What is the biggest gap for the much needed services
Expressive Arts Therapy and Art Therapy can be 100 per cent non verbal, working from sensory responses and activating playfulness with the aim of exploring emotions in a safe place with an empathising, non-judgemental professional. Was this ever an option for you?Hi MandyH,
its Interesting as I’m under the community learning disability team which deals with mental health difficulties differently.
i have been to see the CLDT psychologist several times, he tried to use exposure therapy on me several times for my severe sensory issues which cause a lot of behaviors in busy supermarkets as he believed I was doing the behaviors on purpose to get taken out of the supermarket quickly in order to escape panic and anxiety,in fact he diagnosed panic disorder,he only gave me three things every time that needed working on,they were always manipulated to be around panic and what I had asked for every time I was referred back to him was counselling,which I had never had In my life at any point because of my lack of speech and interaction,it was modified CBT,which has never worked for me. I can’t just go to a standard MH counsellor because of my complex autism,Speech/communication difficulties and LD,they always forward me back to him.
in a different area and different CLDT,I had known the consultant psychologist from 18 to 30,and he had always known how to work and communicate with me,I would recommend him to any Autist if only he freelanced outside of his boroughs social Care-I’ve checked as I wanted to book him privately.
because I had known him for so long,on our last ever visit together he revealed he was Autistic himself,I knew there was a reason I felt able to connect to him.
when I was 28 I had my severe depression,severe paranoid pyschosis and extreme anxiety labelled as challenging behavior by a learning disability hospital,they had no understanding of LD with mental illness,as we are supposed to not have the capacity to think and process what’s in our heads.
mine was caused by several years worth of being severely bullied online.
I think what we need is staff who have worked in multiple areas, like for example, pyschologists to be trained and experienced in both ASD with dual mental health difficulties, Instead of each area not understanding Or accepting the other side.
there is a service in Manchester called Counselling for all, It’s for adults with LD and/or ASD just in case any of you live here,you can get it free if you can prove you have tried and failed with other therapists (I think that’s the criteria) ,you have to wait the usual length of time I think,I was told even if I pay privately I don’t get a quicker waiting time.i think it’s around £900 For a block of sessions,privately.
Expressive Arts Therapy and Art Therapy can be 100 per cent non verbal, working from sensory responses and activating playfulness with the aim of exploring emotions in a safe place with an empathising, non-judgemental professional. Was this ever an option for you?
I have started by thinking it is relationships - without support in this dimension people can become isolated and so depressed, harbouring suicidal thoughts, at risk of becoming a missing person. I have experienced this happening in my own family.
I would say everyone is different and psychotherapy is not for everyone, but where it does provide a person with a rebalanced outlook their resilience can be that much more robust, as it goes deep.I agree that mental health is insufficiently addressed while so many autistic people suffer from anxiety, depression and other conditions. My understanding is that Psychotherapy doesn't work properly on autistic people. New types of intervention are needed.
i voted mental health. As a newly self identified with autism, i have presented to GPs and mental health services most of my adult life, for minor issues with mood, anxiety, stress, and occasionally depression. I am a woman. i feel that my autism has been completely missed by professionals and myself for years. Althought it has been hiding in plain sight. Better awareness of how to see autism, and the impact it has on MH would be very helpful.What is the biggest gap for the much needed services
Being born with autistic traits (nature) comes before the early family and social impacts that are the subject of psychotherapy (nurture). I have discovered that my autistic nature has made it difficult to untangle nature from nurture. I have found that early years violences in my family had become confused with the 'social communication' issues that autistic people find. I was looking at life through a window - all the time.I wanted thr truth.Interesting. Do you have any more information than that? Links, perhaps?
This can be expanded into a basic understanding of high-functioning NDs. Low-functionality's had a hundred years work done on it, but high-functionality, next to nothing, probably on the basis we're close enough to neurotypical normality we can look after ourselves. The problem here is where we aren't. We may be far beyond that - this is often summarised in the thought we're everything Norman Normal is and so much more.Mental Health in general is poorly understood and still carries a stigma with it. Even less understood is how it effects NDs and how it is inflated in people who are NDs.
