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Autism and B12 Deficiency

It’s not about cause nor cure, but there is a relation.

Meg Hartley
ArtfullyAutistic
4 min readDec 24, 2024

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Gettin’ stabby to save my life, 2015. (Photo provided by author.)

Five years before my autism diagnosis in 2020, I nearly died from B12 deficiency — because that’s a thing. It’s usually only assessed in seniors and I was in my early 30’s, so the fact that I got diagnosed is a bit of a miracle. I’d been seeing health providers for years looking for answers to my litany of bodily and mental symptoms, but no one caught it.

By the end of 2015 the thought, “I’m dying, I’m dying, I’m dying” had been uncontrollably rolling around in my mind for about a year. Other thoughts had a harder time getting though, as if there were holes in my brain, I felt like I was going to vibrate out of my skin, I’d get so dizzy and weak I’d pray to pass out, some days I couldn’t even lift up a book and had to crawl to make it to the bathroom.

Luckily, I wound up going to a naturopathic-oriented doctor who, upon hearing my symptoms, said, “We need to get your B12 and homocysteine levels checked immediately.” When I came back to hear the results, she confirmed, “You have an extreme B12 deficiency, at 132pg/mL, without correction you’ll die within a year and could be paralyzed within six months.” I was floored. (A vitamin deficiency?!)

I had to give myself B12 injections for a long, very bruised, time — but “I’m dying”…

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ArtfullyAutistic
ArtfullyAutistic

Published in ArtfullyAutistic

This Publication is for all who are Autistic and for those of our kind. It is for the Neurodivergent, for those on the Spectrum of all Gender Identities, the LGBTQ*, and all others who are justifiably non-conformant to Society’s harmful marginalization and Ableist views of us.

Meg Hartley
Meg Hartley

Written by Meg Hartley

♾ AuDHD writer figuring out how to thrive. Growth junkie. Kindness advocate. ❤️ Say hey via ig/tw @thrivingautist 👋 https://linktr.ee/thrivingautist

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