Jump to content

ScienceGeek

Members
  • Content Count

    2,563
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by ScienceGeek

  1. I had my ESA renewal in December and have been put into the support group. The 365 days rule for the WRAG group only apply to those on contributions based ESA not Income based, but on income based if you have a partner that earns more than £7.5k or works more than 25hrs you lose all entitlement to ESA. My ESA is up for renewal again in 2014, I wonder what happens when it changes to universal credit?
  2. I started transitioning from female to male back in 2004 and have been on hormones since 2006. I didn't get diagnosed with Asperger's until 2008. Going to a lot of FTM conferences and events I have come across a higher amount of people on the spectrum than you would normally expect. I watched a video on the NAS youtube channel which was rather interesting - I have emailed the professor who did that talk and am awaiting a response from her. The findings are rather interesting as I was thinking about studying the same thing for my third year psychology project so it is good to see that someone is already studying this.
  3. Yes it is the same petition was just passing it around a few places
  4. The welfare reform bill will be passing back to the house of commons from the house of lords tomorrow and it is highly likely that the coalition government are going to try to reverse the few changes that were managed by the house of lords. Amendments such as making contributory ESA (WRAG) available only for one year being extended to 2 years instead. Overall it is still a very bad bill. The change over from Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence payment the government admits it is to save 20% of the budget. The care component will be down to 2 rates and the biggest losers are likely to be those who are currently in receipt of the lower rate care component for DLA which tend to be people with mental health problems, autism spectrum disorders and learning disabilities. This will make people more dependent upon social care and the NHS and considering local authorities are tightening their criteria for care to substantial or critical only people with low level needs will slip through the cracks altogether. Pat Onions has a petition up on the government e-petition site and so far there are nearly 27,000 signatures. We need a lot more than that for them to take any notice of it. I am ashamed to live in a country that is so big yet we can only manage so few signatures for what will be effecting so many people. This is not just about disabled people it's the working poor, families, elderly people, the government is taking away from everybody and trying to divide us by getting us to squabble about our one section. We need to join forces, we don't have much time to do something about this. So please could you sign this petition and pass it on to as many people as you know, the more people we can get to sign the better. I wouldn't normally post things on so many places but this is really important and if it goes through in the current form it will devastate a lot of peoples lives. Thank you for reading and many thanks in advance. For more information about the welfare reform bill here are a few good sites that go through in a lot more detail about the changes: http://www.wheresthebenefit.blogspot.com/ http://thebrokenofbritain.blogspot.com/ http://www.benefitscroungingscum.blogspot.com/ http://www.latentexistence.me.uk/ http://www.dpac.uk.net/ http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/lisa-egan/welfare-reform-bill-protest-_b_1239973.html
  5. Just finished my DLA renewal on Thursday and it took about a month to do in total. A whole months support hours! So far mine gets renewed every 2 years, because my condition could change (it has it's got a lot worse!). My social worker and various other support are hoping it will go up to higher rate care and higher mobility. At the moment I get middle rate care and higher mobility.
  6. I'm normally quite glad if I'm not diagnosed with something serious, as if I really need something else to add to my ever expanding list of health complaints
  7. Yes, there have been times that I feel this way. I often feel it most when my other conditions are flaring up and everything is getting on top of me, during those times my mind isn't really functioning all that well and it is hard to beat back these kinds of feelings. At times I look at my friends who started the same time as me and are graduating this year and feel sad that it isn't my time. It only lasts for a bit though as when I have my right mind going then I can see what I have achieved is phenomenal, a lot more than anyone expected or told me that I would ever achieve. Like most things I'll get there in my own time
  8. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LnPnbhyjGc
  9. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD4cGH44Ngc
  10. Plus that's a quote from DSM III whereas we are now on DSM V so that must have been a rather old quote!
  11. From what I can gather from reading the information so far about DSM V is that HFA/AS will be subsumed into ASD and they haven't decided wether they will do the same for PDD-NOS or wether that is a separate condition that still needs its own label.
  12. My drs already use HFA/AS/ASD all interchangeably which to an outsider would be rather confusing. Some people are quite attached to a particular label but I'm not really that bothered it doesn't change who I am as a person wether it is called HFA/AS/ASD the difficulties I have are still the same no matter what label you put on it. The perceptions that I've come across since diagnosis is that somehow being "high functioning" is autism lite and there aren't any significant difficulties (mostly from people whose only knowledge of autism is of classic autism). I don't think changing the diagnostic labels are really going to change peoples perceptions of those on the spectrum, but it may be helpful from the diagnostic side of things and save a lot of confusion. I like the fact that it acknowledges that it is a spectrum and a person could be at any point on the spectrum.
  13. I think it has the potential for simplifying things. There are a lot of discrepancies in terms of diagnosis label, especially on the higher functioning end of things, there were getting to be too many labels really. I mean HFA/AS/PDD-NOS/LFA/Classic Autism/Kanners Autism, I know of plenty of people who would fit some boxes of one and some of another. I'm kind of glad that they are rolling it all into one, hopefully the emphasis will be on the individual person rather than the label as such, so that they can get the appropriate help not what people think they should get because they have one particular label on the spectrum. I have a relative that has a kid who was diagnosed with classic autism/LFA and now they are older actually they are more like the people I know with HFA/AS. Autism is autism, it's just the degree to which the individual is affected by it that matters, why have so many labels?
  14. ScienceGeek

