Nine Years On from AS Day #1

Jane, Nine Years On from AS Day #1

Nine Years On from AS Day #1

Autistics Speaking Day again. Another Year. What, if anything has changed? What is new, what's the direction, is there one? I'm getting older. My neurology is coming to the fore. Deficits become more obvious and impact on my daily function, yet I am unwilling to deal with the disrespect endemic to the “helping” professions and social services, and they are unwilling to acknowledge my need for help in any event. I continue to have family responsibilities of which most of the young folks have no clue. I continue to try to give a child (who is not easy to deal with and does NOT respond well to lack of structure or unschooling – never has) the skills he will need to maintain decision making in a hostile world. It takes more of my spoons to barely function than I ever have. I have largely decided to leave the “autistic activist” community for a number of reasons: * Lack of understanding of parents whose children require direction and can be – yes, I will use that word – difficult to parent. * Outright libel from some members of the "community" who have never even met me. * Increasing lack of energy to function outside the house * Increasing responsibility in the family, as the one whose autistic superpower is paperwork and the only one who can get the bills paid for my partner's lifelong dream * Not even fitting in that community any more, as increasing emphasis is put on factors apart from autistic traits which I don't share. * Hostility towards Israel, our family's only port in a storm if the US Administration continues on its current course Goodbye. It's been real, but this is not the Utopia I thought it was; I have burned out and I no longer have the energy to deal with that.