My autistic brain is overwhelmed by the forced digital switchover. I'm crying right now because everything has gotten too much. I've had 3 years of relentless problems to solve and now my very access to the world is at risk.
We have an ancient hub from 2015 that doesn't have a phone socket, so we'll need a new one when the time comes. But BT doesn't accommodate autism, so the Hub will just come "whenever" they feel like sending it. And our flat already has an unreliable internet connection (copper wires) that I'm scared of fiddling with in case it permanently breaks (our living room phoneline stopped working years ago and now we rely on the hallway).
Secondly, Digital Voice doesn't work in a power cut. The whole point of having a landline is to keep myself safe and connected during power cuts or broken routers. So the telecoms industry is permanently making my future more precarious and dangerous and isolated. I can't afford to make calls on a mobile because I'm on PAYG and I need the tactile shape of a proper handset, not a thin mobile to my face. I'm semi verbal/L2 and can't spontaneously reach out for help to my neighbours in an emergency. I NEED the landline to work.
I know that I can beg for a Backup Power unit when the transition time comes but they'll gatekeep it or force me to pay, because that's how all accessibility needs work -- and that's also a functioning administrative task to do when I'm already chronically burned out from fixing life problems! I can't do more peopling, more phone calls, more delivery, morerelentless open tabs in my brain! I just can't!
The uncertainty and future demands is giving me a mental breakdown and I haven't even received the migration letter yet. Now I'm forced to spend a year living in relentless fear and worry for when the transition will happen to me.
For context, I'm currently suffering a Universal Credit migration that I spent a year living in fear of, and I can't handle anymore stress after 3 years of fixing administrative problems with involuntary debts, council persecution, NHS abuse, and the government's welfare bill. I am burned out and have been having chronic meltdowns for 2 years now.
I feel myself teetering on the brink of a major stress episode. I feel like I'm going to fall apart and shutdown/stop functioning/Big Meltdown/crisis team call any day now. I can't take anymore of this. Society shouldn't be making me do all these adult tasks, I wasn't designed for it. Life is too hard for me.
