Forum Thread

This fan club is for Neurodivergent people to converse and feel safe :)

Neurodivergent people
(ADHD, Autism, Dyspraxia, and Dyslexia and more!) are welcome here!!

Other people can be here too, everyone is welcome here except: Homophobic/Transphobic/Racist/Sexist people.
pssst, if you’re looking for the LBGTQIA+ community here it is [x]

finally, a place for other people like me lol

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I’m a late ADHD diagnosis, I’ll pop around when possible 😁

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-+ Climbs out of the vents. +-

Howdy! Asperger syndrome person here, glad to find my people.

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you dont want my full list lol

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:DDDD

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Hello!

I've got ADHD and I'm autistic.

Question: what are the rules on education? Say I wanted to make a post in here discussing language or names for things in order to share awareness of outdated or inaccurate language or names?

"Question: what are the rules on education? Say I wanted to make a post in here discussing language or names for things in order to share awareness of outdated or inaccurate language or names?"
Sharing awareness is always great, no reason not to
As long as the post follows the overall rules like staying polite etc. I wouldn't worry about it ^^

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Question: For those that already got diagnosed, can I ask how much your monthly medication is and what kind of side effects you get? I once saw someone in my country post how much their meds cost per month and man... considering my course I could probably afford it when I get a job but wouldn't you have to go to sessions too? And those are also expensive. Everything is too expensive :(

@Himari is there a specific diagnosis you're wondering about? Just curious so I'm not answering and it turns out you weren't asking about ADHD.

@EeveeLover thanks! I'll probably post it tomorrow (my time, it's stupid late rn and I'm just doing my last round before bed on here)

Himari IDK honestly, my meds cost about 300 USD with insurance but I also take like 30 pills 3 times a day :skull:

I have ADHD, Autism, Aspergers, OCD, OCPD, Depression, Generalized and Social Anxiety, and like 5 learning disorders. sooo...

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About "wouldn't you have to go to sessions too?": Yes, you need to see a psychiatrist so they prescribe you the right medications for your symptoms. They can also diagnose you but depending on what condition you may have, a neurologist might be needed as well for diagnosis.

From my experience and from my familiars, after we're settled with the medications that we're certain has positive effects and little/no side effects, we no longer needed to go monthly for the prescriptions, and instead could get a prescription with enough meds for 3 months, then go back for feedback after that period. This cuts costs but may vary depending on which professional you're seeing and what medication is it, I believe.
As the previous answers already suggest, the costs will also vary according to your needs. My sister's medications are expensive, she's diagnosed with clinical depression, ADHD and autism. She's resistant to most medications by now because of how many years she has taken antidepressants for, not only is she prescribed multiple treatments, but they're also more specific. Her treatment for ADHD was short because according to her the medications did more harm than good. I needed to see a psychiatrist to treat possible symptoms of PMDD and my medications are not the most expensive because a simple antidepressant is effective enough for me. Even if you're looking towards treating different conditions from those, the point is that how your body reacts to the medications will be decisive to your treatment.
It might be a good place to start if you're able to search for people that have specifically the condition you suspect you may have because otherwise you will receive a huge range of medication prices for multiple different treatments that may not apply to your case


Ps. Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes.. Too tired and my brain isn't really braining

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I know ADHD meds in the UK are usually prescribed if the neurodivergence affects your day to day living (I'm not on the but it's something I'm going to be looking into) I work with a lot of students with ADHD, asperges, OCD etc, and most of the medication given to them makes them "numb". A few students have a rule of thumb where they only take their medication before classes and exams, otherwise they feel like a zombie.
I've researched this for my Masters degree and it turns out to a neuro typical, this "numb" feeling would be externally viewed as the individual fitting 'social normals' and their behaviour would be normal, but to the ADHDer it feels like you're not you.

Again, I've not taken medication for my ADHD symptoms, so this is all based on research and other accounts of medication users.

ASD, last I heard, they were given melatonin (of substitutes if there's a shortage) to help with sleep, but I've not come across actual ASD medication.

Anti depressants and anxiety medication are usually prescribed here, but it's be en reported that's mainly to late diagnosed parents as initially their symptoms are indicative of anxiety, depression and panic disorders.

We are lucky to have the NHS, so we pay approximately £10 per medication. But there's a huge shortage most of the time :/

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Oh I forgot to say I was asking about adhd meds specifically Dx I thought I already wrote it somewhere.... ooops. I have depression but I feel a lot better mentally than last year, so I'm not sure I would need to take meds for it. Definitely getting therapy though.

