#his doctor even described it as ''self-medicating'' after he finally got an official diagnosis

[coockie8]

"wah wah roys not a drunk wah!" in more than half the scenes where hes not working hes drinking i think you need to rewatch the show anon

I don't know if it's "more than half", but it's definitely enough it's noticeable. He does drink quite a bit, and whether him being an alcoholic was the canonical intent or not doesn't change that it's a perfectly reasonable interpretation given his background.

[alianoralacanta]

Warning! Long post alert! You’ll be pleased to know that the UK’s stopped using “Asperger’s Syndrome” as a diagnosis as well... ...and less pleased to hear the official change happened in the last 12 months. Short version: psychiatric format wars. Long version:

This is because there are two major diagnostic manuals for neurological stuff: DSM and ICD. The USA uses DSM (); the UK uses ICD (issued by the WHO). The DSM switched over to calling everything “autism spectrum condition” in its DSM-V version, released in 2013. This was because it was becoming very much apparent (especially from research done in the UK) that “mild” and “severe” could not only describe the same person on different days, but that they could describe the same person judged by two different psychiatrists in the same room, looking at the same person at the same moment. Unfortunately for people in the UK, ICD had been updated 3 years earlier to ICD-10 and had elected not to make that change (it raised some eyebrows back then, for the evidence that “Asperger’s syndrome”, “mild autism”, “Kanner’s autism” and “severe autism” were basically the same thing had been obvious to people on the cutting edge of decent autism research since shortly after the turn of the millenium). The psychiatric diagnostic manuals are typically revamped around once a decade, However, ICD opted to go for a more incremental approach on this occasion, issuing a series of In the ICD’s case, I suspect “more research needed” turned out to be Hans Asperger’s links with the Nazis being spelt out in great detail in 2017. Some sort of link had long been known, because it was simply impossible to have kept the position Hans was in within Germany during the late 1930s and early 1940s (which ended only when his workplace was bombed in 1944) unless he had some sort of Nazi affiliation. However, the 2017 research by Herwig Czech showed the links were a) somewhat deeper than had been assumed and b) that there were multiple instances where basic ethics for protecting patients’ lives were, at best, in question. (More research is being conducted as we speak). ICD issued updates downgrading Asperger’s Syndrome to a colloquialism of (deep breath) “Autism spectrum disorder without disorder of intellectual development and with mild or no impairment of functional language“* in the late 2010s. However, people were allowed to take or leave those changes because the formal version had not changed. So while some doctors in the UK abandoned “Asperger’s Syndrome” (at least for people who weren’t already self-identifying as having it), many others did not, either because they did not know about the change (budgets...) or because the habit of considering it a distinct diagnosis continued and wasn’t trained out of them. (To this day, the mandatory autism training for healthcare professionals considers Asperger’s Syndrome to be a valid label, and until this year it listed them as separate diagnoses - I’ll get to that later. Still working through it to see whether it mentions that autism is the official and correct term where there is any doubt as to someone’s self-identification). * - For anyone wondering, the reason ICD doesn’t save itself two lines of text in ICD-10-CM and just call it “autism” like most autistic people do, is because the original meaning of “autism” in psychiatry was a completely different condition related to schizophrenia. Confusing the two would be a Very Bad Thing, so ICD makes the distinction even though to my knowledge, nobody has seriously issued a “autism-as-in-type-of-schizophrenia” diagnosis since the 1980s.  In practise, I expect most doctors will simply use “autism” or “autism spectrum disorder” when talking to non-psychiatrists. This year (2022), drafts of ICD-10-CM (the upcoming new version, which was originally going to be ICD-11 but has changed for boring reasons) have finally been issued, cementing Asperger’s Syndrome as a mere colloquialism rather than a term that doctors should use unprompted (let alone as a distinct diagnosis). UK medical training got updated and everyone working in the NHS is required to take a new course which reflects this. So UK doctors should now be using “autism” and “autism spectrum disorder” just like their counterparts in the USA. My advice on pursuing a private diagnosis would depend on several factors: - whether you plan to use it to obtain supports (and if so, whether those supports are in the private sector/medical sector only, or also in e.g. schools) - whether you plan to reveal your diagnosis (and if so, where) - waiting lists (which in the UK are sometimes long for private diagnoses, depending on area) - local provision - local attitudes to autism (especially among powerful people. If that sounds difficult to gauge, look at how they judge other disabilities and other differences that result in discrimination by people who should know better) There are some circumstances where I would say “go for it” and others where one would probably be better off remaining self-diagnosed and perhaps getting insight into your specific brain’s working in other ways (remember that lots of private organisations working in the medical sector will hear a self-diagnosis of autism and take that into some sort of account even without paperwork). If you do go down the “private diagnosis route Finally, I will note that some people have had success by asking to be referred to a GP who is known to be autism-positive to get a second opinion (this may require some travel, depending on your area). If you don’t happen to have an autism diagnosis resource that accepts direct referral in your area (some places do), that is another possible research avenue (because then your autism-negative GP doesn’t have to worry about it after making the request ;) )

