I'm afraid of legal guardianship.
I will turn 18 on April the 5th. I have MSN autism without an intellectual disability. My mom is currently in the process of applying that a court should decide if I need a legal guardian or not and in which areas. In Austria, you don't automatically have a legal guardian in all areas if you have a legal guardian, which is a good system, I think, because some people like me have issues with some legal areas but not in other legal areas. I will choose my mom as my legal guardian. But I'm scared. I think she is the best option because when she is my legal guardian, people will take her more seriously if she advocates for me when there are issues. I'm scared of having a legal guardian. There is no concrete decision I want to make which she would forbid me and I know that there are ways to change your legal guardian if your guardian acts not reasonable but If I need to change to another legal guardian people wouldn't take her as seriously when she is advocating for me. It just makes me scared that there is the possibility that she prohibits me a decision I want to make.
Additionally, it makes me sad that I will not have the same freedom of decision-making as other 18 year olds. Yes I'm in need of care and that also restrics the decision I make bit it feels differently to have my decision making officially restricted and not just de facto.
I'm also scared that the court would say that I need a legal guardian in areas where I don't need one. I know they have my medical documents but my main diagnosis atypical autism is a giant spectrum and my care needs doesn't really affect my ability to make decisions but some people think a person who needs help with showering because a non physical disability automatically would make less reasonable decisions which isn’t true in my case. I'm scared that the judge will not know that I have the ability to think clearly and also complex. I talked with the boss of the care home about my fears and asked him if it's possible the give to judge some of my texts I wrote about my issues because I often have issues to tell caretakers my issues verbally. He said he thinks that's a good idea. I told him I will search texts where I'm okay with sharing. Theoretically, I have many texts, but by most texts or even text pieces, I'm scared of sharing. I'm scared that it would have bad consequences for me. If I would take a text about that I'm scared of care needs categorization I'm scared that they would I think I would have manipulate my last care needs evaluation or that I would plan the manipulate my next one which I definitely don't do. If I would take a text where I talk about my fears and issues where I also mentioned my death wish thoughs I'm scared that the judge would think I would be in risk of committing suicide and would need to be sectioned which I'm definitely not. I know they know I'm in psychiatric treatment and on one side I think if a person is in psychiatric treatment they think that the psychiatrists know if a person is in danger of committing suicide or not but on the other side I'm scared that they would think I need to be sectioned.
My personal view about legal guardianship in situations where I think reasonable, which is in all situations except of Meltdowns and some other really bad mental health situations, is that I need a legal guardian in some areas. Not because I can't make reasonable decisions but because there are situations where I can’t advocate for myself because of Meltdowns and stress.













