Supported Living: Dan's Story 

There not easy to find especially if your not in high places but I'm going to share some pertions about the need to build more homes at a quality standard for supported living because it's so important because people I know with autism as I have autism aswel constantly worry about the future of what will happen when circumstances are different

they can't work bc of their disability not as easy 4 them as it is 4 he average joe

as someone with Autism and ADHD, what some would even describe as "high fuctioning", let me provide a bit of reality for you based on my own perspective; many of us will never be independent, whether we want it or not, because for us the choice is either this, living with our parents, or being homeless, those are our only options. I myself am going to be looking at supported living because I've about had my fill of living with my parents, I want my own space away from my parents but I would not be able to cope without someone there to keep an eye on things, I would end up homeless within a couple of months. In fact if supported living isn't an option for me then my long term retirement plan once my parents die consists of buying a train to the nearest national park and wandering into the wilderness with the hope that the elements claim me in my sleep you may think "well just get a job then and work to pay your bills", and I'd love to, I really would, but my own experience is employers don't want to employ autistic people, they see the label "autism" so their minds immediately jump to the worst case scenario and picture what many backwards people would ascribe some extremely offensive language towards, so they either bring you on then let you go in a few weeks, or they don't get back to you all together. the truth is laws like the Equality act does jack shit beyond making employers more sly about how they go about their discrimination. On top of all that, we have a chronic inability to tolerate bullshit, so the fact that society forces us devote the majority of our life to performing often menial and degrading work just for the privilege of a roof over our heads and a hot meal with no other alternative doesn't fly with us. We say what we mean, but neurotypical people just LOVE to read between the lines and derive hidden meanings in everything we say making us socially incompatible which can further exclude us from work where there's an unspoken expectation that you have to be happy-happy-happy and talk to your colleagues on top of performing whatever mind-numbing task your employer thinks they can get away paying the minimum wage for. having ADHD many things that come naturally to most people can feel like having to climb Everest, we can't prioritise tasks, we can't visualise what the "end point" of a task might look like, we have time blindness so we can't self schedule, we're impulsive so the term "budgeting" does not apply, we'll look at our bank account and see that we have £100, so we'll go and buy that shiny new toy for £100 completely forgetting that that money was supposed to pay for bills. ADHD at its core is a chronic deficiency of dopamine, not only do ADHD people have a consistent track record of co-morbid depression, making true independence dangerous and isolating, but performing menial chores like washing the pots or hanging the washing out to dry doesn't give us that subconscious little shot of dopamine to say "well done" so on an emotional level it can feel like being forced to shovel shit at gunpoint. Our subconscious focus in life, from the moment we wake up till the moment we go to bed, is driven by the desire to generate that precious reward chemical, which means hobbies, comfort food, even turning to drugs for some, because of this there is no "I should do my chores" we will ALWAYS need someone external to be there and say "hey, remember to do this"