One of the best explanations I’ve been able to come up with for why autism messes with your sleep schedule is that your brain prefers you to be awake when it is darker and more quieter out. A more nocturnal schedule has a lot of sensory benefits for autistic people:
Fewer people around, less noise
Less bright/glaring light
Generally a calmer environment
Which would work fine if we were living in a world where capitalism hadn’t made alternate sleep schedules so untenable because of “profit.” In a different society this sort of quality could be valued (“no I don’t mind tending the herd at night, you find it hard to stay awake but I find it peaceful,” and so on). But not in this one. And that’s not a failing of biology, or neurology. That’s a failure of society. The fact that so many neurodivergent people struggle with keeping an 8 to 5 schedule is another symptom of intrusive capitalism microcontrolling our lives, not a personal “weakness” or shortcoming.
Give people more control over their lives and schedules.
As a matter of fact, if your employer fires you for anything relating to forming a union, that’s retalition, and it’s illegal under federal law. If this happens to you, vontact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
So I just took a call. It was a mother calling about her daughter, she needed to have teeth extracted, and they had already scheduled an appointment elsewhere, and she was supposed to be going in for surgery tomorrow, but they just called the mom and told her they’re no longer taking her daughter’s insurance. Apparently they found out a week ago. Why they didn’t tell her a week ago, both me and the mom don’t understand. Thank fucking god I was able to find a different facility that did take her insurance, and I was able schedule an appointment for her to be seen tomorrow, but FUCK.
Her daughter is in pain. The mom was literally crying on the phone with me, just completely furious, and I don’t blame her at all. This is fucking despicable, that the fucking dental facilities care more about getting paid than actually taking care of people. This isn’t the first call I’ve had like this. It happens too often. This shouldn’t happen at all.
Honestly this job makes me want to eat the rich even more because getting even just a basic dental exam and cleaning shouldn’t be this fucking hard, whether you’re on medicaid or not.