@Nicoliole huh :0 Which med is that? I think I'd like to avoid that med if possible

So i have been on the same meds for my adhd since I was diagnosed (was dx'd as an adult). My family gets a LOT of medications, healthcare, and stuff like that due to mental and physical health, so we hit our deductible for insurance very quickly. I also usually take 1.5-2 months to get through a 1 month supply as I dont take it every day. If I have to pay for the meds (like early in the year before we hit our deductible), it's usually about $20-$30 USD. Ish. I dont honestly remember since I try to time things so I get a refill right before the new year and that way I don't have to pay for anything. Insurance obviously is a lot (thanks us healthcare system) but out of pocket, I rarely have to pay for my meds.

Side effects? Uh, depends? So I discovered that if I take my adhd meds every day for a while and then miss a day, my brain freaks out and dives into a sensory overload attack. So now I give myself a break day or two every week, no more than 3. It depends on what I'm doing, since I take it for work and guard, but yeah. I also do sweat a bit more? Not always, but sometimes. That's about it, I think? If you want a positive side effect, my anxiety and depression absolutely vanished after I started treating my ADHD and began working wirh my autism instead of against it. Figured out that I developed anxiety and depression because I wasn't treating my adhd and autism.

Hello, I have ADHD, autism, anxiety, and depression. I came to join the little neurodivergent club :D

@nicoliole SO IT ISNT JUST ME?
My meds literally just make me unable to think for myself and unable to really feel any emotions at all, my mom will do literally ANYTHING to make me a "normal" child but I feel like I'm losing track of who I am right now.

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Title: An Attempt to Educate About Language and Terminology

Alright. I'm gonna preface this with a couple of things, so bear with me.

1. This is meant to be an educational post. If I come across as negative, angry, emotional, whatever, it is not intended as such. I just am really passionate about this topic as someone who's affected by it.
2. Yes, I'm American. No, I'm not trying to be one of those Americans that comes in and whines and throws a tantrum about other countries. I am trying to educate about a HUMAN topic, not a cultural one.
3. I understand that official medical terminology may differ from place to place. I genuinely think that all countries need to do better at updating their diagnosis things and equivalents of America’s DSM and the WHO's ICD. This INCLUDES the USA, cause our healthcare sucks.
4. This is not meant to be a call-out or targeting post! This is meant to be educational and a means for me to explain about some language and terminology and their origins!
5. You will see me say “this diagnosis does not exist”. This is not meant to be an ableism thing. This is literally me saying “this actual diagnosis as a medical condition does not exist and is instead actually this other thing even if many countries continue to use the outdated, inaccurate, and incorrect diagnosis”. It's like how “female hysteria” isn't a diagnosis or condition and was instead either just people making up a diagnosis because they didn’t understand, or because they were just sexist.

Alright. Here we go.

So I have noticed some language being used both here and elsewhere on the internet. I am specifically talking about the diagnosis of “Asperger's” in contrast to ASD (autism spectrum disorder). I have ASD, have family (both blood-related and adopted) with ASD, have friends with ASD, and have done a lot of research on the topic. I am someone whose support needs (which I will also talk about later) vary depending on the day, but I live on my own and am independent.

To begin: “Asperger's” as a diagnosis has been used for decades across the world to diagnose autistics who have fewer support needs, and who, in the eyes of allistics and the society that is built for allistics, “fit in” or “act normal”. The origin of this diagnosis lies with a man by the same name, in the 1940s in Austria and Germany, and another man, Kanner.

You can see where this is going.

If you do any research, it is incredibly obvious that the “Asperger's” diagnosis is based in incredibly problematic origins. Even setting aside the… uh… connection… to that situation in the 1940s, the separation and methods of doing so between “Asperger's” and autism is very based in an allistic perspective and understanding.

“Asperger's” is used to separate out the stereotypical autistics who fit the “genius”, “artistic”, “loner”, and literally, “attractive” stereotypes. This is not an exaggeration. If you go looking at how Asperger identified the autistics that he would eventually identify as a separate “branch” of autism, this is literally some of the reasons he separated them out. To put it more simply, he decided which autistics were most like allistic children, grouped them up, and from there it snowballed until this inaccurate diagnosis became official and widespread.

This is incredibly problematic, as within the autistic community, it creates an “us vs. them” mentality. It “others” the other group. I’m not pulling this out of nowhere. If you look at any autism channel, blog, page, whatever, eventually (or immediately) you will see “Aspie Supremacy” supporters. These are people who believe and push the idea that people with “Asperger’s” literally are “better” than people diagnosed with autism, and a bunch even promote pseudoscientific conspiracy theories (think the starchild or genius starchild rhetoric. literally them claiming to be either directly or descended from aliens). Society already has a not great relationship with us autistics, and the separation of the low-support-needs autistics from the high-support-needs autistics contributes to this. It allows low-needs autistics to “pass” in society, and can lead to a form of problematic internalized ableism in some people, which I have seen quite a few times online (not here, other platforms).

