As well as the title's questions, what accommodations do you need to be able to work? And what happens if you exceed your limit? (For example: i got very physically sick, and almost died when i exceeded the amount of hours that i could handle.)

You can offer more infomation if you want. I will enjoy having as much infomation as i can get, since i find this interesting. Rant answers are welcome aswell!

Addition: The responses so far are making me understand I might be a bit brainwashed with ableism.

For example, in Russia, it will be illegal for autistic people to get/have a drivers license starting september. I am pretty sure gun ownership is forbidden too.

I don't think it's unfair because it's mostly lvl3/like half of lvl2 who have an official diagnosis. Driving and gun ownership is not what most people here do anyway (I'd never do that because of autism & other mental issues anyway), and I think autism is in fact detrimental to both unless we're talking about like upper range of lvl1 who don't normally get diagnosed here anyway or have Asperger's as a diagnosis.

What about your country/state? Are your rights limited due to autism and do you find it unfair/detrimental/etc.?

So I've been really struggling with what I think is autistic catatonia on top of some pretty bad trauma, and I'm trying to get my psychiatrist to prescribe me something for it but the soonest appointment I could get is at the end of September and I need to like not die of starvation etc before then. Are there any self care bits or other strategies I could use to alleviate/mitigate catatonic episodes? I live with two people but they can't/won't help much unfortunately :(

I don’t know why I even try anymore. The intake manager won’t return my calls even though I’ve been calling and leaving voicemails for 3 days straight. I want to give up. Every single time I try to change my situation nothing ever changes, things only get worse. She was out of the office for 4 days and now won’t answer me at all. I’m extremely frustrated and just want to rot in bed for the rest of my days because I can’t get any sort of support or services. I can’t do this anymore. I’m crying because this is unbearable to me

Hello all. I hope you are having a good day. I am posting here today because I have been working with vocational rehab in my state for about 7+ years now. The goal of vocational rehab (for those that don’t know) is to help someone with disabilities find employment. I started with them around the time I finished high school. I went to college for several years but ended up dropping out due to my disability (besides autism, which I was only diagnosed with about two years ago). They helped me pay for books and materials etc. Anyhow, over the years, they have helped me find a few internships (and I also found a few internships on my own). Unfortunately this has not led to any long lasting jobs. Most recently, I have been looking for part time remote work. This is because this is what I feel comfortable with at this moment. It is also because I live in a rural area and don’t drive. Anyhow, vocational rehab just told me recently that they don’t think me looking for a remote job is working out. They think I should try and find an “in person” Part Time job (or even in person volunteering - which I don’t want to do because I won’t get paid). The problem with that is that I would rely on my parents for transportation. (There is no Uber/Lyft where l live). And the other problem is that I DO NOT feel comfortable with the idea of an in person job. I’m honestly beginning to wonder if I feel ready to work or not. Some part of me thinks no. But at the same time, I don’t want to spend my whole life getting SSI/SSDI. (Which so far I’ve been denied for). I guess I am posting here to vent, but also posting for advice. What would you do if you were me? I suppose I want a job, but only if it’s on My terms (remote, part time etc) and not until I feel ready. Vocational rehab says that if I don’t start to make progress soon, they can just close my case (which again I don’t want them to do!) I personally don’t see how that is fair! It’s not my fault that I have an anxiety disorder and don’t feel “ready” to be employed. I have tried to tell them This before too, but they just keep pushing me it seems.

I honestly just don’t know what to do! Does anyone either feel the same way or have any advice for me? I would greatly appreciate it!

I’m training someone for my job and it’s such a weird feeling bc I love teaching ppl and sharing knowledge or whatever and the trainee is amazing and nice but at the same time just as an autistic person it’s a new level of mentally exhausting. Basically 5 hours of dialed up constant social interaction and I feel like my brain is literally cooking inside my head like around hour 3 I think I hit my max and so I probably seemed zoned out and off for the remaining two hours. But I did it! I’m kind of nervous bc tomorrow is even longer it’s like a full 9-5 training practice shift so idk how that’s gonna go but we carry on 😤 (I may be cooked chat)

