Handcuffed and Treated Like a Criminal with ASD

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I had a public meltdown due to vehicle troubles in the Texas heat. I was handcuffed and slammed into a patrol car causing an injury. I am also severely anemic. I told the officer that I had a meltdown and everything is back to normal but he did not understand and just thought that I was some psychotic creep. He handcuffed me causing great anxiety because I am also claustraphobic. Well, I am being treated for anemia and now going to be shipped out to a psychiatric place to be evaluated for psychiatric disorders. I was diagnosed at age 10 with autism. I am a female so nobody believes that I have it.

I am sorry this happened to you.

The only thing you can do at this point is let a** holes do their worst. Try not to fight it. Even though you may. They are in control. That is the attitude. Unfortunately the more you cannot help yourself, the more it is going to hurt. That is the way Johnny law is trained.

I've been there before and it's impossible to reason with police. My best advice for you is to seek legal representation through people you trust and rest well, eat and be as kind to yourself as you're demanded to be towards others. In situations like these, resolutions arrive when you prove anecdotally that you're above this above & beyond such an unfortunate culture of ignorance and brutality. You'll have to be a vocal advocate for your rights as a patient, though I believe you'll recognize who might be able to help you. On the spectrum we can't be reasonably expected to behave perfectly and the past is the past. Remain optimistic, ask us an questions you feel you must and you'll come out on top. I wish you all the luck in the world in finding for yourself some peace.

I am in the hospital right now with severe anemia. Once that is done they want to transfer me to a county psychiatric ward for a full psych evaluation. I just contacted a doctor who deals with Autism/Aspergers. I was 10 years old when I got my initial diagnosis but it was not Aspergers back then. I cannot convimce them and they think I am just a crazy lady who acted inappropriately in public. The meltdown lasted about 5 minutes or so. Sorry about my typing, I was not allowed to have my eyeglasses.

You need a lawyer. Better call Saul!

What do you do when you melt down? Do you get violent or damage property?

You're very lucky the cops didn't kill you. Someone needs to intervene, and quick smart. You can explain til you're blue in the face, it's hard enough getting family members to understand. The only crime was being an AS person and being in public. I also know female Aspergian friends that have been shoved into psychiatric wards, and also being forcibly put in there is a real possibility.

It's infuriating, people only seem to help when you're on fire. Why aren't your family and friends rallying around you, why is that doctor you called sitting on his f*****g arse, why isn't anyone in Texas doing something.

Why don't you give us all the address of the hospital and we will flood them with letters demanding your release and shaming them for discrimination.

Yes, I'd be willing to send them many letters.

Yeah, letters from a bunch of strangers not even in the medical profession, nor legal profession, are going to make the hospital let the OP go home if they believe he's got a legitimate psych problem that they think he should be evaluated for. The best way to do it is to have the psych eval and prove that he's not psychotic and then go from there.

Cops can go completely overboard and if they feel that the person is a danger they are within their right to handcuff them and transport them, but a diagnosis of autism or AS (same thing now, I know) is easy to prove and if the OP doesn't have a record of freaking out in public and having the cops called on him then everything should be ok. If they aren't pressing legal charges, there is nothing that can really be done about the cops actions except to maybe talk to a public relations officer and try to encourage training for them in dealing with folks on the spectrum having a meltdown. The problem with that is that sometimes a meltdown looks like a psychotic episode and unless you can stop in the middle of the meltdown to tell the cops whats going on, they have no way of knowing, and you can't really stop in the middle of a meltdown to explain. Unless you are wearing some kind of bracelet that explains it, you have to realize that they don't know what they are dealing with at the time.

I don't think the diagnostic criteria is very good, or works very well for females on the spectrum. Should they have this psych eval, and the person gets it wrong, they then have ammunition and can easily say "We have an experts diagnostic, that says you're mental."

It happens all the time. Not sure of the exact story, but I know Rose got diagnosed with some untrue things. I was once re-diagnosed as having "severe mental disorder", and I know female friends that have been forcibly put into mental wards as a result of being misdiagnosed, not an age ago, but this year.

I've found that if you calmly explain yourself after the meltdown, people tend to not think you are psychotic.

I'm really sorry this is happening to you.

While you're in there, ask them about how to live with agoraphobia-- if you didn't have it before, you probably will after this nightmare.

You can get a lawyer and attempt to prosecute if it pleases you, but don't expect much more than someone's admission that their behavior was inappropriate.

Let that be a lesson to everyone-- If you are a female in distress, you may sniffle a little bit (provided you can look pretty while you're doing it, and don't forget to dab at your mascara, preferably with an embroidered hankie or pink tissue). Other than that, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES ALLOW YOURSELF TO YELL, CRY, KICK YOUR OWN PERSONAL INANIMATE AND NON-LIVING PROPERTY, USE PROFANE LANGUAGE, OR OTHERWISE DO ANYTHING THAT COULD MAKE ANYONE, NO MATTER HOW UNREASONABLE THEY MAY BE, UNCOMFORTABLE IN PUBLIC.

If indeed you are on the spectrum, DO NOT EXPECT THE EXPLANATION TO HELP YOU. It will, in fact, probably be weighed against you.

If you can, take along an NT who can speak for you and be taken seriously.

If you can't do that every single time you want to go anywhere or do anything, well, get good at smiling.

It makes me madder than HELL.

That's just what the OP, and others did/have done. No, you'll be very lucky to find one NT person that has the capacity to understand.

And around police? Light's blade, be as careful as possible. They're not even remotely trained to interact with people that are different. Full blown meltdown, they're probably going to fill someone full of bullets, or choke someone to death.

I've had meltdowns in public before and one in the back of a police car where I was for a different reason. This was before I knew I had AS, so the only explanation I had was that sometimes I just lose it and can't handle the stress at times. The cop whose car I was in that time just said "Go on and have your fit, I'll still be here when you're finished". He wasn't very nice about it, but he didn't shoot me or do anything else to me.

Most people who see a meltdown probably think the person is either some type of crazy or on drugs, and if you explain right afterwards that you are neither and that sometimes it's all so overwhelming and you can't help it and that you are aware of what you did, they usually don't mess with you about it. At least that's what I have found from my on first hand life experiences. They don't have to understand the meltdown per se, they only have to understand that you aren't dangerous or out of control any longer and that you are aware of what you did.