Healthcare and Neurodiversity

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androbot01
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05 Dec 2016, 5:21 pm

"Rooted in Rights" via AWN: Why Healthcare Providers Need to Recognize and Respect Neurodiversity

Quote:

Growing up as an undiagnosed autistic girl, I had many “behaviors” that baffled my parents and medical professionals. Seemingly unprovoked meltdowns, ritualistic, repetitive movements, and episodes of compulsive self-injury were explained away as a part of puberty, or diagnosed as a litany of mental illnesses. Throughout the years I received poor treatment from doctors and psychiatrists who ignored physical symptoms in order to focus on mental health issues. ...

by Stacy Stanford

I really identified with this author.

ASPartOfMe
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06 Dec 2016, 12:45 am

I completly avoided psychiatrists/psychologists from elementary school until my 50's. What should have been stubborn stupidity on my part was best thing I ever did for myself for the reasons stated in the article and by many, many WP posters. How sick is that?

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Professionally Identified and joined WP August 26, 2013
DSM 5: Autism Spectrum Disorder, DSM IV: Aspergers Moderate Severity

“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman

underwater
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06 Dec 2016, 1:08 am

Somebody, in another thread, said that finding a good doctor is like finding a baby unicorn. Amen to that!

I get it that a lot of people, women in particular, feel ignored and dismissed by doctors, but does anyone have an explanation why it happens to autistics so much? It seems like almost everyone is telling the same story.

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I sometimes leave conversations and return after a long time. I am sorry about it, but I need a lot of time to think about it when I am not sure how I feel.

androbot01
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07 Dec 2016, 8:38 am

No baby unicorns for me. I saw my latest psychiatrist yesterday. I told her about my most recent meltdown in which I had suicidal ideation. It was in reaction to a job I was unsuccessful at. She told me that that was a bizarre reaction. I've never had a psychiatrist describe my thoughts as bizarre before, but whatever.

She does seem to be on the ball with medication, she is making some changes which are effective. She also thinks I am bipolar, which wouldn't surprise me. I saw this article about how disorders overlap:

NIMH: New Data Reveal Extent of Genetic Overlap Between Major Mental Disorders

Quote:

August 12, 2013 • Press Release

The largest genome-wide study of its kind has determined how much five major mental illnesses are traceable to the same common inherited genetic variations. Researchers funded in part by the National Institutes of Health found that the overlap was highest between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; moderate for bipolar disorder and depression and for ADHD and depression; and low between schizophrenia and autism.

So far my diagnoses include: Major depression, social anxiety disorder, general anxiety disorder, HFA/Asperger's, and now bipolar.
To me this reads more like a list of symptoms.

ASPartOfMe
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08 Dec 2016, 1:01 am

All of the diagnosis you have are common co morbids of Autism

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