Hello and an Idea Pitch

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Greetings everyone! Introductions were never my thing, but I'll give it a go anyway.

Like many on here, I wasn't diagnosed with an autism spectrum "disorder" until I was an adult (34). At the time, I was seeing yet another new therapist out of the probably 100 I've dealt with in my life. She was the first one to suggest I was autistic--probably because I was finally completely burned out from a lifetime of very heavy masking. I had always suspected I was on the spectrum and deliberately didn't research it more. I saw it as one more diagnosis to add to the pile (bipolar disorder type I, PTSD, ADHD, GAD, etc.)

In 2022, I basically lost everything. My very first LTR, my job, and then my apartment and everything in it in that order. I found myself in substance use rehab (more on that momentarily) for most of December, and then I added a seven-day stay in a psych. unit (my fourth such stay in my life). During that time, however, I had a series of events happen to me that finally caused me to accept that I was a practicing autist, and with that realization came so many explanations for things that I do and have occurred to me in life. I'm sure I'll post more on some of those with time.

My primary substance of abuse is opioids, and I've been "clean" since January 12, 2020. So how did I end up in inpatient treatment last month? Well, I was about to be homeless, and a peer from the outpatient program I go to thought rehab would be safer than a shelter, so he arranged for me to "detox" off of the Klonopin I took occasionally as an inpatient to buy me time while he put me on the various waiting list for supportive housing programs.

Well, somehow I never materialized on those aforementioned lists and the only bed I could find was in an intensive residential program two hours away. It didn't go well when I arrived, and the county put me up in a motel room where, for a variety of reasons, I started rapid cycling and then became somewhat suicidal, so a week in the local behavioral health unit.

Meanwhile, my outpatient therapist pulled every string she could to get me into a substance use supportive living apartment. I definitely need a supportive living residence, but substance use is the least of my problems right now. This program comes with a long list of autist-unfriendly requirements, such as attending 30 12-step meetings in 30 days. Now, I've never been to a single 12-step meeting in my life and have done just fine in recovery. But I am being forced to mask again and give it a go.

Needless to say, these programs are not designed for autistic people. I tried two online and I found them boring at best and damaging at worst. So I began to research support groups for people with autism and was horrified at the lack of any offerings. Evidently, science is just realizing that autists get substance use disorders, too. Our rates are even higher than the general population in the few studies that have been done. But you can forget about any treatment or support tailored for us that have addictions.

Which finally brings me to my idea: if you or any other autistic folks you know have a substance use disorder, would anyone be interested in an online support group of any sort? I'm not sure what form that might take, but I'd certainly be open to suggestions. Anyway, thanks for suffering through my attempt at an introduction!

Great idea.

Addiction recovery support groups tailored to autistic people are one of the many kinds of groups the autistic community needs. (See my Longterm visions for the autistic community.)

Unfortunately, my own cluster of Groups led or facilitated by members of the Autistic Peer Leadership Group does not yet include an addiction recovery support group, although I hope it will eventually.

In the meantime, there apparently do exist a few addiction recovery programs for autistic adults, but none of them are located in New York State, as far as I can tell. I don't know if out-of-state travel is an option for you, but in case it is, see:

- this page on the website of Recovery Village, which is located in Florida.

- this page on the website of American Addiction Centers, which has centers located various places around the U.S.A., though none in New York State.

See also: The Unexplored Link Between Autism and Substance Abuse by Ellie Rebarbar, NeuroClastic, November 24, 2021.

Suggestion: Ask the moderators here to change the title of this thread from "Hello and an Idea Pitch" to "Autistic adult addiction recovery support group, anyone?" You might get more responses that way from people here who actually need such a thing.