I would love to know about the process by which you were diagnosed as autistic. I think I am, I've thought it for years...but the GP doesn't want to know (as I'm on the surface a functioning woman with a job and a family and there isn't enough "evidence") and I can't afford private assessment.

I appreciate the label in itself is not everything but I need some resolution as to what is wrong with me beyond the fluffy psychology labels (high functioning anxiety, highly sensitive person)

Obviously understand if you don't want to go into it...but it would help me understand if I need to start saving....

oh sure; so, this was getting on for 10 years ago now, obviously but it was, at the time, a fairly drawn-out process of getting a referral from a GP and then a series of assessments, involving yourself and family members (if you had relevant family members to testify about your behaviour as a child etc - I didn't take this option up as aside from anything else it was becoming screamingly obvious I was autistic from the tests on me)

Keep reading

[techcrunchappcom]

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/invincibility-punctured-by-infection-how-the-coronavirusspread-in-trumps-white-house-the-washington-post/

Invincibility punctured by infection: How the coronavirus spread in Trump’s White House - The Washington Post

Spirits were high. Finally, Trump was steering the national discussion away from the coronavirus pandemic — which had already killed more than 200,000 people in the United States and was still raging — to more favorable terrain, a possible conservative realignment of the Supreme Court.

Attendees were so confident that the contagion would not invade their seemingly safe space at the White House that, according to Jenkins, after guests tested negative that day they were instructed they no longer needed to cover their faces. The no-mask mantra applied indoors as well. Cabinet members, senators, Barrett family members and others mixed unencumbered at tightly packed, indoor receptions in the White House’s Diplomatic Room and Cabinet Room.

Five days later, that feeling of invincibility was cruelly punctured. On Thursday, counselor to the president Hope Hicks, who reported feeling symptoms during a trip with the president to Minnesota on Wednesday, tested positive for the virus. Early Friday morning, Trump announced that he and the first lady also had tested positive and had begun isolating inside the White House residence.

On Friday, Lee, Conway and Jenkins announced that they, too, had tested positive, as did Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who was at the ceremony, and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who had recently spent time with the president, including at an indoor fundraiser last week. At least three journalists who had been at White House events in the past week also reported testing positive on Friday. And White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said he was bracing for additional infections among administration officials.

By Friday afternoon, Trump’s condition had worsened, officials said, though they maintained he was “in good spirits.” The president had a low-grade fever, a cough and nasal congestion, among other symptoms, according to two people familiar with his condition who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss a sensitive matter.

Trump was transported about 6:16 p.m. Friday to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for further treatment out of what the White House described as an abundance of caution.

