WHERE have all the Adults gone???

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I think there's a cheaper and more effective option than expanding the therapy-type programs. Public education. Fixing attitudes toward it seems easier and cheaper than trying to fit square pegs into round holes, and its effect is global - everyone with AS benefits, regardless of whether they're able to access services or not.

Public education that actively encouraged acceptance of difference could help many people and actively discouraging bigotry would be really helpful.

In the UK we have quite strong equality laws, and racism, homophobia and predjudice to those with disability is officially actively discouraged by public institutions. We keep adding people to the list you shouldn't be prejudiced towards.

This is all good, but to me it kind of misses the point, we need to be encouraging people not to be hostile or reject others just because they appear different, and everyone should be entitled to ask for reasonable adaptions in the workplace that make doing their jobs less stressful. You shouldn't have to have to have some official racial, ethnic or diagnostic label before you are entitled to ask for fair treatment.

That said, I think there should also be training programmes available to children (and adults who haven't had this) on basic social skills and life skills; these should be available to all - we shouldn't assume everyone just learns this stuff - or expect people to get themselves labeled by professionals as different (diagnosed) before they can acess this help.

I also think there IS a need to for more theraputic help for those who are struggling with mild to moderate anxiety and depression. There are a lot of quite simple psychological techniques out there can be very helpful if people are helped early. In the UK at least, unless you are very wealthy, it can be hard to access help until you are nearly at burnout, breakdown or suicidal stage. Then you can often get very good help, and whilst it's not too late for this to be very beneficial to some, a lot of damage is done that doesn't need to be.

Yes there is a cost implication to some of this, by I personally would rather my taxes were spent on this than more state of the art weaponry to kill people (and if necessary pay more taxes to cover it).

(This thread definitely seems to be encouraging me into mini-rants )

So the question is, how do we change this?

Maybe we need to start a thread in the activism section to discuss this further and start really trying to change things...

I think one of the arguments (certainly, my psychiatrist said this) for more research into Autistic children than adults is, apparently, adults should have adapted by now.

I am far too sensitive to things now and my interests have become more intense as an adult.

My needs are no less valid than that of a child.

What a profoundly ignorant statement.

I'd really like to know how they expect autistic young adults or their parents to be able to afford $75-100/hr for life skills work (on top of psychotherapy and occupational therapy and everything else). The costs of those private programs are extremely high. That's the lowest I've seen of all of them, possibly income adjusted for me.

(Though actually many of those programs could be used by older adults, just like the OT and psychotherapist I'm going to primarily work with children but I'm in my early 20s).


I would agree though that the 18-28 age for autistic people is huge, though I completely disagree with the thought that we'll suddenly reach near normal levels of employment as we're entering our 30s - nothing has supported that statement and our impairments don't disappear as we age. People who are supposed for early adulthood however can probably be picking up more skills when they're getting into their late 20s. My boyfriend is 27, and the plan is for him to learn to drive this summer, because it finally seems reasonable for him to drive.

Society pays more attention to children with disabilities because they can get money from the parents. It's called capitalism. Adults with disabilities often don't have money. End of story.

I always figured it was because children are cuter and therefore invoke more pity (and more money).

After 18, all of the people who were saying, "Oh, that poor little darling. How can help?" instead start saying, "They're just lazy bums who are faking it for government checks. They need to toughen-up!"

Blah.

I agree. So ... once I have my NT persona in place and can pretend to be someone else 24/7 without winding up exhausted and with a migraine - then will I be adapted? Because I'm certainly not there yet! That's such hogwash that I'd love to see that psychiatrist lose his license and have to live on the street - which is where his mental health patients that he fails to help could wind up. And they claim we have lack of empathy?

Kids get that too, but there are more effective and efficient ways of helping them than helping adults (incl. over 28 ). Sure, kids' parents usually have more money, but that's not the whole story. Besides, kids are cute indeed.

If there would be more money available, I'm sure adults would get more services. Sometimes with only a little help, understanding, and acceptance adults can achieve way more than they can without all that stuff.

