This will be long, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time.
Has anyone else noticed that there are less avenues of support and resources for adults than there is for kids? For the purposes of this post I’m talking about mainly government sources. I’m aware there are some NGOs that offer help for adults. It seems like government agencies only have a lot of their neurodivergent resources and support for families, particularly children. While this is completely understandable, these children will eventually become adults, and it will be a rude awakening.
There’s still so many misconceptions about neurodivergent people that particularly hurt when a person becomes an adult, and it starts from childhood. Some of the things I’ve heard:“oh they’re kids, they’ll grow out of it” and too many neurotypicals thinking that we’re all invalids that can’t take care of ourselves and need to be institutionalized. Things would definitely improve (job wise and mental health wise) if more groups would stop thinking of these conditions as just something kids go through and expand their support systems to adults as well as children.
I got diagnosed while at uni but now that I’m graduated and with a job, it’s the place I have the least issues. The “taking care of a home and living a socially acceptable adult life” outside out mon-Fri 8-5 is the hardest part of my life right now. Even with meds and regular psych appointments, I don’t see much progress being made. Ressource are few and far between. Psychologists / psychiatrists seem to be taught about child ADHD, but almost nothing on adult ADHD. /rant