Published on 12, July, 2020
For the second time, I was told by a GP that I "suffer with autism"
No I don't. I am autistic and any suffering involved comes from my needs as an autistic person not being met predominantly, in fact, in health care settings.
Grrrrr! Partly venting my spleen here, but at the same time I know this faux pas is born of ignorance not wilful intention to insult. This GP was trying to be sympathetic, I'm sure. He does not seem to know much about autism though since he's asking the patient who has diagnoses of autism, dyslexia, Irlen's syndromes and has further been identified as a synesthete, whether I have an SPD diagnosis - excuse me while I bang my head on brick wall (metaphorically, of course).
Then he stated I "suffer" with autism.
Are you folks getting the same from health care professionals? And how do you go about correcting them?
This obviously isn't his fault. It's just ignorance because he hasn't been trained. But none of us is getting very far, if our GPs don't understand what being autistic means. I'm wondering if it's time I popped my old trainer's hat back on and offered to do some training sessions for them free of charge.
Hmm, I've not had that with my GP, but if I did I'd probably do the NT thing of dropping hints if I didn't know how to say it directly once actualy in the room, but then I am autistic so it would be an anvil sized hint, something like: "Do you know about the social model of disability? Because I worry like that's happening to me all to frequently these days." And then the GP would google it up after I got out the door. Who knows, maybe that could work?
Lol. Nice one. Maybe I'll try that.
I did directly say: "I don't. I'm autistic". That simple. He didn't react. I think it went over his head.