Troubling stats

Hi JennyButterfly. The stats cannot possibly be accurate. Life expectancy cannot be ascertained when most older people have never had the chance to be assessed, so do not feature in the stats. Secondly, diagnosis is not an exact art. It’s early days with diagnosing the full spectrum, and certainly older people hardly feature. Also a lot of females are misdiagnosed. For those who ARE diagnosed, many have other conditions as well, physical and/or mental health. Would a death or suicide be down to ASD or depression, heart defect or what? Personally I feel if the general public were more accepting of differences of any sort, less judgemental of others, less aggressively competitive, then many people would live longer and suicide rates would fall. Also if the services would help people who are having serious problems in their development/lives without the need for a formal diagnosis, there might be an improvement. Formal diagnoses are black and white thinking. Spectrums are not black and white. And if a person is having problems functioning or existing, it IS a problem whether the doctor, psychologist, nurse, parent, teacher etc. understand it as a problem or not. It’s not THEIR problem, it is the original person’s. So I think the stats are just a guess by people who cannot possibly know. Statisticians love numbers. Anybody who is going through serious problems who wants to know how to help themselves deserves help. It shouldn’t need formal diagnosis. If anything, this system is driving people towards bad lifestyle choices, Ill health and suicidal thoughts. I’d love to gather the statistics for the number of people who ask for support to help themselves and get turned away as if they are not deserving enough. Maybe those figures would depress me too much though!

Rip Van Wrinkle said:

Personally I feel if the general public were more accepting of differences of any sort, less judgemental of others, less aggressively competitive, then many people would live longer and suicide rates would fall.

I agree that it's probably in good part a socio-economic problem, driven by a society that places a premium on earning capability and financial advancement: you are what you earn, or what you have the power to buy.  In such a society, as we've seen over the last decades, many fall through the cracks, regardless of whether they're autistic or not - though autistic people face greater challenges.  It shouldn't need people to have to get some form of diagnosis before they can begin to get anyone to take notice.  Even getting a diagnosis is no guarantee of anything - witness people failing to get PIPs, failing ESA assessments, failing to get reasonable adjustments in the workplace.  Failing to even have their diagnosis - conducted by a qualified medical professional - taken seriously at all.

Yes... it all does drive people towards bad lifestyle choices (or even bad lifestyles they have little choice about in the first place), ill health, suicide...

Hi Martian Tom. Like Jenny B I find statistics can be alarming. Then I realise they are basically guesswork, albeit educated guesswork. Some are more accurate of course. Some are heavily biased to prove a point. I strongly believe in individuals, rather than groupings. I may now have an ASD label, but I'm just an individual with a quirky personality, possibly unique, with problems. I am an odd shaped personality who doesn't fit the boxes provided! In your opinion, do you think those of us who cannot quite function and ask for a bit of help get tossed aside because we don't have a classic mental health problem? I've noticed if someone gets addicted or drinks too much then there is support to get off the substance, but not to look at why the addiction started. Maybe statistics aren't the problem. It's the way society has let itself go. 

I'd say those things are my only focus.  But when the service users arrive and I'm in their world, the rest of the world kind of fades away.

I'm writing a novel which is going off at all kinds of tangents and doesn't really have a plot, so I don't know how or where... or even if it will end.  But it's about all of these issues we talk about on these forums.  What it's like to feel like a lone voice.  What it's like to try to understand something that seems inexplicable enough to me... so what chance has the rest of the world got?  It keeps me out of trouble!

The old "Everyone has their struggles" - a statement which seeks to minimise then ignore any issues.  The workplace can be a particular course of stress and anxiety.  In one office I took my manager aback when I referred to a "seething cauldron of discontent".  And she laughed, although I really wasn't joking.  

Sometimes the best way through is by focussing on the time outside work.  Cats and gardening have been particularly helpful in my case.  

Daisy.  She's a rescue.  I got her not long before mum fell ill in her final decline.  She gave mum a lot of pleasure in those final months (I moved in temporarily as full-time carer, and Daisy came with me).  She kind of got me through it.  And she continues to.

Ah, the butterfly fascination.  I could see the assessor's ears pricking up when we came to that.  :)

What's your cat's name? Cats are lovely company. 

What's your cat's name? Cats are lovely company. 

Daisy.  She's a rescue.  I got her not long before mum fell ill in her final decline.  She gave mum a lot of pleasure in those final months (I moved in temporarily as full-time carer, and Daisy came with me).  She kind of got me through it.  And she continues to.