We're in for another two weeks of struggling, yet we are also never alone in these struggles. I hope that all of you find some respite despite the issues you're facing, and that you know you are appreciated, loved, and respected here.
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As always, we ask that in order to participate in the weekly megathread, one self-identifies as some form of disabled, which is broadly defined in the community sidebar:
"Disability" is an umbrella term which encompasses physical disabilities, emotional/psychiatric disabilities, neurodivergence, intellectual/developmental disabilities, sensory disabilities, invisible disabilities, and more. You do not have to have an official diagnosis to consider yourself disabled.
Mask up, love one another, and stay alive for one more week.
Obviously this is a “no duh” for many autistic people here, but one of the many things holding autistic people back is their first mentors are sometimes their first naysayers.
Many school faculty may have this belief even the best autistic student is still a waste to educate and their best case scenario is being tossed into a group home and maybe having a custodian volunteership for the rest of their lives. As a result, many autistic people literally have gaps in their skills they otherwise could have learned.
I was going on with this with my therapist yesterday. I am still plenty capable of a person, but still unemployed. One of the reason is this lack of skills I developed because of these early mentors passively assuming I’ll just be a minimum wage worker on benefits for the rest of my life.
And thus you see a lot of autistic people struggling when their suffering could have been avoided.
Well said. It's something that isn't acknowledged by many as a whole that causes so many problems, and not just for people with ASD. The inherent ableism of our established systems causes some sort of mental or physical anguish to disabled comrades in every facet of our lives, from employment to healthcare and beyond.