As Trump’s condition deteriorated during the day Friday, the president and his team ultimately made the decision to send him to Walter Reed preemptively — and, from a public relations perspective, when he was still able to walk to Marine One on his own, according to one outside adviser in frequent contact with White House officials. They feared the possibility of a further decline, and what that might mean, both for the president’s health and his political optics.

The White House outbreak thrust Washington into a state of heightened alarm Friday, with uncertainty one month before the election about the health of the president, whose age of 74, as well as additional co-morbidities — obesity, high cholesterol and slightly elevated blood pressure — increase his risks of a negative outcome.

Though White House officials have begun contact tracing to try to identify the origin of the outbreak, it is not publicly known whether the Rose Garden announcement of Barrett’s nomination was a superspreader event.

Still, the jarring contrast between the carefree, cavalier attitude toward the virus on display in the Rose Garden last Saturday and the pernicious awakening that occurred Thursday night resembles a Shakespearean tragedy.

The White House’s handling of the period between the first known symptoms — those of Hicks on Wednesday — and the president’s infection, which was confirmed about 1 a.m. Friday, is what experts considered a case study in irresponsibility and mismanagement.

Administration officials at first were not transparent with the public, and have not been forthcoming with detailed information about Trump’s condition since. Meadows told reporters Friday morning only that Trump was experiencing “mild symptoms” and would not elaborate on what those symptoms were.

“I’m not going to get into any particular treatment that he may or may not have,” Meadows said.

On Friday afternoon, the White House distributed a memorandum by White House physician Sean Conley describing Trump as “fatigued but in good spirits.” Though Conley listed the drugs he had administered, he provided to the public no measurements of the president’s condition, nor did he nor any other knowledgeable source submit to questions from journalists.

‘Losing their minds’

Inside the West Wing’s narrow corridors, where staffers for months have worked in proximity largely without masks, what had long been an atmosphere of invincibility turned into one of apprehension and panic. “People are losing their minds,” said the outside adviser.

First, aides fretted about their own risks of exposure. If the president got infected, so might they.

Then they considered the political implications, coming so close to the Nov. 3 election. “We don’t want to be talking about coronavirus and now we’re talking about coronavirus,” the outside adviser said. “The hit writes itself: He can’t protect the country. He couldn’t even protect himself.”

Then they considered the reality that the president could actually get very sick. Trump was unusually quiet Friday, not appearing before cameras nor even calling into Fox News Channel by phone, as he does from time to time.

Vice President Pence, whose doctor said he tested negative for the virus Friday morning, worked from his residence at the Naval Observatory for the day. But other White House officials did not take the same precautions.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the president’s daughter and son-in-law who both are senior advisers and have interacted with Trump and Hicks this week, tested negative on Friday, said White House spokeswoman Carolina Hurley. But she declined to answer questions about whether the two planned to self-isolate, and Kushner was seen at work in the White House on Friday.

Meadows, who also has had regular interaction with Trump and Hicks, did not wear a mask when he briefed reporters outdoors on Friday morning. Asked why, the chief of staff responded defensively, “I’ve obviously been tested. We’re hopefully more than six feet away.”

It was unclear where or how Trump contracted the virus, but his travel schedule has been robust all week. He visited five states between Sunday and Monday and interacted with hundreds of individuals.

The first sign of symptoms inside the presidential bubble came on Trump’s trip Wednesday to Minnesota, where he attended a campaign fundraiser in Shorewood and an evening rally in Duluth.

Hicks, who spends more time with the president than most staffers, tested negative for the coronavirus on Wednesday morning, but started to feel ill during the Minnesota trip. She self-isolated aboard Air Force One for the flight home that night, although some other aides on the trip were unaware she had done so. Hicks took another test Thursday morning, and the results came back positive.

Meanwhile, Trump’s voice sounded raspy at times during his rally performance in Duluth, and he delivered a shorter speech than is typical, clocking in at 46 minutes compared to other recent rally speeches that have stretched well past an hour.

