Chilling Blog - Raising a Psychopath

[slackermike]

I will admit I didn't read the blog, but the title "raising a psychopath" makes me feel physically ill. The ignorance of mental health in this country is frightening.

So easy to judge when you haven't read the blog.

Also, I'm tired of reading that they were ill equipped for parenting. Is anyone ready/equipped for a child? Nobody is perfect.

[desioreo87]

Actually, he was wetting the bed. Quote from the blog:

i must have skipped that post. But yea, out of the three the most concerning is obviously animal cruelty followed by pyromania. From the way the blog is written it would stand to reason that they would not omit this from the blog.

Either way, that child is scary and I would not know how to interact with said person.

[mattsb84]

Honestly, I think any interaction with this kid would probably be normal to an outsider. That's the unsettling part. His outward appearance/interaction with other people seems to be normal from reading the blog. The parents however are with him more often then anyone, know his behaviors and have studied him for 5+ years. I think at first glance, this kid would seem normal to any of us IF we didn't know what the blogger has told us (which I'm still not certain is real or not, but it is interesting for sure).

[Rudechain]

So easy to judge when you haven't read the blog.

Also, I'm tired of reading that they were ill equipped for parenting. Is anyone ready/equipped for a child? Nobody is perfect.

Nobody is perfect and your right, nobody is ready for a child. However, that being said, if your going to adopt, you should perform due diligence and educate yourself on the possibilities.

Reading the blog, I get the feeling they really did not do that. And when problems started, they were kind of lost.

Take for example the portion on Christmas. Forcing a child to write a letter to Santa? Not understanding why the child slept in? Lucas exhibited some emotional problems early on in the relationship, yet they seemed to overlook the problems and were comparing him to a "normal" child.

As former foster parents and taking the time to raise kids that had some developmental problems, I learned you have to be very proactive. Being a parent means that your problems are secondary to the child's problems.

Later on, they realize the magnitude of the issues, but a little bit of early research would have been helpful.

All in all a fascinating read, but I personally feel these parents should have probably considered other options rather than adoption.

[Chachie]

This is beyond ridiculous. No one is born a psychopath. He might've been born with a mental illness, but the parents shouldn't act like its a death sentence to insanity. This is just disgusting.

Can't tell by your post if you actually read the blog. They adopted the child at age 10 or something. He was a victim of neglect and possible abuse. Of course he wasn't born a psycopath.

I also think the parents may have been ill-prepared to adopt any child, much less a mentally ill child. However, it's foolish to make blanket statements about the situation. Sociopathy is not easy even for professionals to treat or cure. If you had read thru the entire thing you'd be more informed about the fact that there is no known cure for it. An utter lack of empathy for others is a dangerous thing in children and when this child becomes a man it could be lethal.

[thebluefood]

Reasons number 6425 why I NEVER want to have children: you don't know if he/she is going to grow up to be the next Mother Teresa or the next Charlie Manson.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

Reasons number 6425 why I NEVER want to have children: you don't know if he/she is going to grow up to be the next Mother Teresa or the next Charlie Manson.

Very true. And, if that were the only reason you were afraid to have children, I'd say you should go for it anyway. However, since you have at least 6,424 others, it sounds like you are doing the right thing by not having them!

[mattsb84]

Reasons number 6425 why I NEVER want to have children: you don't know if he/she is going to grow up to be the next Mother Teresa or the next Charlie Manson.

Meh, this kid had a ****ty start in life. His mother was a drug addict and wasn't around, and it doesn't seem like the father was around either. He only started REALLY having parents by the time he was 5 or 6 so he was pretty much doomed from the get go.

My point is, this kid isn't a reason to not have kids. He's a result of his environment. Provided you don't do the things that this kid has had done to him, your kid shouldn't turn out to be a psychopath.

[thebluefood]

Oh, this kid isn't the only reason why I don't want kids. I've got A LOT of reasons for that, but that's for another time and another thread.

I'm all about getting married, but kids...no way.

[gbear]

I saw the schizophrenia show last week (taped from the week before). That was a sad story, but hoepfully as the 6 year old gets older they will be able to get her better drugs. She was on a boat load already.

As for sociopaths, my wife and I were worried about our son on that front for quite a while. He definitely had/has bonding issues. It was months where all he did was cry for 80% of his waking hours. That's draining, but what was every bit as bad was his total lack of desire to please anyone. It took about 6 months before he warmed up to anyone, and then it was only to my daughter. He still seems to have some reactive attacahment disorder issues, and yes that is a little difficult at times.

I would like to point out that the incidence of RAD in fostered or adopted children and later adults is much much higher than the rest of our population. While I found the book dificult to read because it kept telling me how much pain we caused our kids when we adopted them, the book Primal Wound does a decent job proposing an explanation for some of dificulties bonding these kids go through. The degree of damage seems to be very individual though. It's also one of the hard times I have with the "just put the kids up for addoption croud" because it really isn't so simple, and the not so simple part doesn't stop with the paperwork.

[Enter Apotheosis]

After reading the blog the whole way through my gut instinct is that if 'Lucas' had any sliver of a hope of a better life than the one he seems headed towards, it was utterly crushed by his adoptive parents. Trying to diagnose someone so young as a psychopath or sociopath obviously falls in dangerous territory, particularly when you can't be objective about it. That's a rather imposing 'if', though, and I'm not sure I wouldn't react the the exact same way in their shoes.

I haven't read the whole thing yet, but this right here sent up a HUGE red flag:

They aren't exactly starting from a good place.

These people clearly didn't think their decision through nearly well enough and are paying for it dearly.