The diagnosis itself is problematic. When attempting to use the criteria to diagnose someone with either autism or “Asperger's”, people often just were diagnosed as autistic, because autism takes precedence over the other and people usually present more of the criteria for autism anyways. There are multiple reputable sources that state exactly what I have said at the top in my list of prefaced points: “Asperger's” as a medical condition quite literally does not exist. It's all just autism/ASD. And I don't mean this as in like “well yeah, “Asperger's” is a form of autism”. No. Literally. There is no such thing as a human having the actual disability of “Asperger's”. It is just a miscategorization of ASD. Always has been. If you were diagnosed as having “Asperger's”, your doctors either did so prior to the diagnosis being removed, did so in a country where it is still used as a diagnosis, or (in the case of at least 1 person in my life) literally didn't care and diagnosed you incorrectly with an outdated and inaccurate diagnosis.

Now on to a less known but still just as important discussion: language and terminology outside of the diagnosis name itself. I am specifically referring to the terms “high/low functioning”. These, again, come from the same two guys from 1940s Germany and Austria. These terms are used, again, in order to separate out the autistics that allistics think can “pass” in society from those who “can't pass”. They are inaccurate, and actually are harmful, since the idea of “functioning” depends on where you are in the world, how the country you're in is doing, and also: anyone, not just autistics, can struggle to function in modern society! The more accurate (though still not perfect) terms to use are “low/medium/high support needs”. Support needs are individualized to each person, and can fluctuate on a minute to minute basis. I myself have days where I need a ton of support, and days where I need none at all, and many in between.

If you managed to get through my ramblings (which I attempted to organize), thank you. If you're upset, and hate me, and think I'm just being ableist, or are targeting you, fine. I think this is an incredibly important topic and something that people are not as aware of as they should be. Obviously a lot of the issues with this are that countries take so long to update their “book of diagnoses”, which, in some cases, is great! It means more research. In other cases, this is bad, because they're not doing enough research for some diagnoses or are leaving inaccurate or nonexistent diagnoses for people to be harmed by. I genuinely think that it is important to understand the diagnoses that you have, and to understand how changes to how medical professionals identify and categorize those diagnoses over time affect you personally. If they go and reclassify and modify autism/ASD, then I know I'd go “okay cool, what changed, how does this impact my understanding of myself, how do I use the most appropriate and accurate language”.

Last thing: oh, how I rage at medical systems, in this digital age, that don't automatically update diagnoses for patients. People often still say they have an “Asperger's” diagnosis because that's what their medical file says and their doctor never updated it. It should not be hard to have a system that compares medical files and diagnoses with the most recent “diagnoses book” like the DSM and ICD and flags things that are outdated, inaccurate, or no longer are diagnoses, so it can be reviewed and the patient can benefit from an updated understanding of their diagnosis.

Anyways. Block me if this made you upset or you disagree. This was meant to educate and help people understand the origins of this “diagnosis”. I genuinely mean to be helpful and to share info. It's not intended to be a targeted attack or anything.

you aren't the 1st person to mention this to me, and I'm actually quite thankful for the context on what is going on with that. I've never really realized why everyone acted that way when I mentioned it.

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Of course!!

Again, I wasn't trying to target anyone specific. I actually only realized yesterday that PH runs on the timezone that the UK is in, and in my previous experiences, I've actually tried to talk to people online from the UK about this topic and they blew up on me because they were so insistent about their diagnosis being right. (NOT ALL OF THEM. I'm specifically referring to a tiny fraction of the conversations I've had about this!)

I think it's really important to talk about this sort of thing. Not everyone actually knows the background of not just "Aspeger's" but loads of other conditions, disabilities, etc. Heck, the medical field as a whole is based on a LOT of sexism, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, and classism, but that's a bit too much to get into right now. Lots of people genuinely don't know. I think it's important to have a genuine and respectful conversation to help people learn, without being rude, disrespectful, or belittling.

It's okay to not know things! It's when you know, are fully aware, and proceed to be rude and harmful anyways with intent to harm or misinform that's the issue. I didn't know this when I first began suspecting I was autistic, and happened to see a post briefly mentioning this topic, so I went digging and read a bunch of papers and medical stuff, and learned.