An Urgent Plea To My Community....And My Family

The following is what i just posted on my wall right now. But i am going to add to it here, because people need to know what happens when families don't care, when our communities don't care......

about those of us who are older, middle-aged Autistic adults

who have fallen through the cracks because of unfair functioning labels,

and all of the unfair and cruel negative information that organizations such as Autism Speaks

has churned out to the public and the media about us, and they continue to

they continue to perpetuate the notion that it is even okay to abuse, exploit, and even to murder us, for God's sake!!!!!

NO!!!!! We are human beings who matter!!!!!!!!!!!

i am writing this as an open letter to

my state's governor, and to Congress, and even President Obama,

to please, once and for all see the plight of the disabled,

and to see the plight of so many Autistic adults,

like me,

who are lonely, alone, and suffering untold agony and harship because of your apathy.............and all of the deep cuts you have made to

my programs, my safety net.....our programs and safety net

that me and my friends so depend on!!!!!!

I am writing this also, as an impassioned plea to my whole family,

my three brothers,

my sister,

and two sisters-in-laws,

my aunt,

and to all of my nieces and nephews too,

and to all the families who just don't care about us

and who refuse to see our plights.

Please turn around and face me and see me as the person i am, once and for all.

Please have mercy on me.

Please Hear my Words and See my pain.

Please, please, please, have mercy on us....on me!!

I am Autistic. I am Me.

My God created me to be this way....and my God does not make mistakes!!

I am NOT my family's embarrassment!! Nor am i their tragedy and burden!!

I am a human being who is suffering way beyond what i can bear these days, and on all levels, in sheer agony and fear all the time now, because i am in terrible physical health now.....and i fear being put into a nursing home where i will have no freedom anymore, to even come onto my beloved Facebook and talk to all of my Autistic community friends like i love to do.

A nursing home

where i will risk being abused even worse

than the abuse i got from all of those caregivers i had

who abused me mentally and financially.....because they felt they **could**.

I am suffering......

Because i still do not have all of the 150 hours that i am supposed to be getting from my county's In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) so that i can be allowed to remain living in my own home, where i am the most comfortable.

And because sadly, but truthfully, most of my family, does not seem to care to help me, or to even acknowledge my existence anymore.

I have always had the support and love of my mother and two of my sisters, but they all sadly lack the finances to help me.

I am supposed to be getting all 150 hours a month of care from IHSS that i am approved for.....but due to an automatic 7% cut that the state of California has made to our program, i only get 139 a month of those hours. That was alot for them to take from me......because i now desperately need all 150 of those hours.

I actually need 8 hours of care a day now.

I am housebound, stranded, without these services i get from IHSS!!

Here is my Facebook post, with more added, that i wrote at about 8:30 tonight:

"I am back for a little bit. I guess i had even more sleep to catch up on, because i ate my lunch about 2:00 PM today, and then went in my chair to watch some TV.....but instead, ended up falling asleep from approx. 3:30 PM till just after 8 PM tonight. I just hope i can sleep tonight now, and then be up tomorrow in time to have Connie come, give me my shower, and take me to my doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon. And then get my dinner. I do have food to eat for breakfast before she comes.

To My family: please do some deep soul searching.......sadly, you have all let me down........and you have all now essentially abandoned me to let my poor elderly mother, who is on a limited income, do it all.....all that she is *able* to do for me.

And it is straining her to her limit to help me.

If i had known in 1996 that i was going to end up like this in 2014, with the bad lymphedema that i now have on both of my legs today, lymphedema which now also includes a very large lump that is the size of a basketball on my left inner thigh that now leaves me unable to walk more than very short distances, and unable to stand more than 10 minutes at a time...... i would have moved to Idaho in 1996........or, i would have at least taken one of the few places that i did find to rent via my Section 8 housing assistance, up in the nearby town of Arroyo Grande, during that time period. Because at that time, i had a nice group of friends up in Arroyo Grande. Friends who really had my back.

I have since lost touch with them, sadly. And i have been unsuccessful in being able to reconnect with them on Facebook.

But yeah. I should have said **F** it

to the fears i had of taking the risk of

maybe moving to yet *another* Mean Bully Monster Street kind of place

like this place that i have lived in for the past 23 years

has been and still is

i feared moving where i would be bullied some more, like i have been here.....

even so, i should have taken one of the places that was available to me in that town

in the year of 1996.