As I've stated before, some Aspies, when thrown into the deep end, managed to do a mean dog paddle. While not really swimming with the NTs, they are staying above water and maneuvering towards goals. Not all people with disabilities are destitute, and if your are not destitute, and something important can be worked into the budget, it often is. The problem is there there is nothing that focuses on us. We must buy books, mostly written by NT researchers for NT parents, that focus on children, and theorize from there. What I'd like to see is some research and literature that focuses on the problems of the 40+ set. If there was a charity that focused on such research, I'd gladly donate. If there was a charity that focused on research on how Aspie parents parent aspie and NT children, there would be a market for that information, and certainly many would donate money to encourage the research.

If there was a Khan Institute (online video education) that focused on what adults on the spectrum need to learn, that channel would certainly become a special interest for me, and I would certainly donate to help support it -- frankly this would be a great service for the dogpaddlers as they would be able to work it around their work schedule. It would also be very cost effective. But before the videos can be made, researchers must figure out what content is needed -- I'm not exactly holding my breath for that to happen.

and yes, I wholeheartedly agree with previous posters that public education about the spectrum would be a very good thing. It would really help if the NT's could meet us halfway,

I love this description, I feel like I've been doing a mean dog paddle for much I of my life.

Most of the time I stay on the surface but every now I sink for a bit and end up spluttering. Occasionally I have to go to the edge and rest. I'd quite like it if someone taught me to swim better, ot at least offered me a float from time to time...

I don't think this is a good argument, because it leaves those who need more support out of the system while focusing on the very few who can pay. The issue shouldn't be who can function best when they lose all support, but the possibility that with support, a lot of us could probably work.

Otherwise, you're just basically saying destitute = hopeless and only 10-20% of adults deserve the help.

I'm not saying that at all! The previous comment was that there is no money in selling to disabled adults. We may be disabled but we can come up with money if the venture appears viable. I'm also saying that those of use who are dogpaddling should not be shut out either.

edit: the new charities/research ventures could be supported by donations from and sales to this untapped market

Ok, now this makes sense. My psychologist was saying to me that "this doesn't have to be a life-long thing" and that I can learn to adapt.

So, learn to adapt, lose an intrinsic part of myself (hide it because it's bad for neurotypicals!) and try to be like every other person, exhaust myself, wear myself down, just so other people won't be bothered? So that I can not use up resources that aren't really there for me anymore because I'm almost 21? So that the research can focus on little kids and trying to eradicate autism?

Its all a fantasized and unrealistic picture. None of that will happen. It's not reality. I'm sorry, but we, AS AUTISTICS, have something valuable to contribute to the world, if only the world will get out of our way, or if we can push the world aside.

I think to some extent, some people do learn to adapt to certain things; but will always struggle with many things.

True for me at least.

On the part about modifying behavior so other people won't be bothered by it... this drives me nuts. How can I possibly be myself (which makes me comfortable, as it does anyone else) and also be comfortable for others...

I think the only solution is to use our free will to find situations that we can do this... too bad those situations are few and far between. Even among other Aspies at work I have very bad days. It's no better or worse, just different.

It would be really awesome if the entire world just literally got the f**k over itself already. If I'm left alone and work alone, I work great! Why is that NOT an asset? Weren't we building robots to do manual labor, why can't the same logic be stretched to those professions that do not REQUIRE human interaction to perform. It's all this stupid, my life has to mean something, I have to have tons of RELATIONSHIPS or I DO NOT EXIST! crap that makes it hard for us, I think. I'm perfectly happy to not speak to a single person all day long if I can play in my head and write online some of my thoughts.

So yes, we adapt. I don't think we ever cope well though... I personally use a pretty stupid amount of marijuana and probably between 3-4 20 ounce coffees a day just to work almost full-time because I'm positively against psychopharmaceuticals (and don't give me crap about MJ and caffeine being drugs, they're natural, not like methylphenidate that cursed poison).

Anyone else "cope" by using extra substances, an extensive support network (I have people in my life who can take over my responsibilities willingly if s**t hits the fan, which it does often enough), or partial disability/benefits?

I mean, do any of us do it completely holistically? Eat well even though we're stressed, exercise every day despite sensory problems (I absolutely HATE being sweaty, so yeah, exercising is done in the pool), have strong, committed relationships, ties to the community, success at work, etc.? ALL OF IT? ANY OF US?

I bet we would if we would just be let to do our thing without question. I hate being questioned all the time, just let me do it my way and you can see it works out the same but with less stress on me.... damn

oh gosh /end rant