> “They haven’t been going in with him since April,” said Nicola. “He’s alone in there every day.”
Ah, young adult with clear mental health issues being locked in his room for close to a year straight. I’m sure he’ll be a functional member of society soon enough
Seriously tho, that article is fucking horrifying. I understand it’s a complex situation but having an adult with mental health issues and presumably difficulties communicating **locked** outside in the garden for an **unknown** amount of time? How the fuck is it possible to be that inept? At a facility where you’re paid to care for them **and** determine if they’re released? Jesus, genuinely didn’t think things like this happened here – Reminds me of articles from African/ME countries where they literally just chain someone up in a room because they’re too difficult to deal with
Yeah, see, you’d probably get worse if you grew up being bullied, misunderstood, and apprehended for your reactions to that too. I know, because I grew up autistic too, some of the things in that article ring true to me.
People don’t understand, they won’t (or can’t) help, you just get worse; more angry, more confused, more aggressive, which causes people to react in kind, so you get worse still, and so on. You might’ve been “fine” if you’d been treated better, you might’ve been better adjusted, you might’ve had a chance, but if the response you get to ever trying is getting bullied, abused, locked down, and treated like a liability, *of course* you’re going to lash out.
Being stuck in that place isn’t going to help him either. How do you think that makes him feel, being a medical prisoner like that? Do you think it’s going to help him get any better? I don’t. I think it’s going to further break him, further distance him from the rest of society, and probably cause further resentment. Is it any wonder he’s become withdrawn and untrusting? I’ve been through experiences which aren’t entirely dissimilar, now I’m finally in my 30s having a chance to adjust on my own terms, I’m doing what I can to unpick the damage and confusion, but it’s hard – and it’s harder the longer it happens, because you’ve been tied back for so long.
I understand that autistic people with severe violent or self-injurious behaviour require care and oversight, but overdoing it can and does make things worse. A lot worse. There *must* be opportunities for exploration and self-improvement, for freedom and development, or no progress will ever be made. The longer that happens, the less hope you have for any kind of a future, which causes you to just coast to a stop and be considered even more helpless.
At a certain point, there will be no turning back, because you will have been deemed forever incapable, or dangerous, and even if you were given the chance to try and live independently you’ve lost 10, 20, 30 years of your life which could’ve been spent developing mechanisms to help you coexist with the real world. You won’t have a job, you won’t have a partner, you’ll be stuck on benefits, and you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering why it had to be you and how everybody else seems to manage to get all of the things life is supposed to involve.
In summary: Let’s try to *help* autistic people, not just shove them in a (metaphorical or physical) box and leave them to rot. It shouldn’t be “too hard” to save somebody from a disorder which is affected to a significant degree by *things other people do*.
This is a sad story but I had to laugh at this out-of-touch line from The Times:
> The 423 sqft apartment – about the size of a large living room
this is prison-levels of solitary confinement, jesus christ
God help humanity its fuking discusting, what a poor legacy humans like this will have
> He also plays his PlayStation, but staff have taken some games away, saying they made his challenging behaviour worse.
Bets that “challenging behaviour” means the bloke is noisy and nurses would rather him be miserable and quiet rather than happier and loud?
My nephew is autistic. No question it is tricky to manage but we cannot go back to the time where perfectly healthy people are being crippled because managing them is inconvenient. This is the mindset that led to people lobotomising patients because somebody who’s braindead is easier to handle.
Hard to find the staff equiped for these types of children and training for the staff.
Mental health issues are quite high with autistic people. I think we can’t understand them in a way.
8 comments
Barbaric!
> “They haven’t been going in with him since April,” said Nicola. “He’s alone in there every day.”
Ah, young adult with clear mental health issues being locked in his room for close to a year straight. I’m sure he’ll be a functional member of society soon enough
Seriously tho, that article is fucking horrifying. I understand it’s a complex situation but having an adult with mental health issues and presumably difficulties communicating **locked** outside in the garden for an **unknown** amount of time? How the fuck is it possible to be that inept? At a facility where you’re paid to care for them **and** determine if they’re released? Jesus, genuinely didn’t think things like this happened here – Reminds me of articles from African/ME countries where they literally just chain someone up in a room because they’re too difficult to deal with
Yeah, see, you’d probably get worse if you grew up being bullied, misunderstood, and apprehended for your reactions to that too. I know, because I grew up autistic too, some of the things in that article ring true to me.
People don’t understand, they won’t (or can’t) help, you just get worse; more angry, more confused, more aggressive, which causes people to react in kind, so you get worse still, and so on. You might’ve been “fine” if you’d been treated better, you might’ve been better adjusted, you might’ve had a chance, but if the response you get to ever trying is getting bullied, abused, locked down, and treated like a liability, *of course* you’re going to lash out.
Being stuck in that place isn’t going to help him either. How do you think that makes him feel, being a medical prisoner like that? Do you think it’s going to help him get any better? I don’t. I think it’s going to further break him, further distance him from the rest of society, and probably cause further resentment. Is it any wonder he’s become withdrawn and untrusting? I’ve been through experiences which aren’t entirely dissimilar, now I’m finally in my 30s having a chance to adjust on my own terms, I’m doing what I can to unpick the damage and confusion, but it’s hard – and it’s harder the longer it happens, because you’ve been tied back for so long.
I understand that autistic people with severe violent or self-injurious behaviour require care and oversight, but overdoing it can and does make things worse. A lot worse. There *must* be opportunities for exploration and self-improvement, for freedom and development, or no progress will ever be made. The longer that happens, the less hope you have for any kind of a future, which causes you to just coast to a stop and be considered even more helpless.
At a certain point, there will be no turning back, because you will have been deemed forever incapable, or dangerous, and even if you were given the chance to try and live independently you’ve lost 10, 20, 30 years of your life which could’ve been spent developing mechanisms to help you coexist with the real world. You won’t have a job, you won’t have a partner, you’ll be stuck on benefits, and you’ll spend the rest of your life wondering why it had to be you and how everybody else seems to manage to get all of the things life is supposed to involve.
In summary: Let’s try to *help* autistic people, not just shove them in a (metaphorical or physical) box and leave them to rot. It shouldn’t be “too hard” to save somebody from a disorder which is affected to a significant degree by *things other people do*.
This is a sad story but I had to laugh at this out-of-touch line from The Times:
> The 423 sqft apartment – about the size of a large living room
this is prison-levels of solitary confinement, jesus christ
God help humanity its fuking discusting, what a poor legacy humans like this will have
> He also plays his PlayStation, but staff have taken some games away, saying they made his challenging behaviour worse.
Bets that “challenging behaviour” means the bloke is noisy and nurses would rather him be miserable and quiet rather than happier and loud?
My nephew is autistic. No question it is tricky to manage but we cannot go back to the time where perfectly healthy people are being crippled because managing them is inconvenient. This is the mindset that led to people lobotomising patients because somebody who’s braindead is easier to handle.
Hard to find the staff equiped for these types of children and training for the staff.
Mental health issues are quite high with autistic people. I think we can’t understand them in a way.