Autistic Artist

Struggling to Survive

As I've mentioned before, many autistic adults struggle with day-to-day existence while most non-autistics, and sometimes even we autistics ourselves, underestimate how precarious our lives have become when we are left without support.

Severe Autism, Denied Support: Struggling to Survive in the Mainstream has been written by Leonard Jayson with Marla Comm about Marla's life as an autistic child and adult who is given no resources or support. Marla has posted in the comments section of this blog over the months detailing some of her difficulties. It is terribly hard, I know from my own experience, to have such a disability and not to be heard or helped by those around us. Usually, only a very few of those closest to us know a little of what we go through.

I have not yet read this book, but hope to do so and review it here on my blog.

Services for Autistic Adults, Part 2

Well, I've put this off for long enough. I was trying to give myself some space between the Blue Ribbon Commission meeting and my thoughts about it, but the time has only strengthened my desire to be completely Aspie honest, as opposed to neuro-typical diplomatic.

But there is really no other way to say it. Given what I observed at the Blue Ribbon Commission meeting, I do not expect our government and society to start paying real attention to the needs of autistic adults until the current generation of autistic children become adults when some of the more perceptive parents in organizations like FEAT start to realize what that really means.

And that means that there is no cure for my generation, there is no cure for the current generation, and there won't be a cure for any generation. At best, there may be genetic prevention, if, as a society, we allow the medical industry to sell us that option.

At some point some parents of the current generation of autistics may figure out that early intervention only results in an autistic Johnny who seems like everybody else some of the time. But, in reality autistic Johnny's life is just as difficult as before, if not more so because neurotypicals now expect Johnny to be like everyone else, making every thing he has to do so much more difficult. When enough of the neuro-typical parents figure this out, then maybe we will be able to create some concrete useful services for adult autistics.

I think it unlikely that we autistic adults alone are going to be able to convince anyone to provide services for us. For one thing, we are not political enough. We are lucky if we are even social enough. And politicians seldom listen to the poor, the unemployed or underemployed, and the non-social.

What my husband and I saw at the Blue Ribbon Commission meeting we attended was frightening. We saw parents deluding themselves, and politicians playing the delusion game with them. And few are going to listen to us autistic adults because what we have to say is absolutely nothing most, if any, parents and politicians want to hear.

Sorry, I couldn't sugar coat it for you this time. My closest friends know that my favorite words are "I told you so." So, all I can say is, wait a decade or two for my "I told you so" journal or blog entry.