I may be HFA but I still need modifications...

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I am autistic, high functioning in some ways, but not so high functioning in others.

I have multiple health complaints that I cannot address because they all involve a physical examinations.

I have asked about sedation with intravenous midazolam and I just get ignored.

I am suffering on a daily basis but because I'm "high functioning", they assume that I can cope with things being poked into me and hands touching my body.

I cannot even shake hands or hug. Even my parents, if they hug me I scream or jump. I cannot even tolerate a plant brushing past me.

I haven't been to a dentist for over three years now because last time I had a meltdown and walked out of the dental practice, never to come back again.

I really don't know how to get it into the health professionals' heads that I may be HFA but I have severe sensory issues necessitating headphones and sunglasses outside, and closed curtains and windows in my house. I tried to travel on the Underground recently and I couldn't even get past the ticket barriers because my anxiety started rising exponentially. I still need full time support workers at uni and free taxi service.

I don't know what to do regarding the indifference of the NHS system to my needs?

Maybe... could your Psychiatrist give whichever doctor you needed to see, a call, and "instruct" them as to your sensory issues?

I'll try that but my psychiatrist is being dismissive too.

Can your support worker go with you and tell them about the issues and take you through it?
I know an LFA teen who has problems with the dentist, but his parents are able to sit with him, and he makes it through teeth cleanings fine now.
If you just tell doctors about sensory issues, they have no idear what you are talking about.

I'll ask my support worker about taking me to the dentist but I refuse to have my teeth cleaned by a hygienist because that was agony last time I tried and the dentist could only clean four teeth as I refused to ever let her continue and walked out, never got an appointment again. I just want to have a check up with a dentist.

I'll ask my support worker too if she will talk to my GP about how I can be supported around the other problems. One of the problems is gynaeocological and I outright refuse to be examined while aware of it. Hence intravenous midazolam.

I would tell doctors this,

"If you try to do [examination/procedure], I will completely freak out and start hitting people. So unless I am unconscious, there is no way I will ever have [examination/procedure]." (Or whatever you might do, if not hitting people....the circumstances and issues are not exactly the same as yours, but this is basically what I once told a doctor about myself.)

If your doctors say something about how it's up to you how you choose to behave, then you could say something like this (or you could just say this as additional explanation and to avoid getting side-tracked into a discussion where they tell you about how it's your choice how you behave):

"I completely panic and experience a fight or flight response because of the sensory input. It is not something that involves thought or choice. The only choice is me deciding not to get the examination unless I am sedated because I don't want to lose control like that and I don't want to hurt anybody."

But if they simply refuse to believe or cannot understand that severe sensory sensitivities exist or that people with HFA can have them, I am not sure what you could do.....

An occupational therapist with experience in sensory processing problems might be able to help in terms of advocating for you (a really good one could even explain current theories about the neurology involved), but I don't know how you would find one.

If you can find some articles or studies from legitimate academic/medical sources where they talk about sensory sensitivities, or some kind of guide for doctors about working with autistic patients who have sensory sensitivities, print them off and give them to your health care providers, do you think maybe that would help?