galactic_riffraff

As an adult I still find myself surprised and fascinated by the different jobs out there and what they really entail. What kind of insight have you gotten for your own career aspirations from your podcast?

I’m not OP, but I am currently trying to get my own child into long term psychiatric care because they present a sustained and ongoing threat to themselves and others and it has been hell. As the parent there is only so much you can do for your child before you run into roadblocks in the system. We’ve had facilities that will refuse to even perform an intake evaluation because our insurance (which is much better than the average insurance) insists that the years of psychiatric treatment and the multiple acute hospitalizations were not deemed sufficient treatment to warrant extended care. It often feels like the system is not designed to help young people but rather to satiate bureaucratic demands on the parents to provide care even after admitting that they are incapable of providing the necessary level of care to their children.

I love the optimism of your research but the way you’re describing it here is reminiscent of the misconception that autism = savant. When you say that every autistic individual has gifts are you also speaking of extremely low functioning individuals as well? If so, what kinds of gifts does your research show are present in these individuals?

How are you doing? It sounds like you’ve found a great way to channel your energies but that can’t erase all those emotions. I have a special needs child and while mine is still very much alive she is not currently able to live at home and one of the hardest things is that people forget just how much your child’s needs affect your own health and well-being.