It seems like everything here, is aimed at autistic people with learning difficulties, what I believe was once called "low functioning autism". What irks me the most is almost all autism support groups are run by neurotypicals. It's like setting up a gay and lesbian support group but having a straight guy run it, or a single mother support group and having a married dad run it. TBH, I'm incentivised to set up my own group and also go into workplaces and explain about ASD/ADHD as I have both and I've had a negative experieence from NT employers who want to "tick a box" by having an employee with a disability on their payroll, but then expect them to act exactly the same as all their other, non-disability employees. In the UK, we have the NHS and say what you want about socialised health care, but as far as autism and mental health is concerned,m its absolutely crap. The person I saw even though autism could be medicated (she wasn't an autism professional thankfully). They set up autistic "coping skills" sessions...in the middle of the working day, so again assuming we can't "cope" with a regular job. Then even when high functioning autism is concerned, people assume we all like D&D, don't want to go to bars or clubs, and have really defined special interests etc. I feel having ADHD as well as ASD makes ASD a really different condition to just ASD on its own as it essentialy means whilst I struggle socially, I'm very spontaneous as opposed to regimented and organised, impulsive, and sometimes agressive. I'm so frustrated, I feel completely alone. Honestly, had it not been for my parents and my persistent mental health issues owing to social isolation, I probably would have gone un-diagnosed, because people just assumed I was "shy" and "clever". That's how mild I am.