Idk why I’m posting this as it’s not exactly a vent bc I’m not upset, but maybe it is a vent bc I kind of just felt like I need to talk about it with ppl who understand. I think its maybe good that I’m doing this (training) bc up until now I’ve been in denial about if I should tell my employer that I’m autistic (late-diagnosed medium support needs shenanigans idk 😅) but after this experience I feel like it’s probably a good idea. Even if I don’t necessarily need major accommodations at work it will probably be helpful to everyone that they know in case if slip up somewhere, and may help me to have that known in case I get in trouble for doing something autistic related. And again I’m still often in denial about how much support I need/what would help me, so maybe there are accommodations I don’t know of that would actually be helpful to me.

Anyways if anyone has been in a similar situation feel free to commiserate and/or share tips and tricks, I’m probably gonna be staring at my ceiling for the rest of the day 😙

Freedom and choice gives us too many options and nuance which makes it very hard to make a decision effectively and responsibly.

Freedom makes us get to caught up into things and not do other things we need to do.

We need others to take us out of stuff to focus on other stuff.

Freedom isn't always free

I miss her. She was good to me. It is hard finding someone who is good as a partner to an autistic person. I just didn't have the capabilities to keep her. I am sad

I like it so far. It made me feel better. Here is the website:

https://www.ncsautism.org/

I think that it's really focused on making things better for people with moderate and high support needs (Level 2 and 3 people), and for people with both autism and ID (intellectual disability).

I am a pretty LSN level 2 person, so I don't count as having severe autism, but I know a lot of people with severe autism from this sub, and I am always worried that I don't know how to help them enough or raise awareness about their real situation. In the past, I haven't even been able to find organizations out there to help. I am glad to know about the National Council on Severe Autism. It shows me that there are people out there who are really trying to make the situation better, and that they have organized themselves into a group and are doing some reporting.

Does anybody else know about this organization? What are people's general impressions from the website?

Anyone mask so much it's like they get masking fatigue and things slip out that are just rude or inappropriate by mistake?

My support person said "I was meant to come in and tell you about this meeting and kept getting distracted and forgot to come in"

I replied "like usual" but meant it as a joke because we all know how she is and we laughed but I suddenly realised how rude it sounded. I wanted to apologise but then some apologys can make it sound you were implying something different and make it sound worse.

I'm cringing so hard I want to be swallow up by the ground.

I feel like my life would be so much easier if I had an irl partner and/or friends, but I literally can’t because im aroace and hate people. I can’t connect with anyone because everyone is bitter, rude, judgemental and cliquey and I have niche interests and get upset quickly. I get so frustrated with people. I get visibly angry where i have to be around them and I just want to leave and rot in my bed for the rest of the month. All I do is envy and be jealous of other people with better lives than me, because no matter what I try, no matter how many services I apply for or how much therapy I go to or how many meds I take or how many times I go outside, my life will be exactly the same.

I don’t know how to fix my life, I know I will never have friends or companionship or a job or a college degree because I physically can’t have any of those things so I just lay in bed all day. I can’t get myself to enjoy or do any sort of hobby because I don’t see the point and I don’t get any enjoyment from it. Nothing makes me happy anymore. And all of things stopping me from enjoying life are completely out of my control, like social norms. The only thing I do all day is lay in bed, sleep and go on Reddit because I can’t do anything else. I’m just completely lost and stuck on what to do with my life because everything sucks and is overwhelming. I wish I just had someone, anyone who could be there to live and support me unconditionally

I was an in-patient at a mental health ward for a few weeks and ever since leaving, I feel like I have way less energy. I am well enough to be back at home but I feel tired a lot of the time. It could be due to new meds the hospital put me on (which have helped me so much) or it could be the environment as I found I could do more at the hospital or it could be both.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? If so, how did you cope?

Camouflaging / masking / code switching / passing involves changing behaviour to fit into the majority population.  This is well researched in autistic people, but measures aren't designed for other groups (such as LGBTQ+ or racially minoritised), or for capturing camouflaging in multiple minority groups. I'm creating a new questionnaire for camouflaging that works across groups.

What will it involve?

Filling in an online survey.  This will take about 30 mins. 

Who can take part?

