Aspies For Freedom

Amy

   this guy at a couple points did even make sense.  Personally , I never heard of  a "pro-anorexia" movement.  I need to see links.  This  guy probably has issues beyond AS.  How does fighting for human rights equate to giving up SS benefits and growing your own vegigies? He seems to imply that anyone fighting for human is a hypocrite and a hippie. He , I think , is combining two trains of thought here.  One - anybody fighting for autistic rights must be on benefits. and two- that fighting for rights is a left wing agenda.

well

comparing anorexia to AS  does not make sense.anorexia can threaten your health. Anorexia does not entail a different neurobiology.   etc

Anorexic teens are often sent to treatment facilities where they are subjected to various behavioral interventions.  Some anorexics feel that this is a violation of their civil rights.

I do see a parallel between ABA and behaviorist treatments for anorexia.

That may be true, and should be stopped. We should not however present ourselves as civil rights for autistics and anorexics. There are far more to bind us as a group than there is for anorexics.  So far as I am concerned they are on their own in the big picture.

What does that have to do with anything??  

So if jews accept money for reparations for the unfair treatment , should they be ashamed of being jewish? Most aspies on benefits are there due to the fact society never gave them a chance.

My question is why should it matter to you? Unless it's coming directly out of your pocket where do you have the right to judge others on how they support themselves?  

I also am a self-diagnosied Aspie and stay at home parent, been with my NT husband going on 5 yrs, have 2 sons, one that is autistic and one that is quirky and advanced for his age in some areas of development. My husband supports our family and I intend to seek out work again after the boys are in school and the costs of daycare aren't as financially draining. Daycare costs are horrendous.

Everyone has a different view on how they deal in their lives, just because you feel that if you can't support yourself, you don't deserve help from others, that's your view. Others don't necessarily share that.

Where I live, you'd be hard pressed to find any Aspie receiving benefits period because of being an Aspie, maybe due to another disability like a physical disability or a mental illness but Asperger's Syndrome isn't good enough really to be considered a 'disability' enough to get benefits from it.

LGBT MIND in Brighton has a person one day a week who will fill out your DLA application form for you, and "straight" MIND in other towns probably provides the same service too.

Stella

Amy's right that DLA is very hard to get, with increasingly strict criteria.

The Blair Regime has repeatedly claimed that  large numbers of people claiming sickness benefit are malingering,  though how politicians without medical training are able to make third-party diagnoses-by-proxy is far from clear.

It seems that unless your DLA application is completed and counter-signed by some kind of "key worker"  your chance of getting DLA are very slim.

If you haven't been "Med 4'd" - no longer required to produce medical certificates - you'd have no chance at all so far as I can see.

Give MIND a try. I've found them kind and  helpful and miles better than the Day Centres run by the NHS/PCTs.

Stella

When you say "know how to be able to," I assume you mean that supporting yourself would be much easier if you were not autistic, so if you knew that a "cure" existed, you would feel obligated to accept it so as not to be a burden to society.

If you were black and couldn't get a job, but you knew that you would probably be able to find work if you were white, would you feel obligated to bleach your skin and to try to pass for white?  Would you believe that you didn't deserve to live if you made any other choice?

I have a graduate degree and am quite capable of supporting myself, although I also chose to stay home with my children for several years when they were small, and I am offended by your implication that women who make that choice are less competent.

At present, I am in my sixth year of a full-time professional job with a company that is aspie-friendly and allows many of its employees to work at home.  Yes, such jobs are scarce, I had to search for a long time before I found it, and many others have not been as fortunate, but that doesn't mean other aspies wouldn't be just as capable if they had the opportunity.

I have never taken any medication, attended any segregated special needs classes, or received any disability benefits, and I am very glad that my parents are independent thinkers who didn't allow themselves to be persuaded that I needed such "care."

You've got my vote, Monastic!  

I also found that I was stuck between a rock and a hard place when I was trying to build some kind of a career, and there was no essential reason why things had to be that way, it's just that the world of work is organised to suit the powerful (management) and the majority (unions).

I found that I couldn't get into a job in which I could use what abilities I have, without also being compelled to assume a managerial type role as well. When I was studying my degree no one bothered to point out the fact that the job at the end of the degree was mostly a managerial and interpersonal type job, because at uni the lecturers are concerned with the intellectual aspects of the job. So in job interviews I was being judged as a potential manager and as a people person, and because of that I had a very hard time finding work.

And I had nothing to fall back on, because when I went for more working-class, lowly jobs the boss could see that I was not the type who would fit in with the other people who were in that kind of job, and maybe they thought a person who seems smart is more likely to take issue with being treated like dirt, so I had no chance.

I have to agree with that statement.  There are certainly restraints that we need to exercise when dealing with the public, to make them less uncomfortable around us.  He also has a very strong point about getting the means of self support.   I will go further here, though, and state that a safety net is needed for those who cannot function in the competitive work place.  Some options should be available for those on the spectrum who want them, to help them deal with the NT public better. It is nothing personal against people on the spectrum.  I just feel that a means of achieving goals being made available is important the autistic community.

MrCoffee

I believe I might now have had a great deal more in the way of wealth, employment prosepects and job satisfaction if I had only been given two simple little things when I was young; suitable career advice and the knowledge that I am on the spectrum.

When the issue of discrimination comes up I have noticed that aspies often start talking about legislation that is supposed to protect the rights of all workers to not be discriminated against. I think this is an aspie thing, some of us think the problems of the world can be solved by ever-more-intricate and prescriptive systems of rules. In the real world rules and laws don't solve issues like discrimination. One needs to have the power to exercise one's legal rights in the first place, and many Australians don't have that. I think a better way of tackling the problem of discrimination is to have activist/advocacy groups to provide the threat of confrontation, and to educate the general public and employers.

If anyone is interested in the subject of anorexia nervosa I would recommend that they chase up the story that the Australian current affairs TV show "Sunday" did on the subject late last year, about the advances the Swedes have made in treating it and redefining it. It was astonishing and a damning incictment of the psychiatry profession in Australia.

You see pieces of the pro-anorexia movement almost every time you see a refernce to the "obesity epidemic". They're almost everywhere.