Because i know now, that if i had taken one of those places in Arroyo Grande,

i know in my heart of hearts that my outcome today,

would have been so much different, so much better,

physically healthwise, and economically,

because in 1996,

i could still drive,

i still had my full mobility,

and i still had the ability to bounce back emotionally

from what i had already had to endure living here on Mean Bully Monster Street at that time.

I would have re-opened my case at Voc Rehab, so i could get the funds to go to school

and learn something that would have still allowed me to get ahead in life.

(((((((But, i know too, that had i of been able to make that move to Arroyo Grande, and had i of been successful in my endeavors with my schooling and finding work, i would have probably never found out that i am Autistic....and i would have never had the wonderful awesome pleasure of being able to meet all of my wonderful Autistic family on Facebook either.......))))))))

Instead, i let my fears of what was already happening to me here,

hold me back

......and keep me bound here on Mean Bully Monster street.......

where my house has now become a fortress for me

I have always done this my whole life though....because growing up,

i was taught by all of you in my family,

to be afraid of my own shadow,

to hide,

to hide who i was

to always be afraid to fight,

to always be afraid to confront,

I was taught

that i was incapable of fighting and confronting

and as for work.....

when i did try to do work, i was always told

that i was not doing it the right way

and that i was never good enough

that i had to do it more intensely,

that i had to do an inpeccable perfect job

or it was toast

I was told i would never have a meaningful job

I was told i would never learn how to drive or have a car

I was told that i was even incapable of having a boyfriend or friends

i was told so much of the time

that i was an incapable person

that i was incapable of thinking for myself

that i was incapable of rising above whatever it was that was "wrong" with me

which i now know is Asperger's Syndrome,

Autism

But i am NOT wrong.

And neither is my Autism.

I am learning that now.

Learning to love myself for who i am.

Learning to take my life back that my family took from me.

My life

My personhood 

I just wish my family would all see this.

I really wish and need for the others in my family to understand my plight,

once and for all, please,

and to begin to care and stop ignoring me.

I am online telling my story for a reason.....

and it is NOT to slam them.

I am telling my story

to tell about everything that i have gone through in life....

which sadly includes how my family has treated me

.....only because that is all a vital part of my story.....

and why i am in the situation i am in today!!

I am telling my story, because i desperately need more help

than what i am able to get from the government programs i am on.

And they won't help me. And i am floundering because of that.

I am floundering badly.

I cannot sleep a full eight hour sleep anymore, and then i end up with my sleep cycle all screwed up because of that.

Because i am so worried and afraid of how worse things are going to get for me if i am not helped.

I want so much for people for people to start caring and seeing me

.......and all disabled and Autistic people.......

as the real human beings we are.

There's nothing wrong with my stims.

There's nothing wrong with the quirks and idiosyncrasies i have.

Those should not have ever embarrassed you, family.

God made me this way for a reason.

And that was to be loved and accepted

....not hated and kicked down the way i was.....

and the way i still am by you, family.

I know, yes, i know that i did hurt you all too, family,

and i apologize from the deep depths of my soul

for how mean that i know i could be to all of you

but that was only because i was lashing out

reacting, because

i always felt like you were all ganging up on me

because i was hurting and crying for you all to

please STOP!!

TO Please

understand, love and accept me 

instead, i felt so very unloved and unwelcome

by all of you.

i think that some of you actually hated me from the day i was born

and i feel that you still hate me

and even blame me for the things that have gone wrong in your lives.

I am sorry for how i have hurt you all,

I didn't know how to be

I never knew what to do or say

to make it all right

but the thing of it is this:

i was meant to be born

and i was meant to be born Autistic.

I want and need for my family to know how deeply i hurt,

tonight, as i write this

how deeply my heart bleeds,

because of the insensitive and cruel treatment of me when i was growing up,

all of the cruel words that were said to me,

all of the the shunning of me that they did,

all the cruel names i was called,

all of the the isolation in my bedroom that i had

so that i could get away from them for many periods of time,

especially when i was a teenager

and in my twenties too

because it would just get so hard,

........neurologically.........

for me to be around them for too long,

because of how it always seemed

they wanted me to always

Be and Act a Certain Way,

and i just couldn't do it like they wanted me to.....

it wore me down,

it took all of my strength to try to conform

to the normal that you all wanted me to be

oh, how that has affected me my whole life!!

You just don't know, family!!

