I can barely remember everything that’s blown my mind. Seeing everything that I’ve felt, that’s made me feel so isolated from other people because I can’t explain it, or they just don’t understand is crazy. Especially Echolalia. I literally can’t go for a few seconds without quoting something. Especially Red Dead Redemption 2. Saying “sure” has never been the same after playing that game lol. Reading through this has blown my mind. It’s like reading out my thoughts. Thanks for the support.
The hardest part about figuring out you’re autistic is just the fact that so many of the symptoms are things that are perfectly normal, but you experience it to either an abnormally high or low degree. And you really only have your own experiences to go off of, so when you find out that one of your experiences is a symptom of autism, it’s like “wait, you mean to tell me that’s not normal?”
And that first discovery starts down the rabbit hole and before you know it, your entire life is flipped upside down and you spend months re-evaluation your entire life and putting the pieces together.
This is exactly what I’m experiencing right now. It is very disorienting.
I feel that man! It takes a long time to get through it. If you’re able, therapy is a huge help with it, but otherwise it will sort itself out. Just take your time to process it all and learn to accept yourself! Sharing with those closest to you and getting their acceptance is also an amazing and helpful experience!
I already see a therapist, but he does not specialise in Autism, nor does he know a lot about it. So I’m considering seeing someone who does, so that I can get help that is more relevant to my needs. I’ve shared it with just a few people, and they have been okay with it, so that has been good. But I don’t think they really get what it means for me. So I think I will be educating them on what that means for me, as I gradually learn more, and understand myself better.
My own therapist recommended a book that was already very helpful less than a chapter in called “Unmasking Autism.” It may help you with learning more about what it means to be autistic.
@DaedalousIlios @cogitoprinciple Reading about the author’s life at university to me was like „ok, that‘s been me so many times“ 😁. It really is a good book, even though it seems many autists (including me) struggle with the identity-building exercises.
Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll check it out
Get on that soon. My GP just referred me to an Austism Specialist… it’s a 3 year wait.
That’s insane. I still can’t fathom how hard it is to get diagnosed. It feels like resources are severely lacking for those of us who are autistic.
My Doctor’s are actively reaching out to their colleagues to see if anyone can get me in sooner, but yes. That’s Ontario for ya.
Not officially diagnosed but my dad and niece recently were. When I figured it out a few years ago, I pretty much shrugged it off and ignored it.
I’m paying a bit more attention and slowly learning more now, mostly because my sister has been researching so much. Don’t really feel ready to do a deep dive into analysing everything about me that affected by autism, but I am learning more.
My sister actually said to me that she didn’t realise how hard it must have been for me in school without out any support and pointed out specifically how an issue with my neck and wearing a tie is a sensory issue.
Blew my mind as I’d never considered it, just thought I was being overly dramatic and weird with feeling like I was suffocating. I ended up crying so many times after being told off for not wearing it properly and having the top buttons of my shirt undone. Only thing I got in to trouble for at school.
She’s also made me rethink some other issues I’ve had. Like my gullibility. It’s hard for me to know for certain if someone is messing around or lying and I usually take things more literally than I should. I’m better now than I was as a kid, but still see it if I think back on some conversations. And my penchant for answering personal questions honestly even when the questions were inappropriate and shouldn’t have been asked.
Big one I’ve been considering lately is just how much of my replies at work a basically a script. Most customer conversations repeat in the same basic way, and I repeat the same responses to them all. May be why I get annoyed with overly friendly regular customers. They’re more random in what they say, tell me more personal things and I don’t know how to respond.
welcome to the club ❤️
here’s a welcome gift: consider that every bit of advice that you have ever been given in your life, has been given to you in the belief that you are ““normal”” (read: NT, like them), and because most of that advice is not tuned for your autistic brain, most of it is complete trash 😀👍
consider this example: has anyone ever told you to “just read their body language”?
I’ve definitely started doubting and questing things that I think and feel. I recently quit a job I had been working at for about 4 years, not because of autism just moving on. And on the last day I kept thinking “this is the last time I get to do X”. Then I realized that I don’t care, like at all about it being my last time, this whole time I’ve been doing this because I see other people do it. It’s so weird to go through this process and realize that almost my entire life has been a facade, it’s a good weird, it’s an answer to why I’ve felt this way, but weird nonetheless.
