Published on 12, July, 2020
Since graduating from college I've been strugglign to adapt to society, I've been unable to hold down a job and have been dealing with depression, mood swings and a whole host of mood swings. My wife pointed out to me a while back that I showed a lot of signs of autism, and rethinking about my childhood (I was always paranoid that people weren't telling me that there was something wrong with me. I wasn't like the other kids, I did well in school, but I didn't act like them, I didn't talk like them, and I didn't think like them), I couldn't read until I was in 4th grade, and the only solice outside of learning I ever took was video games. It was the world I understood best. My psychiatrist agrees that I might have autism but is telling me that a diagnosis would do nothing for me, and that kaiser, at least the one I go to, will only diagnos children and that they don't see a point to diagnosing adults because we should already have coping mechanisms. School was the only thing I ever understood. It made sense. I have a schedule, I attend, I learn at my own pace, I can leave and return, I gain knowledge, I grow in power, I move onto the next adventure. It was even easier to be social, I felt safe. It was an environment I knew. Anyways, I forgot what my point was. I guess I just wanted to be heard, realize I'm not crazy, that I do have this problem and that I can finally start finding resources to help me succeed.
Des said:Is there a specific reason why Adults are brushed aside in regards to autism? That seems to be a general concensus from what I've seen so far. Is it just a negative stigma (IE, grown individual should be able to take care of themselves)? It felt really crappy to be just pushed aside despite having very real problems.
Is there a specific reason why Adults are brushed aside in regards to autism? That seems to be a general concensus from what I've seen so far. Is it just a negative stigma (IE, grown individual should be able to take care of themselves)? It felt really crappy to be just pushed aside despite having very real problems.
Support for adults is very patchy. There is a dedicated support service where I live but that is unusual. A lot depends on the attitude of the individual doctors that you are dealing with. Many have not come across it and do not understand it. Mental health in our NHS does not get the funding and priority that physical health issues get. Various politicians keep promising to fix this but I can see a very obvious difference between the satisfaction that people have for MH treatment and their satisfaction for physical health treatments. I don't think that it is entirely about autism.
People with autism are also often hopeless advocated for their own treatment. There is a very real Catch 22 in this. If you can't communicate your problems clearly then you won't get much of a response from the doctors. In the UK there are advocacy services to help to get over this issue - I guess that you could look for a similar thing where you are?
If you are seeing a psychiatrist then I would be concerned if they did not recognise the importance of an autism diagnosis. Except, perhaps so many of their patients actually have similar traits and innate issues. Autism itself cannot be treated so I would guess that the most important things are that
a) you are getting treatment for your problems
b) that the treatment is tailored in the light of your autism.
(spellchecked after posting!)