adults with autism
adults living in povertyall available services are for children only
A couple years ago, when I was on state medicaid, I went to see a psychiatrist. Over the course of the hour I explained to him how life-changing my ADHD diagnosis had been, and how much the medication helped.
He said that I had no need for medication because I'm an adult with a college degree. "Next patient." It was one of the must frustrating experiences of my life. I had been without my prescription for over a year at that point.
~ One Week Later ~
My loving, working-class parents bleed out exactly $500.00 cash for me to see a private psychiatrist. I told him I had been diagnosed in the past. He listened and gave me a standard assessment. "You do indeed appear to have ADHD. Here is your prescription."
The daily injustices of class society.
and we live in a society where most parents believe neurodiversity is just a fancy word for lazy
I hate how true this is. Same for ADHD, though not to this extent.
ADHD comes with its own little horror in that seeking the most effective treatment instantly makes you a criminal in the eyes of pharmacists, doctors, and lawmakers.
"Congrats on your ADHD diagnosis! The most effective treatment for this condition is stimulant medication."
Thanks doc, can I be prescribed stimulant medication to treat my ADHD?
Doctor types "drug seeker" into your chart, offers SNRI instead, acts like you're faking it a month later when you don't respond well to the treatment
I can relate to this so much. I have a severe needle phobia as a result of autism plus extreme childhood trauma, and doctors used to give me a single dose benzo prescription of Ativan when I needed to do bloodwork and get vaccines. That all stopped, forever, the moment my history of opioid addiction made it into my medical record. Makes sense, opioid+benzo is likely to equal dead, right? Well, come covid I was several years clean, and still got denied any sort of sedatives.
I made it as clear to the doctor as possible that without heavy sedation, I would not be able to get the covid vaccine because in a sober state of mind I cannot control myself at all when someone is about to puncture my flesh with a needle. I will try to exit the room as fast as possible, and I will get violent if someone tries to stop me. Doctor wouldn't budge, somehow they came to the conclusion that taking a single dose of a benzo is more of a danger to me than catching fucking covid unvaccinated.
In the end, I had to buy illegal Xanax off the DNM. I showed up for my covid vaccine obviously barred the fuck out. Since then I've realized how perfect of a microcosm this situation was for how the war on drugs has severely hurt patient outcomes in situations calling for controlled substances. Do doctors not realize that denying people prescriptions doesn't mean their patients just give up on trying to source them? That it's possible that we'll just get it ourselves at the cost of using unregulated drugs that are far more dangerous? I hope to god they start to notice and factor this into their decision making soon. Shit's fucked out there.
Yes, I've always fantasized about telling doctors exactly this.
Like, "Hey doc, you can either prescribe me clean, regulated, cheap pharma dope, or I am going to walk out the door and buy laced, stepped on, expensive cartel dope off a street corner. Which course of treatment do you see having better health outcomes?"
But I'm certain it would not help lmao
I have a massive needlephobia too and was thus only able to get the initial vaccine, using the exact methods you described (except I actually got prescribed benzos). Solidarity comrade, fuck the so-called "American healthcare system". Death to America.Thanks comrade, I appreciate the solidarity and knowing others also went through this. It was tough for me when the vaccines started rolling out. Every single day I delayed getting the vaccine, the more like a piece of shit I felt doing nothing. All the while I was helplessly watching the chud antivax movement grow. It got to the point I was seriously considering becoming a recluse over it.
Truly, I don't know how it didn't occur to me sooner that I ought to just show up for my vaccine extremely high on illegal drugs.
I just don't understand then why they put folks like me on Vyvanse when I was a kid.
In my experience, children getting stimulants isn't usually a big deal for doctors because it's unlikely for children to have a preexisting history of drug addiction. It's young adults, especially people of color, requiring controlled substances that sets off their cop brain worms
Even as a white teenager in the mid 2000's they wouldn't prescribe me real painkillers after surgery, they gave me extra strength tylonol which was basically nothing and I was still in agony for over a week
Cop brain worms may be the worst brain worms
What was your situation like? I wish I'd been put on Vyvanse as a kid.
I was diagnosed in Kindergarten and they put me on medication K-7ish and 11-12. About 5-7 and later I was probably taking Vyvanse. I had Medicaid at the time. No psychiatrist ever tried to explain what was the matter with me and I was never really conscious of what was the matter. They just told me to take the medicine so I could be allowed to go to school.
Tell me about it. My pharmacy began refusing to fill my prescriptions last year because of asinine new distance regulations. Now I have to waste four hours every month driving to a different pharmacy.
That's the neat part -- sometimes it's both at the same time!
if it turns out I’m normal and I feel like this I will loose my mind
well at least then you could go back and get reassessed :)
i was a kid when i last got diagnosed with anything mental so idk how it is for adults, but as a kid it was very simple. i never had to explain anything, it was pretty much just all simple questions. i figure they're the professionals who are supposed to know what's going on with you, so they ought to know how to figure it out. so there shouldn't be any pressure on you to help them along, you know what i mean?
thinks about conversation between Yossarian and the chaplain from the book, Catch-22
Meanwhile my last psychiatrist was like "Yes you do show many symptoms of ASD, but I do not believe in the usefulness of the medical criteria of the DSM-5 [proceeds to speak about Freud for 5 minutes]"; from what I've heard Freud is still a massive problem for psychiatry in my country (France).
I just wish I had something more predictable/controllable than edibles. Gotta wait until kiddo is in bed, and by that point, shit's not going to have worn off before I have to be up for work.
Imagine a future with less fast food workers and more occupational therapists.
What kind of support or services would you like or should be expected for diagnosed adults?
Adult Autism Support Groups.
By adults with autism (hopefully ones who were diagnosed young) for adults with autism (ideally those recently diagnosed). Just provide a space where neurodivergent people and specialists can offer their help to other neurodivergent people in their community.
