B19 wrote:
I've noticed that some of the English media - the Guardian particularly - runs quite a few articles written by or about adults on the spectrum from a spectrum-friendly perspective, and relatively few from a parenting perspective unless they too are sympathetic to the spectrum. It seems that this doesn't happen in the USA, at least from what I can see from here. Why is that? Unless its a shooting, or a celebrity, the USA media lacks coverage about adult ASD people by adult ASD people, though plenty of stuff that fits the Autism Speaks point of view and serves AS public relations agenda.
Is part of the reason for the situation in the USA that "ordinary" adults don't write articles or offer interviews to the media, or is it that these are turned down in the USA eg as not sensational enough? I don't read a lot of US media apart from The Huffington Post - which occasionally does run pieces, so perhaps there is a lot of positive adult coverage in other US media that I don't know about.
How do you make compelling stories about an under/unemployed 30 something living at home with his/her parents, and not make the person look pathetic or the parents saints? Especially when there are no support services to be had.
There is virtually no support for Aspeger/HF adults in the US. In my area NONE. To get help, usually the person derails and gets punted into the mental illness camp with a diagnosis of severe depression/and or OCD/anxiety. Then there is some (not much) help. There is no housing help for under employed/unemployed Aspies.
If there is a positive story, the person has family who has enough money to throw at the problem. They own their own business, the family is well educated, or socially connected.
My husband could use speech therapy (pragmatic and receptive issues) and PT (trouble with movement of limbs). There is no help here even if we could pay for it. You white knuckled it for 54 years, so why is it a red hot now?
America is sink, swim or swim with a whole of of help from your upper middle class/wealthy folks. Almost all Autism stories I have read is a person finally doing well, but the family has some serious connections or cash.