[Kate*]

Nothing any of you put me through was justified or the least bit okay. Framing it as "tough love" and "protecting the public" while blaming me for being "immature" and a laundry list of other negative adjectives and insulting my mother's parenting was unethical, discriminatory, ablest af, and probably illegal. Not only did it break me young, but you convinced me that my disability was one of character and not neurology like it is. I learned that the world around me viewed being disabled the same as being a criminal. That no matter how likable you admitted I was, it didn't change the fact that I was broken, damaged, and somehow horrible and evil at a basic level and therefore undesirable. And there was nothing I could do, because I couldn't grow up, and I'll never grow out of it. It's hard to believe you're wrong when it's been pervasive. And even if I someday stop believing you, the rest of the world still does.