Video via NAMI.org One of the biggest concerns for people with disabilities is having and managing money. The costs of managing a disability are staggering and can prevent the disabled from working. While many disabled people rely on Social Security (particularly Supplemental Security Income/SSI or Social Security Disability SSI/SSDI) as a source of income, current policies prevent them from saving more than $2,000 in cash savings and more to qualify for these benefits. In practice, this forces the disabled to live below the poverty line…
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By Zoey Giesberg, MSW I’m not a big fan of sappy romantic dramas. While I will admit to being among the many who sobbed at the end “The Notebook” when I first saw it as a teenager, stories of people falling in love while something “greater” than themselves try to keep them from being together just feels tired to me. There aren’t many ways to make this Romeo and Juliet narrative new and innovative, and the onslaught of these films…
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By Zoey Giesberg, MSW Earlier this week, one of my favorite actors Kristen Bell revealed that she suffers from depression and anxiety. In an interview with “Off Camera with Sam Jones”, she talked about how her mother told her at a young age about a hereditary serotonin imbalance in her family and taking medication to help ease the hormone. You can watch the interview here: It was shocking to me to hear this from Bell. She’s known for being a…
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Zoey Giesberg, MSW I may have mentioned here before that I didn’t learn I was autistic until I was thirteen years old. In fact, looking back on the articles I’ve written for FACT, I did indeed write about it. But I want to come back to that topic to discuss something I sort of touched on in that piece – self-acceptance about being autistic. Accepting being autistic has not been easy for me. As I said many months ago, I…
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Zoey Giesberg, MSW & Executive Assistant When talking about autism, the public seems to focus on children. Google “autism” in the images section and among the multitude of puzzle pieces is pictures of children. I completely understand why this is – autism is a developmental disorder that begins presenting itself in toddlers and that creates a need for early intervention so that these children can learn vital skills so they can adjust to the greater world. In fact, the biggest…
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Zoey Giesberg, MSW Last May, I walked across the USC campus for the last time. This wasn’t for any classes or any particular school-related check-up – it was a graduation ceremony. After four long years, I have received my diploma and can now call myself a legitimate social worker. I’m no longer a student, but an official Master in Social Work. And I got extremely lucky post-graduation. FACT has been generous enough to offer me a job post-graduation. I’m doing…
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Zoey Giesberg, FACT Intern & Future MSW As I go about my journey to self-acceptance, I find myself engaging in informal autism research and self-evaluation. The more I learn about autism, the more I figure out how it applies to me and how I see it as a whole. So I’d like to share some things I’ve learned about autism, and thus myself. 1. Autism largely occurs through genetic mutation When I received my diagnosis at the age of two, the…
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Zoey Giesberg, FACT Intern & Future MSW One of the most repeated things I’ve heard in grad school is the phrase “self-care”. It is basically what you think it is – taking care of oneself. It feels like a no-brainer to take care of yourself to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but to practice self-care you have to be able to take a break from whatever is bringing you down and remind yourself you are worth the care. And I can…
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Zoey Giesberg, FACT Intern & Future MSW One of the common features of people on the autistic spectrum is a strict adherence to routine. There is a pattern to the day and to activities and all is well when following it. Throw in a wench by changing something up and suddenly life starts to crumble apart and there will be chaos. I wouldn’t say change isn’t welcome, but it’s confusing and stressful in a way most people would experience it.…
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Zoey Giesberg, FACT Intern & Future MSW A new year means a fresh start. Whether you celebrate it on January 1st or another date as per culture or religion, it’s a time of reflecting back on the actions of the previous year and vowing to make things better in the upcoming one. It’s the reason New Year’s resolutions revolve around trying to improve oneself and set new benchmarks to meet. So my New Year’s resolution is to become more comfortable and…
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