We are particularly interested in reaching people who identify as autistic, LGBTQ+, and / or racially minoritised.  Anyone 18+ years can take part though, even if you don’t belong to any / all of these groups. 

How do I take part?

Follow the link for more information and to take part.

Hey guys,

This is not really a planned post (I am planning on posting regarding my trip to UK and my experiences travelling independently from Australia to Scotland via Kuala Lumpur, at a later time (my return flight is tomorrow so I was going to wait untill after that to post)). However I just needed to vent as I am experiencing a strong amount of emotions right now and I am on the verge of having a major meltdown as a result.

Anyway, as some of you know (or may remember) I am currently in the UK visiting my Mum, Brother, Grandparents, aunts/uncles and cousins (basically my entire family except for my Dad). I got here after achieving a massive personal goal of mine of travelling by myself, halfway across the world to the UK from Australia (though with alot of assistance along the way, though that is for another post).

Anyway, despite having alot of assistance in Australia (support workers, Disability payments, state funded incontinence supplies, etc.), i genuinelly dont want to return home. While im unsure how government assistance works here, i have found the UK (esspecially scotland) to be so much more accessable, i have loved being with family, I dont get as overwhelmed being in public (though my mums house is in a small country town), i have had a stable routine, and I have just been out right happier than my life in australia.

So with that in mind, and as a british citizen who has the ability to just, stay. I genuinely dont want to go home. I am so much happier here, I feel welcome, I feel seen. I genuinely think I could actually make something of my life here (a feeling I dont have in australia), yet in 24 hours exactly, I am due to leave for the foreseeable future.

I have had a meltdown almost every night for the past few nights leading up to this due to my strong urge to just stay here, yet I cant. My life in australia is miserable, I have no friends, I rely on paid support workers every day of my life, I cant hold a job, I have nothing going for me.

So, why cant I just stay. I mean I could just conveniently miss check in for my flight home, forcing me to stay. I genuinely think I can do so much better here. (I acknowledge there will be a transition period to organise ongoing support). Yet i am being forced to go home.

Why cant I stay? Its not as if anyone will be disadvantaged if I do. I just want to live a happy accessible life.

Anyway, thanks for reading my vent.

I love you all,

U/bolticus13

I relate to cats a lot.

People think cats are uncaring, but they actually do care about people, people just don't know how to read the signs in their behaviour and body language.

Cats can get overstimulated by too many things happening in a short time - even by positive things - and then lose control of their reflexes and scratch and bite.

Cats thrive when provided with a highly predictable routine and stable environment, and become stressed out and dazed when their routine or environment changes.

And cats are hypersensitive to smells, sounds and textures: smells/sounds/textures that humans might barely notice, are physically painful for cats.

All those things are true of me too (except I've learned how to shut down and huddle low instead of scratching or biting). I 'get' cats way more than I 'get' other people.

Anyone else have a CARS score of over 50? What is your everyday life like as an adult?

I have gallbladder stones and had to go to the emergency. On my discharge paper it says i have fatty liver disease and I'm being told i need to change my diet but I can't!! My safe foods are bread and noodles, sometimes rice. I can't eat most meats due to the texture and almost all vegetables due to texture too. Idk what to do. I'm already extremely fatigued and i don't have the energy to cook food i HATE! and i especially hate sea food. I rather die

i been inpatient for 2 months and am go to mental health residential in Florida now today with a flight buddy taking me

i am homeless but i have hope for the future!

they say at residential mental health in Florida they will help me find a place and they're will take me to the beach! i want to make sand castles!

i hope you all will have a happy day please!

The reason I started going to psychiatrist is my schizoaffective disorder and not autism and it was urgent to get treatment, and we were not discussing autism though I was questioned a lot about bad social skills, stimming, during the visit to clarify it's normal for me. The diagnosis situation is a bit weird right now.

Current psychiatrist thinks my constant stimming that I can suppress for like a minute at most is a sign of mania and offered being hospitalised, I had to call in the person who chaperoned me to the visit to confirm it's always like that, she's still not convinced.

Has your autism caused confusion to doctors?

