Asperger's & Autism Forum

On a whim, I decided to take a drive to the Philadelphia International Airport where I know they would be hiring shuttle bus drivers. I've driven shuttle buses before and I know I can do it safely. I last drove one in the spring and summer of 2017 before losing my DOT medical card for health reasons. However, I am 80 pounds lighter and don't have the health issues. I have a healthy blood pressure, and while my blood sugar is a little higher than I would like, it is still below the threshold for medication so I shouldn't have a problem qualifying for the card.

I walked in to the shuttle bus office, asked if they were hiring drivers, and they literally asked, "Do you have a CDL with passenger endorsement? When do you want to start?" Normally this would send up a red flag but driving jobs are so high in demand that it was exactly what I was hoping for. So I asked if I could drive the shuttle bus that operates on the airport tarmac. It runs a specially defined route that is clearly...

Yesterday I started work on the script for the next Autistamatic video on the subject of empathy within autism. It's always struck me that the accepted ideas of autism suggest we lack empathy yet so many of us consider ourselves to have a deep sense of empathy with others.
What I thought was going to be a simple topic turned out to be far more layered and complex than I originally thought. I try to keep my YouTube videos quite short - between 10 and 15 minutes - but this topic has already expanded to at least two videos so I thought I'd throw it open to the community to see what your opinions and feelings are on the subject.
How do you feel about your own sense of empathy? Do you feel lacking or do you feel it is one of your strengths? Do you think the common perception is accurate or misleading?
Obviously any responses will be anonymous. No names or screen names will ever be mentioned, but if you are particularly eloquent I may want to quote your observations in which case I will...

I was diagnosed with high functioning autism when I was at least a toddler, and all my life I've had an unusually active imagination. A part of expressing this imagination for me has been retreating into the imaginary world inside of my head and re-enacting what was going on in there. I often do this as a way to cope with stress, boredom, or other complicated emotions I don't know how to respond to. However, this often results in me talking to myself out loud or being less attentive of myself and my surroundings. I find that it's constantly interfering with both my social and professional life. I want to find a way to stop or replace this behavior but I don't know how. Does anyone else here experience the same thing, and if so, what do you do about it? Ideas?

Personally, although I can be sarcastic, I'm quite bad at detecting when other people use it. However, I'm not completely blind to sarcasm. I think part-sighted to sarcasm would be a more accurate description.

Usually it helps if I know what someone's thoughts are to whatever they are being sarcastic about. So, if someone hates maths and suddenly says "Wow, I just love maths" then I'd know they were being sarcastic based on deduction. But if they said that and I didn't already know their opinion on maths, then I'd probably find it harder to tell.

I had a coworker who took his family to Disneyworld several years ago for a vacation. Anyone that has been there (or Disneyland) knows that it takes quite a bit of money to enjoy a vacation at Disneyworld. My coworker has a son who is on the spectrum, but they did not take into consideration the sensory overload.

Unfortunately, the little guy had a meltdown and stopped speaking for the remainder of the day. They returned to their hotel room and their very expensive vacation was cut short, as they returned to their home two days later without finishing their Disney vacation.

So, should they have researched it before going there? What do you think an ideal vacation would be for one on the spectrum? Since the spectrum is so vast, what types of vacation possibilities could be considered for the various points on the spectrum?

A good friend in Ohio has been a public school teacher for a couple decades now. His greatest challenge in the classroom is not kids bringing in drugs, guns, or not doing their homework, but rather “special needs” students. Based on what he has shared, he obviously has a number in his class that are on the spectrum with some that are nonverbal. He said that he has one student that constantly screams and others that have daily meltdowns.

He explained that because of the “No Child Left Behind” mandate, he is required to form curriculum for each of those students. His workload is quadrupled and the demands of those special needs students is hurting the academics of the non-special needs students.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t fully understand the full spectrum and the specific academic needs of each individual on it; I merely understand it from my point. I will admit that I wish such a program had been in place when I was in school, as I would have benefited from a...

Many here have viewed and commented on my thread about my buddy’s depression. As I mentioned in the thread, it seems he blames everything on it. That caused me to think about ASD and my own situation. I don’t suffer with depression as severely as he does, but I have my own challenges; many of our community here have the same challenges. That brings me to what I was thinking.

Can one blame ASD for everything? For instance, should one with it be given a free pass if they act like a jerk merely because they have it? Maybe a person is just naturally rude and a jerk. There have been many times when I’ve said or done the wrong thing and wish I could play the Aspie card.

I have learned over the years that the world does not care if I have ASD, especially if I come across as a jerk. The world does not care if some the amusing, though eccentric behaviors manifest. The world does not care if the lights and noise at Walmart push me to the brink of a meltdown and I sometimes have...

Unfortunately, all Amazon had available was the overnight shift and I have a sleep disorder in addition to being on Remeron so I won't be able to do that. In fact my psychiatrist was adamant that I do not work overnight because she felt it would potentially interfere with the medication and might lead to worsening depression. So, I went to the library to get a book on UNIX Shell Scripting so I can improve my UNIX skills and at least keep my brain engaged. I am only really an intermediate UNIX user and I want to get better at some of the more advanced aspects. Plus, I am a huge advocate of self-learning.

It feels like they don't exist anymore. It's kind of hard to explain, unless you can relate and already know exactly what I mean. I know they exist, sometimes I'm even texting with them, but there's this strange feeling of disconnect where they don't feel entirely real. Can anyone relate to this? I'm curious to know if this is at all related to Autism or if it's something to do with one of my other pathologies.

Thank you in advance! You guys are awesome!

I don't want my food to touch - no ketchup on my fries until I'm ready to dip and eat. And if the fries are salty I can't do the ketchup (hate salty ketchup). Don't want any other food near my mashed potatoes.
I like mayonnaise on hamburgers with lettuce and tomato, but without lettuce and tomato I want miracle whip. I can't have American cheese with mayonnaise or anything tomato based, but can put American cheese on a bologna sandwich with miracle whip and the miracle whip can be between the bread and bolgna and/or the bologna and cheese but not between the cheese and bread. Bolgna has to be on white bread, other lunch meats has to be on sub rolls or some other roll.
I have the same thing for breakfast every day and can have the same thing repeatedly for lunches. Dinner I'm a little more flexible, but I'd really be happy if it could be a hamburger or a hamburger steak every night.
So what are some of your weird food pickiness things?