I try to be as open as I can about being an autistic and schizophrenic/schizo-affective person. It’s not always easy. Responses can go from an ‘Oh you poor thing’ type response to one of hostility and contempt.
Both are driven by a belief that to have those dxes you must be a bit simple minded. In reality it’s much more nuanced than that. I have my cognitive strengths & weaknesses. Within that is a significant adaptive functioning < IQ gap.
On one hand I’m far from the best when it comes to ADLs, and need support because of it . On the other hand I have a score listed at the World genius directory.
It’s not just members of the general public who can be empty headed about it. The vast majority of mental health workers I’ve interacted with have responded to my not being uniformly good or bad things by seeing it as due to ‘character weakness’ or due to a ‘disordered personality’…
I get “you poor thing” when I mention my illness because people don’t know how to respond. But I almost never talk about my illness to anyone. I’d rather be remembered and known for other things.
I dont like when people dont beleive in mh diagnoses. Like they think im just not trying hard enough to get out of the rut. And that i dont actually need meds. Hear this kind of stuff a lot.
When I was first psychotic I was only 16/17, so naturally all my family know as I was so young when it happened
But, since I only deal with my parents and MH workers
Don’t know about where you are, but here now due to lack of staff (Doctors) you don’t see the pdoc, but the case worker is forced to monitor everything about your care
It’s a real mess and they have no idea what they’re doing