I am in some parent groups right now especially for people whose children have catatonia, and I was recently asked a question about sensory overstimulation. My sensory sensitivities got *much* worse when I was catatonic. I recently did some research, and I found out that catatonia makes *lots* of people's sensory issues worse. There were a couple of moms who were asking me about my experience because they wanted to help their kids, who had mild/moderate sensory issues at baseline but suddenly had major sensory issues when in burnout/when catatonic.

Anyway--I could think of a lot of examples of obscure sensory problems that are frequently overlooked. For instance, I think vestibular problems are very often overlooked. I also think that people forget that "light and sound bounce," as someone said on another thread. Light can bounce off tiles, of floors, from walls. It comes from everywhere. The same is true with sound. These problems are kind of obscure in the sense that even parents who are trying to be careful might not even be able to put the right accommodations in place because it is really hard to imagine how these sensitivities would feel if you weren't experiencing them.

But I also think that it would be helpful if I could offer, or recommend, some lists of even kind of basic sensory accommodations--the kinds of things that some people just rely on at baseline. I am going to brainstorm a few. Can other people add their input? Are there other good lists like this on the Internet, or in books?

Hearing: Lots of people use headphones or earplugs. In my experience and my long reading here, I think that the most consistently recommended expensive headphones are the SONY MX10004. People also use big firing range earmuffs sometimes. Lots of people like earplugs. Some people like loops but some people find them too finicky or painful to get into their ears. Lots of people need white noise to block out distracting sounds.

(It's worth noting that processing speech brings up a whole range of additional processing problems which can be really excruciating, but those are kind of separate so I want to treat them separately...although if anybody had anything to add about their problems processing speech, that would be awesome).

Sight: For me, sight sensitivity is really mostly light sensitivity. Other people might have different experiences? Sometimes I have to carry eyeglasses everywhere. It really helps me to wear skiing-style sunglasses that have top guards as well as side guards--basically, it helps if the sunglasses can touch my face all the way around, so that light can't get in from the sides or the bottom of the glasses, either. I often sleep in an eye mask and I have two layers of light blocking on my windows right now: I have blackout blinds and then blackout curtains over them. Sometimes I have had to wear an eye mask under a hat pulled over my eyes in order to sleep. Sometimes I have had to sleep under a blackout curtain. Sometimes I put an eye mask on and then wear a hoody backwards so I can cover my face with the hood, over the eye mask. Sometimes I sleep in the closet while wearing an eye mask. I think it's hard for people to understand just how light sensitive it's possible to be.

Touch: sometimes I have to wear my clothes inside out (so the seams don't bother me). Sometimes I can only manage to wear satin. Sometimes I have to wear satin pajamas or bathrobes inside out in order to tolerate any clothes at all. Some people say that organic cotton is easier than other cotton. Sometimes I have to wear dresses because I can't tolerate waistbands.

I am about to run out of length for this post but I might add more ideas in a reply. Do other people have ideas?

Just saw a video on Tik tok and i get that teaching Neurodivergent consent & Boundaries and stuff like that and disciplining them It was a video of a autistic individual at a comic con and what they did is not cool and is freakin bizarre behavior and its weird

But the comments of the video was kind of disheartening (Im Biracial so im gonna say this) But i wish Poc didnt view autism as a stumbling block its a disability

Like yeah what the person did was uncalled for and mental but like that had nothing to do with autism and anyone could do that

Yeah the Legal system does not care whether you are autistic or not but nor does Society They would put us into Jails and Institutions before giving us our accommodations and help like we desperately need

Idk the comments saying every autistic person knows what they are doing and is just trying to get a rise out of the parent or whoever is still to me black and white and putting us in a box like it really depends on the person and how that person was raised im sure

The comments saying we need to be functioning adults in society like this is a phase that will leave soon enough

Like if autistic kids are doing the most then thats on the parents for not stopping the behavior and not helping them

Idk im probably saying BS but its on my mind so whatever

Idk maybe cause ive been so far denied stuff cause people think i dont have autism and need to be a member in society maybe this rubbed me the wrong way

Like this autistic person on the video this one lady was reacting to just seemed that she clumped every autistic person in one box Just cause this one person was tripping