As for other under supported elements, there seem like no one is standing up for us, especially adults, and there is little threat for any companies who don't do anything above the bare minimum.
“We're all too hurt to want to socialise, even online, among ourselves!”This can be expanded into a basic understanding of high-functioning NDs. Low-functionality's had a hundred years work done on it, but high-functionality, next to nothing, probably on the basis we're close enough to neurotypical normality we can look after ourselves. The problem here is where we aren't. We may be far beyond that - this is often summarised in the thought we're everything Norman Normal is and so much more.
Nobody's asking us what we think, for starters, but are telling us things which are seriously unreliable to the point of being nonsense. As adults, we're a problem because we can answer back: that's why support goes elsewhere, and why this forum is focused on self-advocacy. We're big enough and ugly enough to speak for ourselves, given the leadership.
Given such ignorance, how can education be provided for us? Not as syllabus-support, but as syllabus-acceleration. I'm thinking of the very few who make it to uni pre-adolescence: this then expands into socialisation. We're all too hurt to want to socialise, even online, among ourselves!
I’m so sorry to hear that you lost your wife, Rahere. I’m glad that you have your daughterAs another of my posts shows, I found my consolation elsewhere. It isn't as if I never knew love, I have a daughter, but cancer took my wife early. Even in that there was divine grace, in that her path, although too late for her, cut the development time for the Cisplatin family of drugs: we were in on that from the start, although it did come as a surprise to find I'd signed off on the breakthrough test myself. The thinking supports a research project, translating Heisenberg's thinking into neurophysics.
I bet you were! Famous too!We were quite a pair, even made the ITV 6 o'clock news the day the GLC closed, taking the evening classes with it. Frank Bough doing cupid's darts as a screen overlay.
For me it’s definitely mental health & wellbeing, specialist accessible crisis support and care but also support with physical health and co-occurring conditions. There’s a huge lack of services adapted to be accessible for neurodivergent & autistic individuals - most services are not equipped, with staff not appropriately trained on Autism, learning disabilities, hidden disabilities, neurodivergence etc. many people falling through the cracks and reaching crisis point because they cannot access appropriate mental health support & support to cope with everyday life.What is the biggest gap for the much needed services
One thing that I did discover is how far behind the US the UK is, educationally. Dominic Cummings' 2020 "weirdos and misfits" blog call is explicit: they need us, but don't know how to build us. That isn't entirely true, in fact, because now know my own truth, certain things needed reinterpretation which say something.For me it’s definitely mental health & wellbeing, specialist accessible crisis support and care but also support with physical health and co-occurring conditions. There’s a huge lack of services adapted to be accessible for neurodivergent & autistic individuals - most services are not equipped, with staff not appropriately trained on Autism, learning disabilities, hidden disabilities, neurodivergence etc. many people falling through the cracks and reaching crisis point because they cannot access appropriate mental health support & support to cope with everyday life.
I picked mental health also. I am neurodivergent with 3 grown neurodivergent grown kids and I started a free online support service to anyone that has internet and can speak english good enough for us to understand each other. And the cormid conditions we have are difficult to deal with but we have it better than most. I go to groups all over to try to bring back a better perspective on what is happening worldwide. I visit here when I have time between appointments. If I may say if you are getting good individualized care for medical be thankful! Because that is a rarity from what I have seen in 30+ years of raising the next generation.I picked mental health from the poll, but I would actually say comorbid chronic health issues. I've been lucky to get good individualised support, but from my reading I don't think that's the norm, and there are a lot of barriers to accessing medical care or getting the most out of it.
Yes they slap on autism as the complete word that describes our conditions. And unless you have raised one and homeschooled them and/or are diagnosed yourself, they just cannot understand firsthand what we go through daily in our normal day.That is why I talk to my peers and it helps them and I get the bonus of learning from my peers also. I have had good and bad care but I do not think they get me and it just leaves me angry and out of balance.I agree that mental health is insufficiently addressed while so many autistic people suffer from anxiety, depression and other conditions. My understanding is that Psychotherapy doesn't work properly on autistic people. New types of intervention are needed.