On Thursday, Hicks’s diagnosis was kept secret from the public and even from some of her own colleagues. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany did not know Hicks had the virus when she briefed reporters about 11 a.m., but learned midafternoon, as the president was preparing to depart for another campaign fundraiser, this one at his private golf club in Bedminster, N.J.

By then, word about Hicks’s condition had begun spreading among Trump aides. Some staffers suddenly started wearing masks, a sign that something was amiss. A few senior aides were pulled from the Bedminster trip, including McEnany, who had been around Hicks extensively that week and was replaced by one of her deputies, Judd Deere.

Other aides on the trip were Johnny McEntee, Tony Ornato and Brian Jack. None wore a mask on Air Force One, but they did aboard Marine One, considering the helicopter has far tighter quarters than the airplane.

“Trump thought he could go to the fundraiser and keep it secret that Hicks  had it,” Republican donor Dan Eberhart said.

Trump’s decision to proceed with the fundraiser after the known infection of Hicks, someone with whom he had extended recent close contact, went against the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health authorities.

“They knew she was positive and they still let Marine One take off with the president. Why didn’t they ground him? That was the break in protocol,” said Kavita Patel, a practicing physician and former health adviser in the Obama White House. “The CDC’s protocol clearly states that as soon as anybody, i.e. Hope Hicks, was confirmed positive, anybody she came into close contact with for at least 48 hours prior should have at least isolated.”

In Bedminster, Trump held a roundtable fundraiser indoors where donors were sitting around the table with him. Masks were not worn in the room. The president then went outdoors to address a larger group, and some of those attendees wore masks, people present said.

Many of the attendees were elderly, a mix of real estate figures and Trump friends, including Keith Frankel, a vitamins executive who had worked with Trump on hydroxychloroquine, an ­anti-malarial drug Trump had falsely touted as a coronavirus cure.

“It was mostly the same stuff you hear him say on TV,” Frankel said of the president’s remarks, describing them in an interview late Thursday before Trump had tested positive.

En route back to the White House, Trump acknowledged Hicks’s diagnosis to his traveling team and said he was going to be tested, people with knowledge of his comments said.

News of Hicks’s infection came late in the evening — not in a public release by the White House, but rather from a Bloomberg News report, which White House officials quickly confirmed. About 10 p.m., Trump called into his friend Sean Hannity’s show on Fox for a pre-scheduled interview, where the host asked him about Hicks contracting the virus. Trump said he had taken a test and was awaiting his results.

“You know, it’s very hard,” the president said, his voice again sounding raspy. “When you’re with soldiers, when you’re with airmen, when you’re with Marines, and I’m with — and the police officers. I’m with them so much. And when they come over here, it’s very hard to say, ‘Stay back, stay back.’ It’s a tough kind of a situation. It’s a terrible thing. So, I just went for a test, and we will see what happens. I mean, who knows?”

In another breach of standard protocol for controlling the spread of the virus, not everyone who had come into contact with the president was immediately notified by the White House’s contact tracers. Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who had been helping Trump with debate preparation earlier this week, said Friday afternoon that he had not been contacted. In addition, at least one journalist who tested positive after traveling with the president this week also had not heard from the White House as of Friday afternoon.

‘No one was distanced’

As White House officials worked to trace the origin of the outbreak, they became concerned about a series of events Saturday: Barrett’s Rose Garden announcement and the private indoor receptions surrounding it.

A feeling of invincibility from the virus was pervasive. Guests were administered rapid coronavirus tests upon arrival and waited in a room wearing masks, according to Jenkins, the Notre Dame president. Then, he wrote in a statement Friday, “we were notified that we had all tested negative and were told that it was safe to remove our masks.”

Once escorted outside, guests mingled in the Rose Garden shaking hands and hugging, then took seats positioned closely together. Jenkins said he regretted “my mistake” of not wearing a mask and shaking hands at the event.

