NTs Are Weird

I have good health insurance, or so people who work with me say. I’ve never actually used it, so I have no idea how good it is.

Simply put, the medical system is inaccessible to me. Going to a doctor and saying, “This is wrong with me, fix it,” or anything even remotely related to that, is impossible.

If only someone would ask me, someone who could interface with the medical world, “Is there anything that doesn’t seem right about your health?” I could answer that. And I’d have a lot to say. But, no. I’m expected to (1) find a doctor’s office that is taking new patients, (2) find an appropriate reason to see the doctor, (3) make an appointment, (4) get to the appointment at the right time on the right date, (5) interact with the receptionist, nurse, and doctor at the office.

In most of these, I’m supposed to be the one to initiate. I can’t do that. I can’t even initiate well enough to get someone to help me initiate!

This type of thing, just like the problems I have eating, is something I know other autistics share (not ALL other autistics, but SOME other autistics). Yet it’s never talked about. We have problems with social interaction, reading non-verbals and social cues, language, imagination (truly a bogus one if I’ve ever seen it), sensory issues, controlling our emotions, and hundreds of other things. But “seeing a doctor” or “eating” (for reasons other than being a “picky eater”) aren’t ever discussed. Yet they can kill.

Even worse, if you work, especially successfully, it’s assumed you don’t have these types of problems, as you don’t fit the proper stereotype. People have a hard time reconciling someone who has done quite well in his career with someone who has trouble with some very basic (to others) living tasks.

I really wish I knew what to do.