I’m still investigating if I’m austistic, but oh, God. I think you just made me realize why I have never had a successful “real” job interview in my life (by real, I mean them asking me legit questions, and not them just basically giving me the job). All the interview help I got from my NT friends and family never worked for me.
I remember before one interview my dad told me to, “be yourself.” And I remember thinking, “Being myself is the reason I can’t get a job.”
I’ll be stewing over this for a while.
yep this is exactly the issue. NT people giving advice to brains that can’t use it. it’s all mostly-worthless advice! 😃 it’s good for me to call it out, but better if i offer advice myself, right? practice what you preach
(apologies, this post got out of hand. tl;dr is at the bottom)
if you are someone reading this who is doing the job search, i want to offer some three-part advice around interviews, from an autistic brain who has been down this road before:
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first part: consider that most interviews are not an assessment of your actual job skills - they are an assessment of your social skills, and they use your level of social skill as a proxy to decide on your job skill. i know that claim sounds ridiculous, but once you think about it, it makes sense, meditate on it for a moment
we will consider the case of applying for a shelf-stacking job. i will be blunt, from a technical standpoint, this job is not hard at all. stock inventory machine says you need to put 3 loaves of bread out? you grab 3 loaves from out back, and put them on the shelf, preferably in reverse order of expiry. customer asks for something? you stop what you’re doing, and go with the customer to their request, no matter what your current task is. one of your colleagues needs help on the cash register? you… get on the cash register. each action in this job has a definitve correct answer, and many wrong ones. you can study these correct answers beforehand
if you’re prepared, it’s not really a job you can fuck up, mostly (don’t worry, he lived). however, here’s the pickle - by the time you get to interview, nearly all candidates have the base technical skills required for that position, since (these days) weaker candidates are filtered out before the interview, for not knowing how the CV ATS keyword game works. only strong candidates who have done the prep work remain
it leaves little room for an interviewer to filter out who should be selected for the job. if we presume the interviewer is also barred from conducting work trials, it leaves the interviewer with nothing else to measure, other than the candidate’s social skills. put simply, if you have two equal candidates, and one of them can talk to customers in a more “NT-style”, then the candidate with the best social skills will be chosen. it’s no wonder then, that at least 85% of adults that are autistic, are unemployed. most of these are also degree holders 👩🎓
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with that context, here’s my second part: i learned this lesson years ago from an older acquaintance who has passed on now. she arrived in the UK after being expelled from her country. this was the second time she had to move to a new land, and her second time arriving in a place where you were judged by who you are
she discovered an environment of “social relegation”, where some employers were quite happy to hire “different”, so long as they were not visible. example: she could work in a kitchen, but not as a server. or she could work in the warehouse, but not the food counter (because people didn’t want “someone like her” handling their food). she could work manufacturing textiles, but not as a sales rep pushing the finished clothes
this is how it was in the 60s/70s in the UK, and it can be boiled down to “no blacks, no dogs, no irish”. i have an irish background myself, and i’ve heard enough stories like this
since she grew up in a less enlightened time, there was no easy fix for her predicament. social change would not come soon enough for her, and after years of being in and out of positions, realised this lesson:
“…you have to be so skilled, and so needed, for the job you are applying for, that they want you before they see you…”
years later, she would find herself a stable position in the NHS (UK healthcare system)
now, i want to be clear. i think that society should adapt to be more inclusive. however, in the context of getting a job, i am being pragmatic about it, and understand that the necessary change wont arrive in time for people like us take advantage of it. i am not defending the status quo, just contextualizing it. i would encourage you to take the lesson she gave me directly to heart
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with these two contexts, here’s my last part (warning: opinion time): “you’re gonna get clocked, sooner, or later”
if you try, and try, and try, to study how the social dance of interviews work, and wargame scenarios for all outcomes, you will burnout. the depth of social interaction is as vast as space, and you don’t have a warp drive. if you disregard this, and try the path anyway, you may be clocked in your interview as “different”, and will then be left with two outcomes, both are varying degrees of bad
- you discolse you are autistic. personally, i’ve had no luck with this, and in my opinion, you will give them a perfect reason to “no longer move forward with your application”. illegal? sure. but remember, it’s not the autism, it’s because you’re “just not a good fit” 🥴