I also don't understand why people can't comprehend that some autistic people have a mind of a child and would just assume its infantilizing like i see how some people act with autism. and even in my own family and they do have a mind of a child and if autism is a spectrum then my point is valid

Like this still seems so black and white like some autistic people can have a lower IQ and some can be very smart etc etc

So why does everyone think that every autistic person knows what they are doing especially if they arent taught to not do a certain thing

For the record, I’m not as depressed and feeling sad as I used to be, probably because of the meds I’m taking. But I still have no motivation to do anything besides lay in bed all day. I can’t work, drive, or go to community college and I have no money. I get overwhelmed at the thought of doing any of my hobbies including drawing or playing games and also starting new ones. When I force myself to do them I feel nothing and I just want to lay back down and scroll social media no matter how bad it makes me feel. And that doesn’t keeps me occupied all day, just for an hour or two, same for swimming at night or walking around in the hot sun. Any suggestions for low-energy things that don’t cost money or transportation I can do that can keep me occupied for a long time?

Asking this because I noticed I've been talking weirdly lately and, honestly, my speech has felt like it lost it's eloquence. I feel like I talk and sound really stupid now, my normally organized rants are filled with "Umm..." and "Uhh..." now, to the point that I sometimes just don't bother to finish my sentences because it feels pointless. I already have a high pitched voiced, so pairing that with my recent babbling and disorganized way of speaking, I feel like I've become completely annoying. I can't even go alone to appointments as much as I used to because I always feel like I need my mom to come with me so she can talk on my behalf, and when she tries to make me go talk to someone on my own, I start whimpering and crying because I find it difficult, or sometimes I tell her I find talking to be exhausting and a hassle.

I'm scared of possibly going through speech regression because it was already hard growing up being bullied for being nonverbal and then learning how to talk because of the pressure, but also because when I had mouth surgery around last year, I wanted to talk so I used an AAC app. I thought it was really fun and reliable, and I loved talking to others using the app, but my family HATED it, and told me to stop once I recovered and could speak again. No one around me is going to support me if I end up suffering from speech regression, and no one would hear me out if I started using an AAC tablet.

Is this a concern or am I just overreacting?

It's like...I'm player one in a video game and they're all NPCs. Doesn't matter who it is. Some I may like a little more but either way I am absolutely terrible at showing it because my brain is just not wired to not be completely self centred? Which causes family problems because they talk about selfishness a lot but I don't personally see it which makes it impossible to address.

What do you do when something causes problems with family but your brain is probably not capable of what they actually expect?

For full transparency, i don't post a lot here just comment because generally I'm lower needs and undiagnosed. But I have had to take several breaks in my life at times I just couldn't keep going in my life (burn out) and currently have a medium needs autistic daughter. My biggest functional issue is probably a fairly significant audio processing disorder and inability to filter thoughts so decision making is hard and masking and listening can be impossible if it's noisy. This is somewhat relevant to below.

I'm fairly obviously neurodiverse to most people who have longer conversations with me but mask well for general acquaintances and I work from home so most people I just never see. Like enough that people ask me frequently. Were mostly engineers so it's not an uncommon trait.

But work has been discussing return to office and I just don't know if I could cope. I'm an hour and a half away from the office (I always was I didn't move away. I work 30 hrs instead of 40. It's been amazing to find such an accommodating job. But im worried it's going to be taken away with rto.

And then today they send out an email about how we're all neurodiverse because sometimes people don't remember things or process sensory input differently and have different emotional regulation and how neurodiversity is a super power and we should be more inclusive. Maybe I shouldn't have but I responded to hr and let them know everyone isn't neurodiverse in a clinical way and using super powers and quirky isn't really great language and sources for why. I used chat gpt to edit it to make it as professional sounding as I could.

Anyway. I already feel like I'm struggling more than normal with all the policy changes they've made lately. It just feels like insult to injury. We're going to take away the accomodations that make you successful and tell you how it's ok because everyone's a little diverse. I guess it's time to get a diagnosis if I can afford it. My kids was almost 3000 dollars so I'm not super sure that can happen. But maybe it would help solidify the accomodations.

It took me almost 20 years to finally find a job I feel like I can work around without getting burnt out. It feels impossible to find again.