You know, of all this talk about "mental illness", I haven't read one mention about
Asperger syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism, characterized by "characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests", while its linguistic and cognitive development are preserved. Social behavior is described as awkward at best, and a lack of empathy is indicated. At least, this is what Wikipedia says.
The New York Times and NBC News have mentioned the shooter is said to have Asperger syndrome.
Can people differentiate autism from "mental illness"? Because if this incident is connected with the shooter's Asperger syndrome, then all the "mental illness" arguments are moot.
Can people please separate aspergers from mental illness. Aspergers does not predispose you to violent outbursts or psychotic killing sprees. There is alot of mis information out there at the moment that is going around about aspergers and as someone that lives and breathes autism/ aspergers everyday, this is really upsetting. Kids that have aspergers / autism may be quiet or seen as weird or different and they experience bullying every day. This incident is going to make life much harder for them.