- you do not disclose your autism. if you get clocked, then it’s game over. you will be let go for “being unsociable”, and it won’t be discriminatory to do so because they reasonably didn’t know about your autism
my recommendation? forget about trying to game the social dance of the interview. another analogy, would be if a wheelchair user is faced with a flight of stairs. that’s how damning interviews are to autistic people. you need to find a ramp, lift, or other way to get around this obstacle. you’re not going up those stairs, so you must go around. while interviews should be more inclusive, currently, they are not very inclusive at all. so, we have to work with the hand we are dealt
firstly, you need to reflect on your desired career choice. if it’s a career that has high competition, and is saturated by graduates? honestly? you need to reconsider, because it’s not gonna happen. at interview time, you will be competing against social butterflies and masters of the dance, and you will be trounced if you try to interview for these jobs. even worse, these positions sometimes use group interviews because there are so many candidates, and some candidates will actively step on you to succeed
secondly, research what jobs are in really high demand. we’re talking really, really high demand. the sort of demand that wont go away easily in the next 10 years. you need to look for jobs that are so hot, that they need bodies in seats, and they need them now. if you want an indicator, you should be considering anything in healthcare, technology, or finance (in order of amorality). the demand in these sectors will not go away anytime soon. if you need something more physical to do for work, consider solar panel/wind turbine/AC installation - all of these are going to grow massively because of climate change
thirdly, you need to reflect whether you are the sort of person who could handle a full “in-person” job, or whether remote work is right for you. this is a personal decision, i can’t help with this. each autistic person is different. some thrive by having a rich environment of sights and sounds to engage with, and others (i suspect most, lol) need a workplace that is a quiet box, preferably miles away from colleagues. i know i’m on the “remote” side of this dilemma
once you’ve picked remote or traditional, then take that knowledge back to the list of in-demand jobs, and shortlist some positions that look promising. your final task is to filter this shortlist for positions that you either have the qualifications for, or you can acquire qualifications cheaply for, or can be self-taught. personally, i think self-teaching is going to be your big weapon, and your key advantage over NT candidates. remember, you need to be so good, that the interviewer doesn’t give a damn whether you fumble the social dance
daunting as it is to re-skill for a new career path, you should consider in 5 years time, would you rather be yourself right now (status quo), or be yourself + a bunch of newly learnt skills? you won’t be getting any younger! it’s never too late to re-spec. i think definitely, definitely re-spec for an in-demand job, and by doing so, your interview worries will lessen. the worries never goes away, but you can be reasonably confident that your new, in-demand skillset will carry you over the finish line
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in summary:
- it’s no wonder we struggle with interviews, because interviews don’t assess your job skills - they assess your social skills. it’s a trap that they dont teach you! no wonder that 85% of adults that are autistic, are unemployed.
- to counter this, “…you have to be so skilled, and so needed, for the job you are applying for, that they want you before they see you…”. this is how you can individually mitigate against a biased recruitment process
- with that in mind, research the highest demand jobs within your reach. find the job sectors that are in so high demand that they willingly look past the social skills, and then re-spec your skillset to match this demand. i’m not saying it’s easy, no. it’s necessary.
good luck, stranger ❤️
This is how I’ve been feeling the last few months. As I’ve started peeling more of my masks off and reading about others experiences and symptoms, yeah. I’m self diagnosed for now since I can’t see a therapist (no money or insurance) and free resources (city/county mental health) have been useless or at worse a hindrance.
If I have almost all symptoms of Autism or ADHD but don’t get diagonised, what will I miss out?
Self-diagnosing is not as reliable as a specialist giving that diagnosis as you might go into the assumption of these symptoms expecting a certain result, creating a biased judgement on yourself
If your question is more about the point of knowing if you are on the spectrum or not, diagnosing these symptoms will also help understanding why it is happening and how to deal with them
Not related to autism, but my gf is dyslexic. Did not get it diagnosed early enough, so she assumed she was simply not as smart as the other kids because it took her 3x longer to simply read something. That can cause some chilhood trauma and deep anxieties, but now knowing about what it is, it can help her let go of some bad memories around that and adjust some regular workflows with something that is easier for her, i.e. audiobooks, dyslexic fonts
Well you’ll still be allowed in Australia
Elaborate?
