Resources for adults...

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I decided to put this here, because I'm not having luck any where else.

I have been trying to find support resources for adults on the spectrum, and haven't had any luck. I've written University of Washington, the Mayo Clinic (who sent me the most thoughtless and condescending response I've ever received from supposed professionals), and similar places. NAMI has been a bust because their groups are run from within and the local one has been hijacked by parents of children even though it's supposed to be for adults.

I am at an impasse. I am at the end of my rope. I am tired of going through the world and not being heard. Even among Aspies I'm ignored.

I have dropped all psych meds because they are not working, and weaning myself off of all other meds, because why the f*** does it matter? I have no support system, and I am not able to build one. Since I've been ill, friends have backed off. All I can think of is they can't deal with the anger, even though I have done everything I can to emphasize it's not them, and to try to control it, but I don't know for sure-I'm not a mind reader.

If I hear about one more diet, one more supplement, I swear, I'll blow my frigging brains out. I am on so many supplements for medical reasons, my stomach lining is being eaten away, and now it's painful. And they don't work anyway.

R.

Start your own support network? Use the local newspaper and put out ads. Isn't this a Craiglist for your city? Use them, they're free.

Well, this thread was an abject failure.

I beg to differ.

If it was a failure, I would not have responded.

I'm having the same trouble out in MD. DC has great resources for my speech and hearing, but Florida has the resources I need for my autism (including neurologists who are familiar with adults on the spectrum!).

The point is that there are simply no resources in most states for adults on the autistic spectrum. To change that, a lot of very brave autistic adults are going to have stand up and demand change. And a lot of time, for that matter...

I'm still trying to figure out how to get FL to move to MD.

I was trying to respond yesterday, but there was some problem with the site and it wouldn't accept my post.

I don't have much to offer except sympathy.

I don't know why you'd be on psych meds for AS.

Since you seem to have other health issues would you get more help thru a general health support service rather than an adult autisitics one?

Hope you feel better soon RJaye

Postperson--

I'm on psych meds for PTSD and depression for the lousy childhood I had. Antidepressants don't work, and I'm tired of so-called professionals insisting on doing the same thing (prescribing meds when they don't work).

As for the health thing, yes, I do have health issues, but unfortunately I'm on Medicare, and the continuity of care is lacking. I ended up in the hospital for an issue that should have been followed up in the office, but because I couldn't get the monthly visit I should have had for the med I was on, I had to wait three months and ended up with a side effect no-one told me to watch for, and would have been caught had I been followed up properly. But because I'm on Medicare....

The shrink I'm seeing is trying to get more info, and contacted NAMI, which isn't going to help, but who knows?

She's also contacting someone in Seattle.

Semi_Lost_Serenity--I went to Craig's list out of curiosity a couple of weeks ago when I was looking at property, and was pretty disappointed. The level of discourse was shallow as a teaspoon, or worse, and the few threads that started off civil degenerated into crude insults and tirades. When you suggested Craig's List, after what I had seen, it felt like a slap in the face.

I know there's little to no resources for adults with AS, but one never knows. But I hate being proven right in such a dismal situation. I'm sorry about my response--it's just I am not able to be the one to educate people, especially when my communication skills go down the tubes the worse I feel, whether it's the depression, or the RA. Right now the only way I can get through the day is with either Valium or Xanax, and oxycodone, along with handfulls of naproxen and tylenol. I hate doing that, as I want to be in the moment and I can't do that on all these meds. Then the docs say up the tylenol? Oh, well, at least until I can get another cortisone shot.

It just seems so odd that students in highschool get treatment to the point my friends who teach in highschool complain about the high cost of special ed at the expense of other programs, and then...nothing?

But i'm not surprised.

Sorry I'm such a bummer.

R.

I guess that's why I use pot and alcohol.

It's true there is nothing for older adults and funding focus will probably always be on the young because they have their whole potention taxpaying life ahead of them, whereas we (well many of us) are on the employment scrapheap.

In the end, unless you have the potential to be a taxpayer, I don't think govts are THAT interested in throwing money or resources at you. They only invest in what they feel will provide a 'return'.

I'm facing the same problem. I think what hurts the most is when you finally reach out for help you are rebuffed or face an almost universal apathy to your situation. I can understand the general public having "victim fatigue" from the number of groups seeking recognition for their cause. When health care providers show indifference, however...the anger and pain are unremitting.



Economically, I would imagine it to be much more in the interest of governments to offer resources providing condition targeted help than marginalizing certain groups by putting them on benefits and ignoring them. With the proper support in place, various Asperger related obstacles are (fairly) easily overcome. Lacking that support, it is hard just going out to pick up groceries, nevermind manoeuvring through bureaucratic red tape trying to acquire bare minimum help.

My apologies.

The Craigslist in DC isn't so bad - just have to be careful of the usual creeps, idiots, and those who seek to do harm.

So scratch Craigslist (I don't trust it for a job source and am skeptable on its reliance for housing).

Just use your local newspaper to put an ad out, advertising for a local group.

That whole taxpayer thing just kills me...I worked for twenty five years, after putting myself through college on my own, and now that I'm on disability, I get treated like I'm sponging off the state. One young woman gave me the spiel, and she got the spiel right back.

And I was diagnosed with "childhood schizophrenia" when I was six, though my parents rejected the diagnosis.

Someone did write to me--she's in the same situation, and she and her husband were thinking about starting a new organization to address adult AS issues here in the Pacific Northwest. I wasn't up to trying to start a grassroots thing (I did that with a women's group for those with mental illness), but that may be what I will do.

I'll keep people posted on what happens.

Thanks, everyone who replied.

metta, R.