Asperger's & Autism Forum

I asked the question In the title but what factors make it so an autstic person is unable to work? I can see how sensory issues could lead to not being able to work in a normal job (stores) but I think other jobs would be avalible? So what makes it so an autstic person cant work?

My grandparents (my Dad's parents), a couple days ago, said that I CAN'T identify as Autistic. I'm not sure how this convo came up anymore, but they said, "well, most people with Autism can't/don't talk" "you don't have sensory issues" "you are only pretending" "you don't have motor development delays" like she knows all about me. I even told them to ask my parents if they don't believe me. They said no. Yeah, that's right. They aren't gonna ask my parents about it because they know that my parents are going to give the opposite response from what they are saying. Exactly what I'd expect. They basically said that I looked on the internet on what autism is, and then acted a certain way based off of an apparent list of symptoms that I wanted, and then pretended to act that way. They even said I'd grow out of it. In my head, I was like, "What?!? That's the most stupid crap I've ever heard!" I don't respect or trust them anymore. When I was going to bed later that night, my grandma...

I have read quite many books about autism recently to understand myself better. (Self-diagnosed male 42y)

One thing that seems to be very common is that people who have ASD experience meltdowns when the sensory overload gets too big.

Very often in the autism liteature these meltdowns are described to look like aggressive temper tantrums.

I think I have never had such autistic meltdown. Not that I could remember one atleast.

If I feel that the situation starts to get too overwhelming, I leave it if possible. If not possible, I just sink in my own thoughts and close the world away.

Do ALL people in ASD experience autistic meltdowns?

I recently ordered myself a pair of Mpow 059 headphones in pink on Amazon after seeing them and trying them on in person in a birthday party I was at last night.

I was wondering, do you think there are any issues with a guy wearing pink headphones? Is it any different than wearing pink clothing? Will anyone see me as odd? I love the color pink a lot and a pair of pink headphones would be perfect for listening to smooth jazz.

I observe when I am down the street and rarely do I see anyone really looking at me.... nor do I get praise when I dress up.

This is representative of my life experience in friendship.. at my university I had a few acquaintances but never strong friendships.

No one ever really bothered to talk to me.. or appeared to take an interest.

People say “you don’t talk to anyone”... but no one talks to me.

I don’t think that i’m miserable or unlikeable.

Yet most people just ignore me entirely and I have no clue why.

I'm 38 years old, have had a diagnosis for about the last 8 or so. I've always had trouble with social skills and with connecting to other people. At the same time, that's always felt like the most important thing for me. I know a lot of autistic people get by just fine on their own, but to me, it's always felt like getting to have friends is the only thing that makes life something resembling okay.

It hasn't always been easy. I've driven some people away with my rigidity and my anger. I've learned to temper both things as I've gotten older, but those lost friends stay lost, and it's only gotten harder to make new ones. The Internet was a big help at one point, but it's just gotten angrier and more divided over the years - these days, I feel like everywhere I turn, I find either demands for perfectly neurotypical behaviour that I can't live up to, or else blatant intolerance for weakness of any kind. It doesn't feel like there are any spaces left where I'm still welcome.

And now...

I happen to have anxiety on top of my Aspergers. Is there anyone else with a similar situation? How do you cope with it?

I applied to a company a few months ago.. I spent £600 going to the Assessment Day which had a test and a lot of group activities.

So I put a substantial amount of effort into the process.

Note; On the application form, I ticked the Disability box.

I was rejected for the job, primarily because of the test results but also because of my lack of eye contact in the group tasks.

I’m not sure what to think about this? I am somewhat shocked that they would factor this into a decision, given that they knew that I had a disability?

I will be sending a letter on this.

But I don’t know what to think moving forward? Should I be more upfront about my disability in applying for jobs? Given the poor awareness with this company, there are understandably some worries around doing this.

I took a long break from this site and now I am back with questions. In the time I was away from here I was learning as much as I could about ADHD because I had come to the realisation that I probably have it. Currently I am self diagnosed ASD and ADHD and have an assessment sometime next spring. Although there are overlaps in ASD and ADHD there are also opposing traits and those had me puzzled for awhile. For example, the ADHD brain seeks novelty but the ASD brain tends to want sameness and routine. How do both of those things manifest in one person? They do both occur in me and are essentially situation dependent. I'm wondering if any of you can share some experiences or help me better understand how two conditions with opposing traits might show up in one person.