How deeply i hurt!!

I say it not because i want to denegrate my family, but because the way i was treated happened,

It is very real,

and the pain and anguish, and the plight i find myself in today

all of the lonely Thanksgivings and Christmasses i now suffer too

is because of the way they have chosen to

keep their backs turned to me

and they have let it ALL fall to my poor mother to help me.

No one can fully know the emotional pain i am suffering tonight

and the very real raw fear i have of my mother dying

then me being hauled off to a nursing home

where i will be warehoused till the day i finally just die

because my heart WILL give out if i have to be put into one of those facilities.

.........I know it will..............

Because most of those facilities are awful places where they don't care either.

I have seen those facilities suck the very joy of life and spirit out of people.

I know i have my sweet angel Connie now as my caregiver,

and she is doing all she can within her abilities to help me.

But she is limited by the hours i have.

I really need to have more help from my family.

And i so need and am asking for my Autistic community friends, to please,

help me to get my story told......

I do still have my GoFundMe page,

but am going to have to take it down now

due to their support for the wrong side in what happened in #‎Ferguson.

I need help, friends, please, in the worst way.....please share this blog, and signal boost this, please!!!!

I am even tagging those who aren't yet on my friends list but who i hope will be.

Because i need our government, our President, our media,

and for EVERY family out there

to know

and to understand,

once and for all

That we are human beings,

and we are hurting

when you shun us

and hate us

and call us

wrong,

bad,

defective,

tragedies,

burdens,

animals,

and monsters.

My heart so aches for my family to finally understand and accept me just as i am.

I ache for society to understand, accept us, and stop cutting our safety net.

And to please restore to us the cuts that have already been made.

Because we need that safety net, and these programs!!

Thank you. "

My Thoughts On Issy Stapleton, & The Raw Deal She Got On The Dr. Phil Show

#WalkInIssysShoes

The following are my thoughts on the attempted murder of 15 year old Issy Stapleton, written over the course of the past several weeks.

My first thoughts after finally garnering the spoons to watch the two part Dr. Phil interview with Issy's mother, who i shall refer to as The Mom or mother, or K. Stapleton, as it hurts me to have to utter that monster's full name.

I finally watched both episodes of the Dr. Phil show interviews on YouTube, where he interviews K. Stapleton, the mother of 14 year old Issy Stapleton who is Autistic. For those who may not know, a year ago,  the mother drove herself and Issy to a deserted area near their hometown of Portage, Michigan, lit two charcoal grills inside of the van, in a botched attempt to murder Issy and kill herself. 

Here is my critique. The shows made me sick. Utterly all kinds of sick. Even though he did ask Issy's mom: "So, why shouldn't all parents of Autistic children just go and do what you did?", and "Do you (the mom) think it was okay to do what you did?".......both of his shows were totally sympathetic to K. Stapleton and all of those warrior type parents who view Autism as a jail, burden, etc. He never once bothered to tell Issy's side, to find out what was provoking her outbursts. I am sure if he had dug deeply like a good journalist would do, and bothered to do a proper investigation, with Issy's side of the story told too, he would have found out that there were valid reasons behind her meltdowns. I also went on The Mom's YouTube channel and watched alot of her videos, and i noticed how she would talk to Issy in those videos, just like Issy was a 2 or 3 year old. The way she talked to her was very condescending and sarcastically rude. It was dehumanizing. I wouldn't like my mother if she treated me that way. When people squelch an Autistic person, muzzle us, don't listen and respect us, and they treat us and talk down to us as if we are babies, using baby babble on us, like Issy's mom did in those videos, we are going to feel dismissed, demeaned, and othered, and also feel like we are being backed into a corner, so yeah, we are going to fight back. To be honest, i haven't yet read the mom's blogs...but the main thing i got from the Dr. Phil shows, was that he definitely unjustly and unfairly painted Autism in an awful light, and he portrayed both Issy and the other Autistic boy he did a story on in the second show, as monsters. If i had more spoons, i could better express what i am feeling right now. My heart goes out to Issy, and i bet you that with her mother behind bars, she is not having meltdowns now.

