Nancy Lanza's Story: Mother of Mentally Ill Child Speaks About Adam Lanza
"I am Adam Lanza's mother," one woman wrote the day of the Sandy Hook shooting. The woman is a mother and though not the mother of Adam, she is the mother of a son who she claims isn't so different than the shooter who killed 27 people on Friday before shooting himself.
The nation has come together to share its grief after learning that 20 young children were shot and killed at their elementary school. But while many have attempted to identify with the families of the victims, one woman has attempted to identify with the shooter and his mother.
"'I can wear these pants,' he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises," the mother wrote of her 13-year-old son.
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"'They are navy blue,' I told him. 'Your school's dress code says black or khaki pants only.'"
"'They told me I could wear these,' he insisted. 'You're a stupid b----. I can wear whatever pants I want to. This is America. I have rights!'"
This is the portrait that the unnamed blogger painted of her son, whose name has been changed to Michael. In the blog, which appeared on Anarchist Soccer Mom, the blogger claims that her son has a mental disorder, although doctors have been unable to pinpoint what is wrong with him. What she knows is two things: her son's IQ scores are off the charts, but so is his temper when he is not in a good mood.
"A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books," the mother wrote, explaining one incident.
In another, she was forced to take her son to the hospital after another heated argument in which Michael threatens his own life. After she arrived, she called police and he is taken away.
"I hate you. And I'm going to get my revenge as soon as I get out of here," Michael told his mother from the hospital, days after the incident.
But Michael isn't hateful, according to his mother; he has a mental illness. Doctors aren't sure what the problem is. They have considered Autism, ADHD, Oppositional Defiant or Intermittent Explosive Disorder and Michael has taken a number of different psychotics, but all to no avail.
"I am sharing this story because I am Adam Lanza's mother. I am Dylan Klebold's and Eric Harris's mother. I am James Holmes's mother. I am Jared Loughner's mother. I am Seung-Hui Cho's mother," the blogger wrote. " And these boys- and their mothers- need help. In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it's easy to talk about guns. But it's time to talk about mental illness."
Shortly after the July massacre during "The Dark Knight Rises" movie in Aurora, Colo., the mental health of the shooter, James Holmes, was also questioned. Holmes was also considered to have an above average IQ. Before the shooting had occured, Nanzy Lanza, Adam's mother, confessed to a bar friend that she felt like she was losing her son to a mental illness.
"'I don't know. I'm worried I'm losing him,'"a bar pal who asked not to be named recalled Lanza saying in an intervier with the Daily News. "She said it was getting worse. She was having trouble reaching him."
Michael's mother says that no help has been offered to her son. Her options have been limited to prison, where she does not believe her 13-year-old son belongs.
"No one wants to send a 13-year old genius who loves Harry Potter and his snuggle animal collection to jail. But our society, with its stigma on mental illness and its broken healthcare system, does not provide us with other options. Then another tortured soul shoots up a fast food restaurant. A mall. A kindergarten classroom. And we wring our hands and say, 'Something must be done,'" Michael's mother wrote.
She proposed that the next conversation undertaken on a national level should be about mental illness and how it is affecting our youth.