The mixing continued at indoor receptions to celebrate Barrett, which two White House officials said Friday have caused deep concern within the president’s circle. They were attended by Cabinet members, senators, Barrett’s family, family members of the late Justice Antonin Scalia and other guests, including Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

“They were all mingling without masks and in close quarters,” one of the officials said. “No one was distanced.”

Rochelle Walensky, chief of the division of infectious disease at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said a negative test is hardly a guarantee of immunity.

“People believe that if their test is negative, then they should be fine and the truth is that means you’re fine today,” Walensky said. “It doesn’t even mean you’re fine tonight, as the Thursday testing demonstrated.”

On the Friday night before the Barrett announcement, Trump attended an indoor fundraiser at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, along with McDaniel, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, lobbyist Brian Ballard and a coterie of Trump aides and allies.

McDaniel, who then spent two days with the president before beginning to show symptoms earlier this week, tested positive for the virus on Wednesday. She told the president about her infection on Friday morning, although she had notified some White House officials before then, according to two people familiar with the situation. She attempted to reach Trump sooner but did not get through to him and spoke instead with a White House doctor.

Trump’s non-socially distanced interactions continued throughout the week. After the Barrett announcement, Trump traveled to Middletown, Pa., to hold an evening campaign rally. On Sunday, he played golf at his private club in Northern Virginia, held a news conference at the White House and hosted a reception for Gold Star parents. On Monday, Trump spoke in the Rose Garden to update the nation on the coronavirus.

All the while, Trump held debate preparation meetings with Christie, Hicks, Conway, personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani and a handful of other advisers. Neither Trump nor Hicks showed symptoms or wore a mask, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

“He was totally like himself,” Conway said. 

Trump traveled Tuesday afternoon to Cleveland for his first debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The candidates’ podiums stood 12 feet 8 inches apart, roughly double the recommended social distancing space of six feet, according to Frank J. Fahrenkopf Jr., co-chair of the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

Fahrenkopf said the commission adopted changes to the routine because of the pandemic, including killing the typical meet-and-greet backstage. Everybody in the debate hall — other than Trump, Biden and moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News — was required to test negative for the virus and to wear a mask.

“The first family came in wearing masks, but they took them off,” Fahrenkopf said. “The rules said you had to wear a mask.”

Trump’s schedule continued apace Wednesday and Thursday. When he spoke about the virus in the Rose Garden on Monday afternoon, the president all but declared victory over the virus.

“Tremendous progress is being made,” he said. “I say, and I’ll say it all the time: We’re rounding the corner. And, very importantly, vaccines are coming, but we’re rounding the corner regardless.”

He could not have known then what was yet to come.

Amy Gardner contributed to this report.

[scriptautistic]

Hi! I'd like to know if it would be possible for a character/their surrounding family/friends to not notice/suspect that they might be autistic until adulthood? (I start writing when she is around 20 and I want her to start questioning this about herself as part of her journey) Is this feasible? Is it actually possible someone could be autistic without picking up on it/others picking up on it until this age? And what sort of things could she pick up on/question now to give her the idea? Thanks!

Absolutely. No one suspected I was autistic until I was 24, even though I showed many very obvious autistic traits throughout my life. I did well in school and was obviously very intelligent, so no one considered something that they thought of as a disability for me. I was bullied for being weird, had no friends, and constantly punished for being rude and not having “common sense”. The assumption was, since I was intelligent, that I understood very well what I was doing wrong and it was therefore intentional. I was also always very androgynous and preferred boys’ clothes because they were looser - girls’ clothes were painful for me to wear. Instead of noting the sensory issue, I was just labeled a “tomboy” and told I needed to learn to be “more ladylike”. It is especially common for girls to not be diagnosed until adulthood, since we tend to have an easier time mimicking others and blending in, and may hide meltdowns, etc. 

One thing that is very common for girls is that another girl will take them under their wing during childhood or adolescence. Sometimes an allistic girl will see, for example, a socially awkward girl with no “fashion sense” and take it upon herself to teach her how to put on makeup, dress, talk to others, etc. This is far from universal (certainly didn’t happen to me), but common enough to mention. When this happens, it is often much less obvious to others that the girl is autistic.

