Submission 396
To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing as someone currently trying to function within modern Australian society while navigating what I strongly suspect is undiagnosed autism and significant executive functioning difficulties, without adequate support infrastructure.
I want to be very clear from the beginning: this is not a request for pity.
This is an attempt to explain, as precisely as possible, what daily life becomes when someone is cognitively capable, motivated, and willing to participate in society, but structurally unable to sustain the level of administrative, sensory, financial, and neurological self-management modern systems increasingly demand.
One of the most difficult parts of living this way is that impairment is often assessed through visible incapacity rather than invisible expenditure.
Because I am articulate, self-aware, and capable of expressing complex thoughts, people frequently assume I am functioning sustainably. In reality, many ordinary tasks can consume the entirety of my available cognitive capacity for a day.
Replying to emails. Organising transport. Attending appointments. Managing paperwork. Regulating sleep. Maintaining nutrition. Navigating changing systems. Remembering administrative requirements. Making phone calls. Processing overstimulation. Recovering from disruption. Coordinating multiple tasks at once.
These are considered “basic adult responsibilities,” yet for many neurodivergent people, they are not occurring in the background automatically. They require conscious processing, energy expenditure, recovery time, and often significant distress.
Modern life increasingly demands continuous executive functioning.
Not just employment, but constant digital coordination: passwords, notifications, appointment systems, identity verification, transport logistics, financial management, housing instability, administrative compliance, social masking,
Submission 396
algorithmic overload, and fragmented attention across dozens of systems simultaneously.
For people whose nervous systems struggle with executive functioning, sensory processing, task initiation, cognitive overload, or regulation, this environment is not merely “stressful.” It can become actively disabling.
What makes this particularly difficult is that the very systems required to access support are often inaccessible to the people who most need them.
To pursue autism assessment and support, I am expected to independently coordinate appointments, manage waitlists, navigate referral pathways, organise finances, maintain consistent communication, tolerate overwhelming administrative systems, and continuously advocate for myself.
Those exact areas are where my impairments most significantly affect functioning.
There is a profound structural contradiction in requiring people with executive functioning difficulties to independently navigate highly executive-function-heavy systems in order to prove they need support.
The financial barriers are also enormous.
Adult autism assessments are often prohibitively expensive, particularly for people already struggling with inconsistent functioning, burnout, unstable work capacity, or reduced support networks. Many people are left in a limbo state where they are visibly struggling, but unable to access the diagnosis required to receive meaningful assistance.
As a result, people frequently deteriorate while attempting to appear functional enough to survive.
This creates a system where support is delayed until visible crisis occurs.
I do not believe this is economically sustainable, ethically sound, or socially responsible.
Early support, accessible assessments, and properly funded neurodivergent infrastructure are not luxuries. They are preventative measures that reduce long-term burnout, healthcare strain, unemployment risk, housing instability, and crisis intervention costs.
Submission 396
I also believe there is still a major cultural misunderstanding surrounding autism, particularly in adults, women, and people who have learned to mask heavily.
Many of us do not present as incapable. We present as exhausted.
We present as people constantly compensating.
We present as intelligent individuals trying to manually operate systems other people seem able to navigate automatically.
Cuts to support systems such as the NDIS, combined with increasing cost-of-living pressures and inaccessible diagnostic pathways, do not simply reduce “services.” They reduce many people’s ability to participate meaningfully and sustainably in society at all.
I want to contribute to society. I want stability. I want to work sustainably. I want to function without living in a constant state of cognitive overload and administrative survival.
But it is extraordinarily difficult to build a stable life inside systems that were not designed with neurodivergent functioning in mind.
I am asking that policymakers take seriously the lived realities of autistic and otherwise neurodivergent adults who are currently falling through the gaps between visibility and support.
Not because we lack intelligence, willingness, or value.
But because modern systems increasingly punish people whose impairments are invisible until collapse occurs.
Thank you for your time and consideration.