CMGUY89 wrote:As someone who has dealt with Persons With Learning Disabilities and Mental Illness his entire life I caution against starting a witch hunt. From what I've heard you describe these people are not dangerous. They are just eccentric and most likely have some sort of mental illness. Using derogatory terms like "funny farm" is offensive to me an demeaning to these people. Last I checked being weird and creepy was not a reason to "lock someone up". They are obviously not functioning at full-mental capacity. The thing that separates them from people with disorders like down's syndrome is that they are not cute, therefore they are deemed dangerous. My brother, who has long been diagnosed with a variety of disorders, was recently fired for a job for talking about barbecuing. They interpreted it as he was a pyro who wanted to burn down the building. So again I caution you against jumping to conclusions and trivializing these people and their conditions.
Well said, young man. That being said, they do have to differentiate between the developmentally disabled, autistic and other metal disabilities and the truly scary stalkers. I think one can pretty much tell when someone is developmentally disabled and a creepy stalker guy or gal. It can be pretty obvious sometimes. Maybe not so much other times.
But I don't like the terms funny farm and other words other folks use like retard or . It IS demeaning and has no place in our society. We need to learn to be accepting of those who have such disabilities. They are members of our society and many of the developmentally disabled lead fairly normal lives with a job abnd relationships often. I see folks like these on the city bus often and they are going to work at Wal-Mart or another job and often times have their boyfriend or girlfriend with them. I always get into interesting discussions with them because they see the world differently than I and I can learn from them.
I don't think you need to worry so much about your son, DisneyMom. He is a great kid. Very friendly and he seems to know what he is doing. Like the Jazmine thing, when he said to me, he thought she was hot, he blushed and laughed like a *cool guy* would and it looked to me like he KNEW she was a Disney character. I felt like he did not have any question about it. He is such a great kid and so friendly. He does love hugs. He and Ralph hit it off so well and they are buddies for sure. He likes to give Ralph hugs, but that is cool cause Ralph likes to hug too.
In some ways Ralph is very childlike. His brain was changed by the accident and he has a tendency to act childlike sometimes as well. Disneymom will tell you, I think she has noticed the traits there. He can be very petulant and have a temper tantrum (sorta). He is incredibly stubborn and has to do things in order and must do only one thing at a time or he gets confused. Very childlike sometimes...interesting to be his mate when I feel like his mother sometimes in these instances and have a little reality check on how to handle him as his wife, not mother. It gets strangely interesting to me. I have to try to figure out how I must react to a situation where a mom would usually be handling it, but he is with me, not his mom (thank God!) There are all kinds of people inthe world and it makes for an interstingplace and we must be careful to not judge so quickly and harshly those that are different from us or just different or eccentric in general. The true creepy stalkers and bad people stick out more than the others. I was stalked once as well when I worked in radio as the morning drive DJ, and he was pretty much harmless, but he was creepy. In the end we took care of the situation and he never bothered me again, but while I was being stalked I feared the worst. I will tell that story on this thread sometime. Right now my fingys are tired from typing and my back and knees are hurting real bad so I need to lie down.
Susi
P.S. You are a sensitive and bright young man CM Guy and you have more maturity than most young people these days. :)
You're making me blush.