Boys (and genderfluid and nonbinary people as well) can also “fly under the radar” until adulthood. It is very common. Many autistic people don’t realize they’re autistic until they learn about it later in life and realize it describes them. The public perception is that autistic people are very disabled, can’t communicate properly, or are extremely rude, and that makes them easy to identify, but that is far from always the case. It is also common for someone to be obviously autistic, but for others to try to excuse away the traits, because they see autism as such a tragic thing they want to avoid the word as much as possible. Such an example exists in my own family: my 6-year-old niece is obviously autistic and has shown EVERY obvious trait from the time she was 6 months old, but because at one point she got burned by a cup of tea that got knocked over, the doctors immediately said that she was simply traumatized and would return to “normal” eventually. She can speak now and goes to a normal school, so my sister insists that she is not autistic, even though she very obviously is.

As for what could bring up the idea of your character being autistic, I can only offer my own experience. At age 24 I moved to a different country and my boss/mentor where I was working noticed immediately that I had difficulty with social skills and odd body language. She had previous experience with autistic people. She started probing me with questions about having friends as a child, how I felt when people laughed at me, etc. She was the first person to see my social problems as something unintentional, even something I was unaware of, rather than something intentional, and decided to gently help me. She was the first person in my life to say the words “you talk too much”. When I thought I was being maliciously made fun of, she took the time to explain to me that they weren’t trying to hurt me, they were trying to bond with me playfully, and that it wasn’t intended to be taken literally. I told her I didn’t see any difference, and she offered to point out whenever she saw me taking things the wrong way, so I could slowly learn the difference. (I still have trouble with this but it’s better than it was). Then she started lending me books written by autistic people. I was astounded - they were describing ME. Finally, the idea entered my head that I could be autistic. It was upsetting at first, since I thought at the time that autism was a terrible disability. It meant that no matter how hard I tried, I would never be normal. I started doing research on my own, and the more I read, the more certain it was that this was me. I was autistic. I asked my mentor about it and she confirmed that she was certain I was autistic. Eventually I talked to a psychologist about it (one who specialized in autism) and it was officially confirmed. After that, it was a slow process of becoming an expert on it, learning how I was different and why, and discovering that it’s not a horrible disability at all. I now consider it simply a different but perfectly healthy type of brain which has always been a part of the human race, and without which we would not have the society we have today. 

I hope this is helpful. Your proposed character sounds very realistic to me. Good luck!

-Mod Aira

I agree with Aira, it is absolutely possible. In addition to what she said about reasons someone might not get diagnosed, I would like to add that even in the official diagnostic criteria of the DSM (which one may or may not agree with, but which is still a good point of reference), it is written “The onset of the symptoms is in the early developmental period (but deficits may not become fully manifest until social communication demands exceed limited capacities).” This means that while someone is born autistic, their neurodivergence may not be noticed as a child because their environment is “easy enough” that they don’t show obvious “"deficits”“ in social skills and communications and such, which is what people tend to look for when they’re wondering if someone may be autistic.

I would moreover like to add my own experience of someone who realized they were autistic in adulthood (well, more late adolescence) because I’ve been told it was a typical one.

While I’ve shown autistic traits for as long as I can remember, no one noticed because I did very well in school, had a few friends (all of which had been found for me by a handy adult) and was just considered “quirky”.

When I was about 13 social rules changed from that of childhood to that of adolescence. Friendships were formed more by affinity and design than by whoever was around at the time, and rules to maintain these friendships became more and more complex.

I started being very isolated, until when i was 15 my only friends were online friends who lived hundreds of miles away. That plus bullying and some family problems (also caused by miscommunication due to my being autistic and no one being aware of it) led me to a depression of which I’m just now beginning to get out of.

