“We are almost resolved to the fact that our son will crash and burn and we hope that he doesn’t take any innocent people down with him when he goes. We have done our best at every turn, but he is still our son and we still love him. We don’t know where this behavior came from, but looking back, I can see signs from the earliest ages. I used to wonder how parents of sociopaths dealt with their children. Now I know: they live in anguish.”

I cannot imagine what it must be like to live this type of existence. I can tell from your comment that you love your son very much and that you’ve worked hard to get him help, yet the avenues of treatment are limited and in most cases, doesn’t work.

I think it’s time to tell the “other side” of this story, your side, of parents who deeply love their child, are bewildered by their behavior, and who have sought many avenues of treatment that are limited. But in the end are left, as you wrote, in “anguish”.

Thank you so much for taking the time to comment.

“Once a kid commits a crime, the system kicks in, and the juvenile ASP criminal, along with his parents, are supplied with psychological evaluations and treatment….”

Our son has been reared in an intact, two-parent home. We have held him responsible since toddlerhood. When he began getting into more trouble, we continued to hold him accountable and we sought professional help. When he entered the juvenile justice system, we naively thought we would get help. After three arrests, a long incarceration, and boot camp, we asked his probation officer to keep him on probation until his 18th birthday. They let him off two months later. He quit school and work and we had no recourse. You are not legally allowed to throw them out until they turn 18, and even then, you have to go through an eviction proceeding. We had begun the process, but he got picked up by police nine days after his birthday. He stayed in jail for three months because we couldn’t and wouldn’t pay for a lawyer. Now we have spent the last two and a half months trying to get him in the military, but the court system is causing a catch-22.

We are almost resolved to the fact that our son will crash and burn and we hope that he doesn’t take any innocent people down with him when he goes. We have done our best at every turn, but he is still our son and we still love him. We don’t know where this behavior came from, but looking back, I can see signs from the earliest ages. I used to wonder how parents of sociopaths dealt with their children. Now I know: they live in anguish.

If telecommuting really takes off, more people might head to small towns where this kind of nonsense is less likely to happen, where ostracism is more effective, and where parents are more likely to bring their kids to heel.

I know it’s all just speculation…but man…doesn’t it seems like it’s true? Where were all these evil kids 50 years ago?

~T the D
http://thedrunkelephant.blogspot.com/