe- This is not rocket science. There are good scientists in America today who know the truth . When will their voices be heard ? Today their voices are suppressed .

Cherry Sperlin Misra

To Raymond Gallup, I see this situation somewhat differently. I believe that the children who are less affected by the mercury in vaccines often go unrecognized. This is how I see the scenario: Parents, neighbours and teachers of the little boy with autism lite are irked by his poor coordination and lack of focus. His nervous tics, such as facial grimace, tic of the jaw, inappropriate laughter and perseverative speech earn the child annoyance and criticism. He has few or no friends and usually endures years of teasing and bullying. Because the public health- pharma nexus cannot admit to the effects of vaccine mercury, no one tells his mother to stop the fish, the vaccines with mercury and aluminium, and other sources of mercury.
Now this friendless boy moves into his teens with the testosterone in his body making the mercury more toxic, leading to paranoia, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression. Ahead of him lies an adult world of new expectations that he cannot meet. At home he retreats into his video games.
Instead of a normal childhood, this boy has been first damaged and then mistreated. Take a look at the shootings at Springfield, Virgina Tech, and Sandy Hook. Arent they variations of this story?
And to any adults who may read my comment- My advice- You too may be next in the line of mercury victims. Mercury is not just for kids. Educate yourself about fish mercury, vaccines mercury and dental mercury - See the long lists of psychiatric and physical symptoms. Save yourself and save your children - to prevent more shooting stories and more comments like mine.

Teri Arranga

First of all, my deepest sympathies and prayers for comfort to the parents and grandparents who are profoundly grieving, prayers for healing to the siblings who may not yet have made sense of what has happened but who will be profoundly touched by this tragedy, and prayers to the families of heroic staff members who perished.

From the Washington Post:
“A really rambunctious kid [i.e., the gunman], as one former neighbor in Newtown, Conn., recalled him, adding that he was on medication.”

I'm pasting this from a Facebook string from FB friend --
Deborah Reinauer Merlin: The media fails to report the common connection between taking antidepressants and other mind altering medications and massacre killings. Even though there has not been a direct link established between violent crimes and taking prescription antidepressants and stimulants, the most tragic cases of violent murder by someone on prescription drugs should be noted.

Jeffrey Weiss went on a shooting rampage on March 21, 2005, at Red Lake High School that left ten dead, including him. Earlier that day, Weiss had killed his grandfather and his grandfather’s girlfriend. He was on Prozac and recently the dosage had been increased.

Eric Harris, one of the killers at Columbine High School, was on the antidepressant drug Luvox. Court records show that the prescription for Harris had been filled ten times between April 1998 and March 1999.Three and a half months before the shooting, the dosage had been increased. The Physician’s Desk Reference records show that during controlled clinical trials of Luvox, manic reactions developed in 4 percent of the children given the drug.

Thomas Solomon, a fifteen-year-old at Heritage High School in Conyers, Georgia, shot and wounded six classmates. He was on Ritalin at the time.

Kip Kinkel, a fifteen-year-old at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, killed his parents and two classmates and wounded twenty-two other students while on Ritalin and Prozac.

Shawn Cooper, a fifteen-year-old sophomore at Notus Junior-Senior High School in Notus, Idaho, fired a shotgun at his fellow students. He was on Ritalin.

In 1989, less than one month after taking his first dose of Prozac, Joseph Wesbecker massacred eight coworkers with an AK-47 before turning the weapon on himself.

Michael McDermott, convicted of killing seven co-workers, tripled his dosage of Prozac before the shootings. On the witness stand he said he believed that he killed Nazis and not his co-workers. He said an archangel appeared to him before the massacre, telling him that he could prevent the Holocaust if he traveled back in time to 1940 to kill Adolf Hitler and six German generals.

Brynn Hartman, wife of comedian Phil Hartman, shot and killed her husband and herself while on Zoloft.

Andrea Yates in Houston, Texas, drowned her five children while on Effexor and Remeron.

Christopher Pittman shot and killed his grandparents when he was age twelve. He claimed that a voice inside his head told him to kill his grandparents on November 28, 2001.Christopher had recently started to take Zoloft to treat mild depression.

lisa

It does not help anyone to call the young man who did this a "monster." Clearly, he was not a monster. He was a human being like ALL OF US. He most likely was deeply disturbed or otherwise suffering from some type of mental disorder. If so, there but for the grace of God go I -- and YOU!

Calling this young man a "monster" or "evil" is simply ignorant and juvenile. I have come to expect better from this community.

Raymond Gallup

On my Facebook page.

As a parent my heart goes out to the loss of life in Newton, CT at that school where 20 innocent little children were killed along with 6 innocent adults trying to protect the little children. Another sad aspect of this terrible tragedy was that the monster that did this was said to be "austistic". I have an adult son with autism and I know many families with children/adults with autism. My daughter works as an aide in a school for autism. Both my daughter, my wife and I know of no kid with autism that would be capable of doing what this monster did but yet the media perpetuates the urban myth that a monster with autism could kill innocent people like this. They never get the story straight about the autism, period. Over the years they have mis-reported autism and the link to vaccines. They shove the link to vaccines and autism under the rug and now they are trying to link autism to murderous monsters too.

Trying to get the truth out of the media on autism is like a hamster running on a treadmill, per...........


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XDWFI8HTXI

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.

Your Information

(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)