While I hid my mental health issue to my parents as long as I could, they finally caught on, and I began seeing a whole series of mental health professionals.

Now, this is the stage at which some people get diagnosed. The professionals I saw were not well educated about autism and failed to notice anything. They also failed to do anything useful for me, but that’s another story.

I ended up by pure chance making an online friend who was autistic and very open about it. After a while of getting to know each other, he told me he saw a lot of autistic traits in me. That’s the point when I started learning about it obsessively, eventually self-diagnosing.

I talked about it with the therapist I was seeing at the time, she agreed with me, told me to go see a specialist psychologist, who also said I was probably autistic. I’ve not yet undertaken an official, medical diagnosis, though it is a project of mine.

I’m sorry this got so lengthy, and I hope you can find anything useful buried in there.

-Mod Cat

[jennmoslek36]

     JUNE 19TH, 1954

  AFTER BEING DECLARED “incompetent” by a Jackson County court, a 15 year-old boy is transferred into the custody of the Florida State hospital; Within 48 hours of his arrival, he is pronounced dead. But Cause of death? Well that would depend on which page of the boy’s file that you’re looking at. Only one of many questionable things that could be found within the roughly 200 pages that I was handed back in August of 2018. By the time I read through the content, I would be so confused that I would have to go back & read through the pages two more times, spending considerable time on each individual page taking notes; So many things failed to make sense, reminding me just how evil what we were dealing with was.

      THOMAS HERBERT WIGGINS

BORN TO OLLIE & Jeffie Wiggins in March of 1937, Thomas Herbert Wiggins was the youngest of 2 boys. His life would begin in Opp, Alabama but the Wiggins family would eventually relocate to the Florida Panhandle to continue raising their boys. At 1st they would report only seeing subtle differences between their oldest & youngest sons. Where Thomas’s big brother was very social & outgoing, Thomas was extremely introverted, preferring to be by himself. He showed no interest in playing sports OR becoming involved in other activities, unlike his sibling who excelled in both sports & academics & was also popular amongst his peers. While this may have been reason to give pause for a moment Mr. & Mrs. Wiggins didn’t panic initially, however, by age 11, Thomas began showing signs of extreme paranoia. He started to fixate on his food being poisoned. His course of action would be to refuse food, often go days without eating.

    The Oshner Clinic ~ 1950

WHEN THOMAS’S “SPELLS” became violent, his parents would finally seek help for their son. He would 1st be evaluated at Oshner Clinic in New Orleans, Louisiana.

        WHILE HE WAS there, Dr. C. Harrison Snyder & staff would perform extensive testing before issuing their findings & recommendations to the Wiggins family. Dr. Snyder reported that ALL tests were normal, including his cognitive functioning & intelligence. He recommended that Thomas be kept at home & receive plenty of love & positive attention from his family as well as be returned to his previous school where he was thriving & happy. In a nutshell, Dr. Snyder stated that being loved & cared for by his family within the security of his home would be key to Thomas being successful in life.

        IN HIS FINAL statement, the doctor requested to be notified within a month’s time of Thomas’s progress. I can say with confidence that they didn’t follow up with the Oshner Clinic as specified. I’m also positive that the Wiggins’ decided that keeping their family intact would not be an option as a little over 2 years later, he would be committed to the Florida State Hospital & when removed by his father, just 3 months after admission, they would send a letter to the medical director reporting that they were looking at boarding schools. 

        OTHER THAN THAT letter there is nothing else recorded about how Thomas was doing OR his whereabouts for over a year until he was sentenced to the Dozier School for Boys in September of 1953. It’s easy to wonder:

  WHERE THE HELL WAS THOMAS WIGGINS FOR THE YEAR IN BETWEEN??

  PAGE BY EXCRUTIATING PAGE

IT WOULD BE an impossible task to list out every page of Thomas’s file in detail BUT what I am going to do is list out some of the more interesting & questionable items that I’ve seen. For the sake of everyone’s sanity, I’m only going to talk about some of the more questionable details leading to his 1952 commitment to the State Hospital in Chattahoochee, Florida through when he would become an inmate at Dozier in September of 1953. Everything after will be covered in the next couple of posts.

