this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2023
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Autism
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I cannot stress enough that if you are an adult and you think you have autism, do not get an on the record diagnosis.
It is only filled with negatives. Not only will you likely NOT receive help, but that diagnosis can be used against you for pretty much anything besides getting a job, INCLUDING YOUR POTENTIAL CHILDREN.
Ah yes, the global mental health stigma that is very real and will not go away.
(ADHD here)
If I may ask, what sort of negatives could happen? How would the diagnosis be used against you in various situations? How would it be used against your children?
I think it's more like, if you're ever in a custody dispute your diagnosis can be used against you.
There are countries like New Zealand that won't allow you to immigrate to their country if you have Autism. Now, while one might not particularly want to migrate to that specific country, that just displays what kind of stigma there is in the world against auts.
Ouch that's ableist af... probably better not to move there anyway then IMO
I'm so sick of seeing this particular piece of misinformation, you absolutely can immigrate to New Zealand with diagnosed Autism.
Those restrictions essentially only apply to people who require full time carers (i.e. who need a large dollar amount of support needs, who can't pay for it themselves).
Misinformation lol. It has nothing to do with whether they need full time care but how much monetary cost there is. $41k over a few years is the limit.
Your country denies entry to disabled people on the basis that they supposedly can't bring in any value of their own. It's a disgusting policy.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/26/new-zealand-denies-entry-to-autistic-daughter-of-immigrant-couple
Can't speak for NZ. In Australia because we have healthcare and other benefits, the fear is that permitting non-working immigrants to become citizens will mean they are a net burden on the economy. Can't let everyone in. Got to draw the line somewhere. It sucks for those that don't pass the bar but if I were gatekeeping immigration I'd choose the subset most likely to make the country better; net contributors. Let me just say I'm not sure what our official policy is. I am just providing an opinion. I guess autism would be a red flag to an immigration official. If someone was autistic and contributing to the nation I personally wouldn't have an issue. You can come hang.
How much money someone might potentially make is a fucking gross way to view human beings, and it being normalized under capitalism doesn't make it any better. It might actually make it worse, because there's people like you who somehow buy into it.
If you were gatekeeper, how would you discriminate?
To clarify when I say contributing that's more just dollars. It could be anything that lifts us up.
Thanks for the honesty. That is hopelessly cruel, some of our highest value industries are powered by autistic people's labor.
Don't disagree.
Straight up fired from your job, although not exactly because of that reason, it's just they'll find one that they won't get sued for.
Your employer isn't privy to that info unless you tell them.
Witch is why (in amarica) most service workers heavly stress that you to not give that information away to your employer
That's how I felt when I got diagnosed with severe anxiety.
"Well that explains it....FUCK! Now I have that to deal with. What do I do?"
Turns out being diagnosed with anxiety is anxiety fuel. There's no help because it's so personal. just someone adding on more shit to deal with and some generic advice that doesn't really help.
Rejecting the diagnosis was a big part of overcoming it.
I don't know about your experience, but anxiety is something every therapist is trained for. It's extremely common and there are specific courses and school of thought for it. You can take dialectical behavior therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, and a lot more. There is help for people with anxiety.
It's possible you may not be able to find affordable help. I was in that situation and couldn't get help for years. All I know is that ignoring doesn't help in the long run. My therapist taught me that the body remembers, which means the anxiety you feel will build up in the form of body stress and tension.
I know this post may cause more anxiety but i feel like i needed to make it because i don't want people with anxiety to feel like they won't have support to the extent of those with autism. The difference in support isn't comparable. There are so many more resources for anxiety than autism.
Or the many people who have experienced doctors that'll just prescribe some tablets that are very addictive/not for long-term use (benzodiazepines for example), or something that's less effective at stopping anxiety symptoms such as hydroxyzine.
Good therapy is hard to come by, and even harder when you're too anxious to seek it out, but it's one of the only ways to get better, sadly there's no magic pills for GAD yet.
From what i got to know, many people are now using some well-known but mostly criminalised (but now again put to clinical research) substances, in miniscule doses, successfully for anxiety relief. Of course, i can not directly recommend trying them as reactions, at least in large psychedelic doses, are widely unpredictable and i do not know about their use in general anxiety (although i'd love to know). Procurement will likely be illegal too, so one has to find a trusted source and should make use of test kits for purity testing. All i can say is that they are generally seen as non-addictive. We are adviced to do our own research, not least on their usefulness together with other medications (ie. neuroleptice, benzodiazepines, barbiturates).
I would disagree with you. Laws regarding mental health conditions vary from place to place. But, speaking for my country (Lithuania), the restrictions are not that bad, it's only affecting guns and adoption (nobody's tossing away your children). Driving license is "dealt individually" but restrictions have almost never been enforced, unless for people with severe neurological/eye-related conditions. The psychiatrists are not willing to lock down people with mental health conditions. This is what a professional told me. Mental health records are kept away from the private sector by to the GDPR.
On the other hand, we have other problems in healthcare, like corruption in the public health sector, especially hospitals, and prioritizing young patients with a 'perspective in life' over the old or lifelong-disabled ones.
NL here. The driving license example is quite interesting in my case. When I initially got my license, they gave me a shorter license and required me to go via a psychologist to have it extended. Somewhere between then and when I had to renew it three years later, the rules were changed, and special cases like mine were being rolled into the regular system. So now I have a regular driving license.
Yeah nah, if you can pass as neurotypical you should. This world is fucking hostile and a diagnosis sticks to you for life. Tensions are high enough today that nearly any European country could become fascist by the end of the next three decades.