Decisions, Decisions

As we know in the autistic world, the age one becomes an adult is 18, at least by law they do. They can mostly make their own decisions that they see fit. But are they making the best decisions?  That’s what a live and learn has to be when one has to experience those personal freedoms.

We know that a high percentage of autistics do co-habitat with another person and that they live kind of a secured lifestyle. But what happens when that person that has that responsibility and/or ability to maintain that household is no longer able to do so? Where will they go and what will they do? If an autistic is unable to support themselves or at least is not quite on that way to getting there at the time, the planning needs to take place in order to ensure that autistics can endure the same amount of freedoms that they have today.

Not doing so can cause a great deal of regression or place them into a higher level of care that may not be suitable for their needs or may make them not experience their true degree of happiness. For myself, I am very astute and for many years was in denial about being independent because I just didn’t want to think about it. Then, as I turned into my 30s and my parents began to age, specifically my dad entered his 70s, I knew I had to be looking for something.

To put into my mindset that I could be independent wasn’t easy. It took an extensive amount of therapy to assure myself that I could do it. Then became linking up with various supports to ensure that the process was done accurately and insightfully. Once the vacancy came open, then came moving day, which I was immensely thankful for my parents and others for helping me in this venture.

Yes, there were challenges when I moved out, and some of them had setbacks. One of the biggest was the ability to make decisions that I thought were beneficial to me. However, to the contrary they were not the most insightful and wreaked havoc when interacting with others and made the interactions at times unpleasant. There are many things I can say I wasn’t proud of doing but it was part of living and learning.

One of these things I can assure that needs to happen is a medication regimen, for maximum normalcy, if it works, it needs to be followed to the letter. I know I harp on this frequently, however when I am not acting in the manner that I should or when behaviors occur that are unpleasant or unkind, it mostly revolves around the simple fact that I wasn’t medicating properly and that is why I am having a rough patch, I know not everyone in the communities I am have the same thought as I do about medication, however for me it has been a proven fact for decades that is what works and when I do not take it is when I get into trouble.

At times when it gets past the time for the scheduled dose, I think of skipping certain medicines because of the tiredness that I will experience from a later bedtime. I think of how everyone wins because I am taking a medicine. But what I refuse to see is the simple fact that I too am winning because I can be a sounder person and can make more sound decisions as an adult that aren’t grandiose and are more beneficial.  It’s just a win-win outlook and I know its not a matter of who wins the game, but it’s just a fact that everyone has a better outlook of how things are.

To aid in this, I learned that my pharmacy can assist me in my struggles with taking my medicine by having my doses in sealed packages. While the ball is still in my court, this is a big help by making them more combined and physically together without the need of me having to do the work of putting them together. They will be in a dispensary box that will have each dose in a sealed package for easy consumption. This will help immensely in the need to take them; however, the ball remains in my court to be compliant with taking all the medicine, which I realize that I need to be compliant because everyone around me will thank me for doing so.

I know I just harped on the decision of taking medicine, but for me that is the biggest decision of all because it is a matter of fact that helps me make all the remaining decision that are sound in my life. Knowing what is sensible compared to what is grandiose is a key factor of understanding how an autistic works and their ability to remain safe.