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?
Is only recently I was assessed so have lived through a few decades of not knowing and trying to find out what was wrong with me as shutdowns take place in me in a physical way (Is mental as well of course, but I noticed more the physical which is why it took so many years for me to work it out as the NHS system didn't have a clue in finding out what was happening to me.
In the six and a half years I found out I could be on the spectrum (First 2 years trying to ask doctors but unable to speak about autism due to mindblank and the rest on NHS waiting lists to be assessed) I have been both amazed at some health professionals knowledge about autism and absolutely shocked how others really don't have the slightest idea, and this is at levels where they "Should" know a bit and be able to make very simple accomodations to those with issues be one on the spectrum or not. (Simple things such as allowing me to wait just outside the glass door which was easily visible from the receptionist as was only around 10ft away when I was mask exempt (She wasn't having any of it) and could not stand the face shield. (I don't breath at all wearing a mask as I automatically hold my breath and can not find a way to stop my mind doing this. Tried for six months before masks became manditory but couldn't do it, and also faceshields I would start to panic while wearing it for a few minutes. Behind the glass door and windows by the door is the outside and I would be fine waiting there. But receptionist said I would have my appointment cancelled and she would tell the autism people I was not co-operating and not to send me again for an EEG as she would refuse it. (I hardly spoke to her! Why did she regard me as her enemy before she even got to know me?)
My word that sounds hectic, if I read that correctly it sounds like you've got a huge amount going on in your head, I know how chaotic that can feel so many thoughts jostling for attention.Those examples sound depressingly similar yes, there sounds to be a lot of difficulty there especially with toxic feminism. Rather like Autism awareness, there probably also needs to be a greater understanding on the issues which have caused a lot of women through history difficulty which are still causing problems today.
Hopefully the more we talk about it all, the more chance we have of understanding other peoples point of view and just maybe we'll be able to do something useful with it.
Apologize. Tried to ammend several times as it posted before I was ready, and then gave up and deleted most of it as each ti!e I tried to finish what I put it was cutting me off and going back to what it origionally said which was half of what happemed so it was easier to delete half of it than carry on...
I do also go off on tangents.
I hear you, thanks for the feedback. I think there is a huge amount of work that can be done to broaden the understanding people have of autism.
Perhaps people sharing stories like your own could help
Thanks for sharing