First of all, Issy is not an animal, she's a beautiful young HUMAN BEING!! I'm an Autistic adult, and i grew up in a non-accepting non-understanding family. That was holy hell for me. I had alot of violent meltdowns, only because my family didn't understand and have patience with me and take the time to accept me on my level, plus i did not have the supports i needed that Issy has had and does have. I had to mainly teach myself how to cope through all of that, and it was not easy for me. It took time, and lots of it. But my mother never resorted to murdering me, or even having me sent away to any institutions. Autistic people are not animals, and neither are we a tragedy or a burden, and we are certainly not locked inside by our Autism. We just communicate and experience life on a different level than neurotypical people do. If we are given the right supports, patience, understanding, and accomodations, and learning to interact with us on our level, plus treating us with respect and dignity, we can get along well in life. But telling us to not be Autistic, to have quiet hands and feet, is not going to work, because we need those kinds of stims to cope. If what we are doing isn't hurting ourselves or others...why change it? Why change us? That's exactly what causes the meltdowns and resistence.....not because we are bad, but because our neurology makeup is different. We think and process things differently than a neurotypical person does. Please don't punish us for that!!

My thoughts after seeing all of the videos posted by Issy Stapleton's mother:

I have watched all of these videos that Issy's mom has posted, and have read Issy's mother's blogs and her Twitter feed. What i have observed seems to be a mother who has a snarky, sarcastic, self-absorbed woe-is-me attitude, talking down to her daughter like she is a little baby.....and calling her a burden and a jail, because in *her* world, Issy doesn't fit. What i have also observed, is blatant in your face actual disdain and hatred towards her daughter Issy. Issy, who may be unable to fully communicate and verbalize her feelings, still knows full well what is going on around her, and she can tell and feel full well whether she is accepted and loved or not. She does not know how to tell her mom, so that is most likely why she strikes out by hitting. Because no one taught her how to communicate any differently till she went to that school....where she did blossom and grow. It seems to me that when she got taken away from her friends in 6th grade, that is where things started to go downhill.....but Mom couldn't see that....all she could see was the "behavior".....and nothing beyond that. I also noticed how everything seemed to be calm in the schoolroom video that was posted on the mother's channel, until Issy's mom came in, and then was told that her mom was going to be her teacher that day. That was when all hell broke loose. That tells me right there, it was her mother who was the problem, her mother who antagonized and provoked her meltdowns. And i find it very odd that the sound on that video got removed.

Issy's mom did have help available for her, but she chose not to listen to the people who were giving it or to take the help......because in my honest opinion, she seemed to hate it that Issy is Autistic, and seemed to be hell-bent on changing Issy into what SHE wanted Issy to be, and to hell with Issy's feelings!!

I also saw a video that was made about a year after the attempt on Issy's life, where it shows that because of the new caregiver, Issy has made a great deal of progress in the past year since her mother's been away from her in jail...in the video, Issy's dad even confirms this....so now, what does that tell you? That her mom was the problem!! Please, do your research, read Issy's mom's The Status Woe blogs, go on all of Issy's Facebook pages, etc., and her Twitter, before running your mouth and calling ANY human being an animal or a monster!!! 

#DisabledLivesMatter

#JusticeForIssy 

#TellIssysStory 

#DontCallUsAnimals

Telling an Autistic person to have "quiet hands and feet" is like telling someone not to wring their hands or twirl their thumbs. It is my choice if i wish to flap my hands if i am happy or nervous, and to wiggle my legs and feet when i sit. Or if i wish to rock back and forth as a way to help keep me calm. These things don't hurt anyone. So people, please stop telling us we can't do these things!! You are oppressing us!!

#JUsticeForIssy

#TellIssysStoryToo

#DisabledPeopleMatter

#DisabledAutonomyMatters

#DontCallMeAnAnimal

#DontCallIssyAnAnimal

To reiterate, I know Issy got abused, 

1) just by what i have seen of all of the videos that were uploaded to the mother's YouTube channel.....including the one where Issy was in the room with the two therapists, and when the mom came on scene, things escalated.....and the sound was taken off the video too, i may add, yup, the sound got taken off, so we can't hear what is really going on in that room.

2) There is also a video---also on Issy's mom's YT channel of the whole family and their cats where they are playing around about throwing the cats around, feeding them wine and rat poison, and putting them in the dryer and the microwave

3) Issy's monster mom's blogs and Twitter feed, where you can see it all in black and white, her disdain for her daughter....why can't she have quiet hands and feet....never once telling Issy's side

4) The video the news station did where Issy is doing great now, and showing that she has been doing great ever since monster mom has been in jail. This all tells me that monster mom has been the problem all along!!