  Anyone interested in reading it in its entirety can click here:

Wiggins Case File

  SO LET’S START with the basics….

      WHAT IN GOD’S NAME IS THE DIAGNOSIS??

 I COUNTED NOTHING short of half a dozen different reasons for Thomas’s commitment to the Florida State Hospital in 1952. That’s right SIX different diagnoses, ALL independent of one another, each listed on separate areas of a form OR on a completely different form altogether. Though most were pretty common by today’s standards, one REALLY stuck out like a sore thumb. See if Y’all can figure out which one I’m talking about…

  1) Schizophrenic

2) Agressive Psychosis

3) Dementia Praecox

4) Homosexuality

5) Vivid Hallucinations

6) Mental Incompetency

  DOES ANYTHING ON the list jump out at you?? If you said number 4, you’re definitely NOT alone! When I saw “Homosexuality” listed as a diagnosis, I was stunned…At least initially. It didn’t take long for the shock to wear off & everything started to make sense. I’ll cop to the possibility that Tommy may have had some serious mental health issues BUT it was all too clear that the family’s major concern was that he may be gay. 

      THIS PARTICULAR “ISSUE”  had got me thinking; Was Thomas gay & the fact that he was unable to express this the reason for some of these other issues that he was having OR did these other mental issues exist within him already, only to be exasperated by the frustration that he must have felt not being able to be his true self? 

  UNFORTUNATELY, WE WILL probably never know the answer & even if we did, it’s far too late to help Thomas now.

      THE PROOF LIES IN THE INCONSISTENCIES

OFFICIALLY LABELING THOMAS’S “problem” would NOT be the only inconsistency. I have to bring up one of the most careless, idiotic mistakes that someone in an official capacity can make; Getting a patient’s date of birth/age incorrect on forms inside of their chart. I wish I could say that this was just a one time deal that was due to a typo BUT it wasn’t.

      THIS PARTICULAR INDISCRETION became a common occurrence over a number of Thomas’s documents. His year of birth was changed from 1937 to 1938, even at one point listing his birth month as May instead of March. His age often fluctuated. For example, one form would list Thomas as being 14, however, another would show his age at 15, even though the completion date on both matched. 

  IN ALL ACTUALITY, the entire file was so chaotic that it took forever to get through. Every time I’d begin scanning a page, I’d notice something odd & have to stop to make a note about it. For instance, I’d read a doctor’s comment about how Thomas was only apt to self harm & then the next page would have that same physician noting that his “Propensity was to harm others.” My personal favorite was when the attending physician reported that there was really nothing outstanding about Tommy but immediately goes on to state that “Tommy is extremely ill.” Did this educated physician, who was the Medical Director of the Florida State Hospital, realize that he contradicted himself on a regular basis? If he DIDN’T, he’s an idiot & if he DID than he’s a jackass…Either scenario made poor Tommy up shit’s creek when it came to receiving ANY type of reliable treatment.  

  IN SPITE OF Thomas’s illness being described as dire, it ultimately didn’t prevent his father from discharging him only a few months into his treatment. Though we have no record of what happened during his year away from FSH, we can assume that he continued to decline…OR as I see it, he wouldn’t stop being gay. Thomas would resurface again BUT this time he wouldn’t be receiving hospital care, he would be sent to a brutal reform school located in Marianna, Florida where he would live out the remaining days of his way too short life.

  TO BE CONTINUED…

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      INVESTIGATING DOZIER: THOMAS Pt. 1 ~ The Road To Commitment  JUNE 19TH, 1954 AFTER BEING DECLARED “incompetent” by a Jackson County court, a 15 year-old boy is transferred into the custody of the Florida State hospital; Within 48 hours of his arrival, he is pronounced dead.