    DLA

    Am going through my DLA renewal at the moment. Like the above poster said, appeal as they are trying to deny as many people as possible and hardly anyone gets the correct rate at the first try. I'm fully expecting to have to appeal mine despite having a massive amount of documentary evidence and people on my side (social worker, dr, support workers etc). This is also despite having a physical disability as well as ASD
  15. HMS/EDS is hypermobility syndrome/ehlers-danlos syndrome. It's a connective tissue disorder and a lot of my friends on the spectrum have it as well as I have. There are known crossovers with dyspraxia, ADHD and dyslexia but only anecdotal crossover with ASD although I don't think anyone has researched wether it is more prevelant in the autistic population yet. There's more information on http://www.hypermobility.org/whatishms.php http://www.hypermobility.org/diagnosis.php
  16. I have trouble with a lot of places that I have worked or studied. A lot of places seem to think that bright white walls, fluorescent lighting and reflective surfaces is "modern" looking and great, but for me that is an instant headache. I cannot do my best work in these environments, I become slow, lethargic and my pain is amplified. Open offices are a big problem not only is there the lighting but also all the phones ringing, conversations, sounds of computer equipment etc, I cannot filter out background noise effectively and it sounds like everything is shouting at me. I don't know how anyone concentrates with so much going on! I could only cope with working in such places for a few weeks at a time and then I would end up getting fired because I couldn't keep up with the workload (not due to lack of effort!)
  17. My brother in law wants to write music for film and television and has a masters in it. For now he is having to take any employment that will take him while also doing his music in his free time. Maybe if you want to go into music you could do a similar thing, and keep sending off examples of your work to potential employers or if money isn't an issue maybe try going for an internship? By getting yourself in there and getting your work known, from what I can gather it seems to be a lot about who you know and if people don't get to see your stuff then how will they see your potential? Working for an employer doesn't necessarily have to be that bad and you can always ask for reasonable adjustments and get advice and help from access to work
  18. I too am married and my wife and I both found that book to be rather patronising. We still haven't found a book that we agree with that doesn't completely lay the blame solely on the autistic spouse, a relationship is two way and the compromises should be as such
  19. Nah mine never faded they are still mostly purple even after all these years Like I said though that is mostly a HMS/EDS thing, have very poor healing. I think for most people they fade to become closer to their natural skin colouring.
  20. When I was first diagnosed I had a mixture of feelings, relief, but then there was a period of depression even though I knew it was coming. Exhaustion from years of trying to fit in and wondering why I was failing despite all the effort. It was the only thing that I could think about for about a year or so afterwards, but like my other diagnoses I soon got back on track with things and came up with more helpful coping strategies to deal with life in general.
×
×
  • Create New...