The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Dan Collins and His Son

Posted on | December 17, 2012 | 6 Comments

Childhood Onset Schizophrenia — a condition rare enough that the doctor had never seen it. Guess somebody had to draw the short straw.

Damn. Hard luck, Dan. Did I ever tell you about the time I went all-in with a full house, and the other guy turned over four of a kind?

When I was talking to Cynthia Yockey earlier she offered a suggestion that perhaps Adam Lanza was misdiagnosed, and that he had another personality disorder that was mistaken for (or hidden by) Asperger’s syndrome. It was an interesting theory.

All six of our children have been healthy so far, and for this we should be grateful. Dan Collins and his family should be in everybody’s prayers.

Category: Dan Collins

Comments

6 Responses to “Dan Collins and His Son”

  1. jimmiebjr
    December 17th, 2012 @ 11:12 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: TOM Dan Collins and His Son http://t.co/kogJOMlm #TCOT

  2. K-Bob
    December 18th, 2012 @ 12:07 am

    That was a tough read, although well written. I only wonder why it was couched in terms of a disagreement. I read all of Stacy’s pieces and I didn’t see any attempt to isolate the need for more discipline. He definitely tossed in the necessary qualifiers to avoid having that come up as a contention.

    I see this all the time with discussions of disability of any sort. But mental illness has become another unspeakable subject these days, precisely because few are as willing to cop, as Dan did, to their own special pleading, while jumpin down someone else’s throat with a stern demand to “be more sensitive” to the issue.

    Somewhere, as Dan points out, we need to figure out where the line is between actual mental illness, and the fugue and funk that accompanies an imperfect mind. We absolutely do not need the state to “help us with our depression,” any more than we need leftists demanding an end to institutionalizing those who need to be institutionalized.

  3. Adjoran
    December 18th, 2012 @ 1:12 am

    It has been noted elsewhere that Lanza, as with several other recent shooters including those who killed multiple people at Aurora and the Arizona mall, suffered from a mental disorder which was both undiagnosed and untreated. There is no policy or plan which guards against the irrational behavior of the undiagnosed.

    Collins’ experience is heart-wrenching, not the least because his child’s condition is so rare. I have known several schizophrenics and their families, and the effects can be devastating – and these were cases of normal onset in the late teens or early twenties. Doctors avoid diagnoses of rare cases by training: they are taught to think horses, never zebras.

    The opinions of those without direct experience, training, or education in mental illness and policy towards it are generally informed by impressions and prejudices, and neither reliable nor insightful.

  4. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    December 18th, 2012 @ 3:28 am

    My prayers and best wishes to Aidan, Dan and his family. Fortunately Aidan is blessed with a family who loves him.

  5. dkmkc2000
    December 18th, 2012 @ 12:02 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: TOM Dan Collins and His Son http://t.co/kogJOMlm #TCOT

  6. Dai Alanye
    December 18th, 2012 @ 1:54 pm

    Schizophrenia exists in children–it’s simply assumed to be something I’ll call “naughty child syndrome.” The child shows signs of irrational behavior which are overlooked because we don’t expect children to be fully logical.

    During the teens the condition worsens, but is masked by the fact that teenage misbehavior is common in most children, and it would take an unusual parent to suspect mental illness. Thus the diagnosis is often delayed until the individual is in his twenties, often being first made by a prison psychiatrist.

    The problems with the brain that make for mental illness probably exist from birth or before, possibly worsening as the brain develops until the early teens. Society simply does not presently have mechanisms to detect schizophrenia during the early years.