Pardon the delay. I’m working on rewriting a presentation for suicide awareness that will involve autistic thinking. I tend to fixate in order to complete writing when I’m under extreme stress.

I did just publish my first-ever examination of how I was unable to develop because my autism was neglected and late diagnosed. February 15th, entitled “Arrested Development.” I was going to write a specific article about how ADA (1990) failed me, but if I have to re-enter the work force I felt it was safest not to write it.

On one hand, my upcoming article for April (“Autism Is of the Essence”) will go into greater detail about how it happened than I have in writing recently, that’s at least two important details.

First, I recognized a need for accommodations for adults because we have the highest unemployment rate of any disability category (at least in the US; I do have a source) and likely a very high suicide rate (I never reported my attempt in 2003; I’m autistic).

Second, whatever the accommodations will be they don’t exist yet and need to be created and/or supported on some government level. This is the same situation mobility impaired people were in before ADA (1990) was passed.

Given that when I had to request accommodations from my mental healthcare provider (October 2023) they did not yet exist, I was given no help and had to do it myself. I was able to meet with the counseling supervisor and then the case manager supervisor. But the latter dismissed mental health’s role in case management and triggered a panic attack in me just as he left.

They never cared that I had a panic attack. They intentionally refused to schedule counseling over the Christmas holiday (my last was Dec. 6, 2023 that year; the next was January 2024). So I had nothing for the toughest time of the year, New Years. I believe they did this on purpose. Then, on February 13th, the counseling supervisor I previously met with called me to inform me that I was forcibly discharged. She told me I was not making enough progress, was not meeting my treatment goals, and they didn’t feel they had what I needed.

However, they accommodated a younger 20something autistic client through case management the previous year (2023 I think). That was the fourth accommodation I asked for. Help to advocate to employment service providers because monotropism made it impossible for me to choose outside of my strongest interests. No one came to my defense. No lawyers. No representatives. No one. My care provider is, without divulging identity, exceptional in size.

Unless you have the money, can afford a good lawyer who will take the case and can actually win, or can wait the inordinate amount of time the justice system will take (several years), ADA is basically useless. It might also be useless for the people it originally was intended for. But certainly not what everyone currently believes ADA is supposed to or intended to protect. You need money and a whole lot of luck. That’s not protection.

I have published writing on monotropism and the forced discharge if you would be interested. I’ve had zero mental health care since the discharge. Zero. So, imagine just how much I’m struggling right now.

More than ever before…

I could use a miracle.