Vol. 9, No. 3, 2003 Page 7
Editor's note: We receive many wonderful letters from our readers, and we thank you all for your enlightening and often inspiring comments. While our space demands rarely allow us to publish letters, we'd like to share a sampling of our mail in this issue:
I am a constant reader of your site and the mother of [an adult] son who had and has behavior problems from the age of 2 years after consuming certain foods and food additives... he also has had a brush with the law [and] has been given the title of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. I have been searching for a number of years for the reasons as to why some of us are more sensitive than others, I have to say without much help from the medical profession! Your site is great reading and of great help to many.
Thank God someone understands! My husband was diagnosed as bipolar several years into our marriage, but due to a lack of support from police and family, I have had to file police reports against him when he became manic and violent toward me. I have been labeled a victim, a battered wife, co-dependent, etc.; and my husband (a loving, diligent father and husband) a criminal, a rapist, a wife-beater, a misogynist. Until the rest of society wakes up to the pain caused by criminalizing brain dysfunction, families like ours will continue to suffer not only from the primary pain of violence and disconnection, but also from the lack of insight on the part of society.
I am thrilled to have stumbled upon your site... and will follow and perhaps assist your work, in the hopes that it will assist others like myself who, in their moments of crisis, cannot obtain proper medical care for their violent loved ones.
I am employed as a juvenile probation officer. I have just completed reviewing an issue of Crime Times. This specific issue dealt with ADHD and its relationship to criminal behavior. Your publication provided research-based findings to questions that I have been seeking for years.
I have been tracking the newsletter online and am impressed with your efforts to educate the public (as well as clinical practitioners) on advances in the scientific study of violence.
I would think that university sociology, counseling, and psychology departments would find interest in your wonderful website. If social service agencies were progressive, they would, too. Unfortunately, most counselors still "blame the parent" for their children's misdeeds.
As I read the research results, I remember that at one time in our history, epileptics were thought to be possessed, and were confined and mistreated based on that belief.
I am finishing up my M.A. in psychology and I accidentally came across Crime Times as I was doing research on children of addicts. I love your newsletter.... The subjects you cover are fantastic, interesting and very relevant in today's world.
"As a member of the (State) Supreme Court.......I have enjoyed receiving and reading your publication."