My Post-Diagnosis Support Wish List For Neurodivergent Adults
We know what we need. We just need the backing to make it happen
After receiving an autism diagnosis in 2020, I was very much on my own. While the accounts of lived experience shared by other neurodivergent people through various online channels were hugely helpful, it was still up to me to synthesize it all and apply it to my life. And to figure out what to do next.
Four years later, the gap in post-diagnosis support services for neurodivergent adults shows no sign of closing. I recently wrote about how our struggles are dismissed and overlooked because we appear to be functioning from the outside.
In turn, the very notion of support has become skewed by a disability support industry targeted at the parents of neurodivergent children. It’s hard for late-diagnosed adults to articulate our needs by reference to the support that is available. Asking for support is pointless when the services aren’t there to cater to it.
But we can put our minds to identifying the kinds of support services we need and developing a language to talk about them. It’s an important step in equipping ourselves to advocate for our needs and to secure corporate and government backing to develop them.
