Not all level 1 autistic people have low support needs.
Even if someone’s autism doesn’t cause significant problems for someone to do basic activities of daily living, live independently, or maintain safe behaviors, another condition might.
I’m autistic. My level when I was diagnosed at 17 (I’m 21 now) was level 1. While I don’t feel like this is entirely accurate to how my autism affects me now it’s still my diagnosis.
But I have other things going on with me. I have severe depression that has resulted in multiple hospitalizations. I think like 7? in the last 3 years. My mental illness is so severe that I am frequently at risk of being hospitalized, and when I am hospitalized it’s usually for a week or longer instead of the normal 5-7 days. I’m worried if I can’t stay out of the hospital for longer periods they might recommend a residential placement, but luckily that hasn’t been on the table yet.
I get to the point where I get nervous sharing my autism level publicly online because I get nervous people will think I’m low support needs. But that isn’t my reality. I’m definitely not high support needs. I don’t need constant care and can do all my every day hygiene without any physical support. But there’s a lot I can’t do.
I can’t live independently without being hospitalized within 1-2 months. I can’t maintain employment without severe mental decline leading to hospitalization. I can’t maintain safe behaviors like not hurting myself for long periods of time. I can’t manage my own medication because of safety risks. I can’t keep my space clean. My ptsd is so bad that often times I can’t say no with my mouth. I am eligible for home and community based services. Which in my state requires that a person needs a nursing home level of care.
There’s a lot of things that I can do. And I’m very grateful for that. I’m nowhere near the most disabled. But when people compare me to people who can live on their own and mask and work without completely breaking down I just feel like I can never measure up. My life feels like it’s not amounting to as much as other level 1 autistic people my age and I feel like it’s because I’m not good enough or trying hard enough.
But there are lots of disabilities than can cause a person to have severe problems with independent living and daily activities. A person who is mostly bedbound due to a physical disability doesn’t have low support needs just because they aren’t autistic or are level 1. A person with severe mental illness who is living in a group home or state hospital doesn’t have low support needs.
I think in the autistic community including the medium and high support needs autistic community we need to take into consideration other disabilities more when we think about who needs which levels of support. Just because someone doesn’t need lots of support with their autism specifically doesn’t mean they don’t need lots of support in general or with our other disabilities.