If you’re diagnosed with autism you might not be able to immigrate to some countries. Not sure about Australia, but New Zealand is notable for having such laws.
I meant that I am curious about the changes getting diagonised will bring. Will my personality change if I have a therapy? What kind of therapy will I have? etc.
professional help. you could get therapy and psychiatric support. in my experience, it will not change your personality, just make your life better ❤️
Echolalia.Echolalia.Echolalia.Echolalia.Echolalia.
But seriously, I remember going through that. It was 3~4 months of my mind being blown on a daily basis. So many things were starting to make sense. It’s wild. Like another user comments, welcome to the club! You’ve found your people ❤️
I had the same feeling reading the comments in a reddit post that reached All, the happiness of finally being part of a group without making a huge effort is amazing
Being apart of a group feels great, going from feeling like none understands what I’m going through, to finding out not only is there a name for everything I do, but there’s people with similar experiences??? They’re like me??? I’m not alone???
Thanks for sharing this. Even after a year I’m still doing research for my self diagnosis and hasn’t run across this. Looking forward to reading it!
Check the info tab for this sublemmy (I guess that’s what you’d call it) it has a ton of information and stuff to read and watch, that’s actually where I found this!
Will do. I appreciate the tip 😊
This was my experience when my son was diagnosed. Going through all the questionnaires, interviews, etc was incredibly eye-opening for me.
I recommend getting on a waiting list asap. Where I am it’s a 3-year wait to see someone who can give you a formal diagnosis.
Yeah I’m not lucky to live in a country where healthcare is free, I’ll be able to get a diagnosis in less than three years, but it won’t be soon because it’s expensive.
Mr. Morgan.
(Whose voice did you instinctively read that in? I’ve been on rdr2 for the past month or so. On my second campaign play through and it’s hands down the best campaign I’ve ever played.
Agent Milton’s voice, specifically when he walks into their camp and dutch calls him agent moron.
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I actually quite like it, maybe it’s just because it’s like reading my thoughts and actions written out on a page and given names though.
No. DO NOT SELF DIAGNOSE. Go see a medical doctor.
Dude, have you any idea how many doctors told me (professionally diagnosed) that I can’t be autistic, sure, this is a bit weird, but it’s probably just X, that weird thing is probably just Y and so on, telling me I have like ten other things when all these ten things are all explained by autism?
All because drumroll I can hold eye contact. Yes, I’ve been pressured into masking hard. It makes me suffer, and now you use it to deny me support?
Most doctors have not kept up with the development on diagnosing atypical autism and the ones that do you have almost no chance of scoring an appointment with.
And I am in a coultry where we at least do consider autism for females. There’s still lots of countries where high-functioning autists don’t get diagnosed.
Let people “self-diagnose” if it means they findcoping mechanisms and things that explain thwir behaviors. Allow them to say “fuck you” when someone tells them they’re not trying hard enough because they are just lazy, when in reality they are so overwhelmed they can barely function.
Don’t actively make people miserable, because they for whatever reason do not have a formal diagnosis. I encourage most peoble to get one, but I also heard of places that use an official diagnosis against them. I think I read someone from the UK claiming they had custody of their kids challenged because of a diagnosis.
Let people find their coping mechanisms. Even if in the end they don’t have autism, how does this affect you or me or any other autistic person?
Not everyone can afford a diagnosis. In some countries it can cost thousands just to get diagnosed.
an autism diagnosis is a privilege. there are many communities who are overlooked when it comes to autism. women, people of colour and members of the LGBT+ community are all likely to be overlooked for a diagnosis because they don’t fit the stereotype. not to mention the financial factors of a diagnosis. self-diagnosis is widely accepted in the autistic community for these reasons.
Easy to say.
That’s incredibly easy to say, but also highly impractical.
I’m waiting for a diagnosis, but the waiting list is just over 3 years. Self-Diagnosis is all most of us can hope for in the short-term. Many others will never even get that level of hope. I’m fortunate that health care is free where I live.
Being formally diagnosed can be a legal liability, such as when immigrating to many countries. On top of that, it can also cost thousands of dollars.
