One of the things about the discussion of AL that continues to puzzle me is the view expressed by many that he must have been competent and not severely mentally ill merely because he had not been FORMALLY diagnosed with a slew of Axis I and Axis II disorders.
IMO as a health care provider, what is most prominent is the degree to which formal, comprehensive diagnosis and treatment was AVOIDED by his parents from approximately age 6-17. And yes, I do believe PL bears a substantial amount of responsibility for this avoidance of care while AL was a minor, as well as NL. His mother cherry picked a menu of services provided by educational institutions, but foolishly and stubbornly avoided comprehensive mental health evaluation and chronic treatment for AL. That, IMO, is the most severe negligence displayed, second only to providing him with firearms that he himself would not have been able to purchase.
ACCESS to mental health services was not the issueactive denial and avoidance was the problem that set the stage for the massacre. I believe that if AL had been presented for care, by a parent committed to him receiving care, he would have received very high level care in that region of the country. Denial over more than 10 years was the villain hereby both NL and PL. AL didnt suddenly develop his mental illness in the last 3 years of his lifenews reports chronicle at least 13 years of monumentally dysfunctional behaviors, and everyone assumed NL was getting him proper treatment because she was so devoted and involved.
It is this prolonged avoidance of presenting AL for the RIGHT mental health care that set the stage for him to become a competent adult on his 18th birthday, when in fact, he was anything but competent in caring for himself. I believe he could have been, and indeed SHOULD have been placed in a guardianship situation before age 18. With his history, I dont think that would have been difficult at all. Institutionalization is not really an option anymore in the U.S., until someone displays violence, and is CHRONICALLY refractory to care in the community. He needed a team of mental health professionals, and external supervision. Instead, he had a devoted enabler, convinced she knew what was "best" for him. Who provided him with an arsenal of firearms, and indulged his dangerous delusions and fantasies by providing him "privacy", internet connections, and thousands of dollars of violent video games.
The bigger question in my mind, is how do we, as a society, compel mental health treatment for minors, without trampling on the rights of the parents to avoid and refuse care? When will it be enough of a public health and safety issue that we begin to talk about compulsory care? How many other disturbed adolescents are brewing and being enabled right now, that need intervention before they shoot up a public space? Why can we take Amish parents and evangelical parents and Christian Scientist parents to court to compel them to present their children with cancer for treatment, but we cant compel mental health services and family supervision until a disturbed kid (who the entire town knows is deeply disturbed) shoots up a school?? The CPS agencies are so broken and overworked just with garden variety child abuse, drugs, and crime that mental health issues fall off the priority list. And upper class families with disturbed kids are off their radar entirely.
I believe this is a huge public health and safety issue. I dont know how many more tragedies it will take before we stop just mourning and wringing our hands and DO something about it.
20 first graders and 6 teachers were brutally massacredand still we tiptoe around political correctness that holds no one but the shooter accountable, and pretends that he was just a bit odd and no one saw it coming. That is complete BS, IMO. This didnt happen out of the blueAL was enabled all the way into Sandyhook Elementary. It was preventable. But its just so much easier as a society to focus on passing a bunch of new gun regulations, than to admit that this kid was fatally mishandled for a decade or more, leading right up to the carnage. I can feel tremendous pity and empathy for Peter and Nancy Lanza, and still hold them 100% accountable for what Adam did. Im angry with both of them, even while I pity them. Thats my opinion.
I believe Adam was so mentally ill, and so profoundly damaged emotionally and socially that he was not able to make a competent decision. I dont care that he could sequence events and plan things outthat is not evidence of competent decision making. We just dont know how tremendously mentally disabled he actually was, because NO ONE made him get comprehensive mental health care. That is the issue for me. Pass all the new gun regulation you want, but it wont solve the problems that created Adam Lanza and his massacre. If he was hell bent on rampage and massacre, he could have driven a bus into a crowd of kidsthe weapon would be different, but the outcome the same.
Had AL lived, I dont believe he would have been found competent to stand trial.
(Sorry for getting so fired up, lol!)
