I could defiantly see this playing a part. Because I am bipolar my life expectancy is shortened by 10 years. The ONLY risk factor that plays a part in this is suicide.
I know. It's scary because a couple years ago, they realized we were thinking about suicide. Now they are finding we are doing it.
The article says heart, suicide, and epilepsy.
My heart is perfect. No epilepsy. But I notice as I get older, I do not have the skills to deal with the things life shoves down my face, like accidents and injuries and illnesses. And the reasons I cannot cope are:
1. Sensory issues: Say I need an operation. Fat chance. It's not just getting it done, it's afterward. The pain, the disruption in routine, it's lack of caregivers....yeah. I can see me getting bone marrow transplant or hip replacement or heart valve whatever. As the body breaks down, I feel it and can't get it fixed. I am 12 in a brown down body.
2. Disruption of Routine. My routine is very set in stone. One or two days off it and I am a disaster with meltdowns from Hades. If, for instance, I developed severe arthritis in hips or legs or knees, it's not as easy as an NT---just go get it replaced. No, it's not like that. To me, it is a 12 year old with no parents left and no one to take care of me and looking at not walking or a long recovery.
3. Social issues: Again, as we get older, if we were unlucky in life, the social isolation becomes so much worse. You see yourself alone and chances of connection are slimmer. Suicide rates go up with age in general, anyway.
4. Food issues. As I get older, this just gets worse.
5. Looking back, I see more failure than successes. The PTSD from every thing I went through and realizing I put SO MUCH UNGODLY effort into doing my best, staying alive, trying and grinding myself into a tiny , unreconizable speck and it all CAME TO NOTHING really, actually BLOWS my mind into a million pieces. NOTHING TURNED OUT.
6. The suffering I cause and have caused to those that love or loved me. The meltdowns, the financial stress on parents and caregivers before they knew I had Autism.......what they went through with the psych industry telling them to do things to me. Then, suddenly, "It's autism" . What a mind-f***,
That all said, why am I here? I have about two people in my family who, for some reason, want me here. I have explained to them that I am not going to stick this out .
I have been Aspie blunt and asked THEM "Why is it you want me to hang on this cross?? I love you, too, but I don't understand why you want someone to be around if they are in so much inexorable suffering with no way out? "
The look on their face kept me here one more day. It makes me sad to know I have caused so much pain.