Autism & Addiction Whose Business Is It

Autism & Addiction Whose Business Is It? Tanea Paterson Dip. App. Add. Practitioner  What is Autism? ➢ Genetic link ➢ Autism is the current word used to cover a wide spectrum ‘neurodiversity’ ➢ Social, communication & sensory differences ➢ Neurological Processing Differences ‘Thinking in Pictures’ ➢ Decreased life span ave ~ 18 yrs below ave ➢ Autistic adults without ID 9x more likely than controls to die by suicide The Future Why Autistics Use Drugs ✓ Including the AQ-10 in comp. assessments ✓ Develop Autism specific addiction therapies ✓ Te Pou - Autism Professional Development Framework Model Extends to Addiction Sector ✓ Services access professional development such as PRISM through Altogether Autism Social Interactions and Communication • Anxiety ‘social lubrication’ Executive Functioning • Impulsivity, repetition Avoiding or seeking Sensory Input • Sensory processing problems Co-Occurring Problems • Self medication Community Tx Resistant Group? • Desire to ‘fit in’ or to ‘drop out’ Relationships • Seeking Comfort and Predictability • PAIN*** •labelled as difficult, inconsistent, unreliable and ‘treatment resistant’ Current Research ➢ 26,986 Autistic Swedes born between 1973 and 2009 Assessed for CEP - ID, SUD & ADHD Autism dx DOUBLES the risk of addiction Elevated risk is concentrated among those with an IQ of 100 or above ADHD multiplies risk: Autism and ID, having ADHD increases the risk of addiction FOURFOLD Typical IQ or above, ADHD increases the risk EIGHTFOLD ➢ Journal of Alcoholism & Drug Dependence demonstrated •frameworks of tx do not fit neurodivergent Co-Occurring Problems **Anxiety, Depression Autism Brief Assessment •if diagnosed, services may claim to have no skills to work with Autistic people and pass back to disability. Sensory Processing Differences Dyslexia Dyspraxia Gastro Intestinal Issues ADD/ADHD Seizure Activity Tourettes PTSD Eating Disorders Fibromyalgia & Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (Collagen Mutations) •disability may discharge the person from their service due to substance use leaving them on their own •Client may be deemed too ‘high functioning’ to access disability service – increasing risk of self medication/harm Gender Dysmorphia Sleep Disorders Barriers to Tx Services; nearly 7 percent of people in addiction tx were diagnosed with autism, as compared with 1 percent of the general population. (Hofvander, 2014) (Butwicka, 2016) Further - [email protected] ❖ ❖ Stephanie Tihanyi “Neurodiverse Tree of Life” Not Autism specific CEP ready Gaps in awareness about, interest in or access to Autism Professional Development ❖ Assessment not Autism Inclusive ❖ No specific skills ❖ Unaware of Autistic traits ❖ Lack of access to Adult Autism Assessment