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.
Dawn said:Are you folks getting the same from health care professionals? And how do you go about correcting them?
Just a quick reply ~ one approach I took was the 'NHS Expert Patient Programme', with one of it's modules being 'Learn about developing more effective relationships with health professionals.' which was quite handy as I was not all that adverse to correcting and explaining things to people anyway, and it just made me more proficient at it ~ especially once I got diagnosed as having Asperger Syndrome! >(Big Happy Grin Emoji)<
That looks interesting but they should have an online version. I am still not attending in-person things. Plus I vastly prefer online and no trouble parking!
Oh thanks