Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi there, I wanted to share this experience just to see if it was me or if this was something that maybe someone should look into.
I've just started a job and had to fill out a "Fitness To Work" questionnaire before I started. On the form I spoke about my long term depression, ASD and the back pain I had when I was doing a lot of building work on my house 15 years ago.
The Occupational therapist called me and asked me some supplementary questions about the form. They were pretty standard questions asking me to elaborate on what was written. The emphasis I felt was a lot on depression, especially as my depression has caused me to visit "crisis" teams because I got so low. I explained that I felt the source of the depression was similar to a lot of ASD people, just the difficulty that some of us have understanding the world, finding friends, feeling lonely, feeling marginalised etc.
I'm in my 40's and was only diagnosed 2 months ago, so the better understanding of myself is only a recent thing.
My concern, and the purpose of this message was in her conclusion she said (to paraphrase)
"Listening to what you've told me, I would conclude that you are 'fit to work', and along with that statement, I'd like with your permission to inform them that I consider you to have a disability, and that disability is Depression"
I said, that's fine (I think it is always best to be honest when possible), but I did ask that if she considered making a formal statement about my Autism? She said no, her rational surprised me because she said "as unlike your depression, you don't receive any medication for your autism, so I wouldn't consider that a disability".
I replied that I wasn't aware you could medicate autism (as I was pretty sure you can't) but she was adamant that your could.
I did a google search afterwards to double check, and no - you can medicate some of the secondary issues related to ASD (like anxiety, ADHD etc.) but you can't medicate Autism.
What are peoples view on this? Especially the views of the NAS? Do you think I misunderstood what the Occupational Therapist was saying?
I worry that a Professional who society is trusting to advise businesses about conditions such as ASD might not have a great understanding of what it is, and if so, is it the place of the NAS to arrange training?
Thanks for the responses. My ASD is official and was done by Mind through the Right To Choose scheme (which I would recommend to any readers who are currently sat in a very long que waiting for the NHS - Google "Right To Choose" and Mind to find out more) neither the depression or the autism has seen me take time off work, so neither would have been more of an issue on the form, neither would have been more of a red flag than the other.
My concern is that earlier on in my career I was fired for "Gross Misconduct" which was incredibly painful and difficult, and caused my entire world to fall apart. Part of the difficulty understanding what I was going through was because none of it made sense. I don't want to go into details because it is still too painful, but to me it was the same as being fired for theft because you wrote a phone number down on a post-it note and took it home; or fired for sexual harassment because you told someone you thought their earrings looked nice. My truth of the matter was if in either case you WANTED to make an issue out of it, you could - because there was evidence there, but my confusion is WHY would someone? That's the thing that hurt, confused, made me angry.Since I spoke with my ASD Mentor, he made me feel better about it. Making comparisons to a person with cerebral palsy on a building site making a mistake because of balance, then someone like myself with ASD making a mistake based on society norms is equally as unfair.My initial instinct was worry, worry something like that may happen again, getting "professional" vindication from OC felt important. I feel I am more likely to be judged negatively at work because of something that happens as a result of ASD rather than that of Depression. But the former is much less understood.
I was just wondering if the NAS had experience of this, if they had the sort of contact or influence to make it happen to make businesses more aware through Occupational Health
The concern incase what one says or writes may be viewed wrongly is a big thing today. On another autism site I am on I long stopped posting as it just became too politically biassed through its moderation and there is no point in being part of site which does not take a politically neutral stance.
Anyway... Sorry. keep going off on tangents.
The fear of getting something wrong so one avoids contact or speaking etc is the worst hidden aspect of limiting free speach and the more marxistic the UK becomes, the harder it us on autistic people to cope and fit in. I would argue that the increase in autism diagnoses is not because there are mor autistic people. Thy have always been there regardless if they knew they were on the sectrum or not. It is the communistical political involvement in the education system today which exposes the autistic pupils, where in the past most of them could hide as individuality was once encouraged as it was what made Britain Great!
When, for whatever reason one is forced into silence it is time to leave, be it a job, a website or anything else, because one needs to be in a place where one feels one has a worth abd a sense of value for one to grow.
If one is not valied, whatever one does is going to be a waste of time continueing. I have sadly learned that the hard way. There are some places where it is worth carrying on if one has a certain goal in mind as miriacles can happen, but one has to ensure one is on the right path to begin with if this is the case.
The issue with pushing through despite the situation is it can take a negative toll on ones mental health, and boy do we need to preserve our mental health as we go older! I would not have been hit so hard had I had known what I know now! If only I knew in the past!