Today is World Autism Understanding Day, a day dedicated to understanding how we can all make changes to accommodate and communicate with autistic individuals, so that they feel better supported, included and understood in society. According to Autism Spectrum Australia, it is estimated about 1 in 70 people in Australia are on the autism spectrum. In recent years, the number of Australians with an autism diagnosis has surged and it is now thought that more than 200,000 Australians have an autism diagnosis. In childhood, autism is now diagnosed in three boys for every one girl.
In this piece, Christina Chushen, a young woman diagnosed with anxiety and autism, shares her experience and contemplates her future in a world that is not designed to accommodate neurodivergence.
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Just imagine if you had a disability and a mental health condition, how would you like society to treat you? Have you ever wondered how a person with a disability sees the world? For many people with a disability like myself, we often wonder how our lives would be if we didn’t have a disability.
As a young woman diagnosed with anxiety and autism, you may think I am feeling 100 per cent or may see that I am heightened, but how I feel inside is what people don’t see. I have learned through behaviours of society that I need to learn to cope and get on with life, as the world is not designed for people with a disability or a mental health condition. No matter where you go, people judge you and people look upon you in a negative way, while people like myself contemplate what their future looks like.
After finishing Year 12 in 2021, I started my double degree of Business and Law. I’m currently in my penultimate year and am thinking to myself what will my future look like? Will my dreams come true? What will my career look? Sometimes I have the sensation that all my hard work is a waste of time but I know that I am not the only one feeling like this and I can break this barrier for future generations.
The sad reality is that society is not designed for people with a disability and a mental health condition. Instead, society goes against us. Just because someone has a disability and suffers from a mental health condition, doesn’t mean they can’t be a teacher, doctor, nurse or whatever they want to be or like in my case, a lawyer? Why should our condition prevent us or stop us from achieving our career dreams?
Society and the world needs to change but I often wonder why hasn’t anything changed. This is where society is failing people with a disability and a mental health issue. Why are so many people with a disability or a mental health issue homeless or unemployed? Is it something wrong with us or is it something wrong with the world we live in?
The only way the lives of people with a disability or a mental health issue can improve is if we start accepting our conditions and our sufferings. So as I am writing this, I am thinking to myself, if I can do a double degree, why can’t I achieve my dreams or why can’t I have a career and why do I have to live my life differently to other people? The answer is no I don’t, but society is making people like me live differently.