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Generation X

MROSS said:
Here is a news-story on 'Generation X.'

News-story doesn't mention 'Generation X's' experiences with the Autism Spectrum. Personal experiences?

News-story on Generation X:
Click to expand...
Well, the primary experience from someone with an ASD-1/Asperger's variant is that "it didn't exist". We didn't understand that we were experiencing our world in a very different way than everyone else. Why? We didn't talk about it... with anyone. Culturally and socially, we were just expected to be like everyone else. It was a very simple mindset... you weren't given the option of social isolation, avoiding people, learning life skills, working... and you were expected to leave the house at 18. Our parents cut that umbilical cord if we liked it or not... we didn't have anything to say about it... mainly because we were absolutely NOT allowed to have a conversation with our parents nor express feelings. We were to be seen and not heard... we were quickly punished if we spoke our minds. Any "behaviors" were quickly dealt with with physical punishment. Autism wasn't part of the vernacular... we never heard of it... at all... until the 1990s. **I say "we", as in that was the cultural and social expectation of everyone in typical mid-West US.

If you were an ASD-3, you were "special ed" and/or institutionalized (extreme cases)... but parents pretty much hid you away and nobody ever knew. Sure, rumors in the neighborhood suggested there was a kid who was "retarded" (had no clue what the issue was) who lived in the house down the block... but those kids rode the "short bus" and otherwise, were not out in public. In fact, if you were physically and/or mentally disabled, you didn't go out in public... or it was extremely limited. There were not special buses with lifts, there were always sharp stairs, street curbs, no powered doors, no powered chairs, no ramps... absolutely nothing was "accessible".

If anyone wants to know why, in the past 20 years, we've all sort of "come forth" is because although we may have sensed we were different in certain ways... we didn't know the extent... nor was "autism" even on our minds as a possibility until recently.
 
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MROSS said:
Here is a news-story on 'Generation X.'

News-story doesn't mention 'Generation X's' experiences with the Autism Spectrum. Personal experiences?

News-story on Generation X:
Click to expand...
ADDENDUM: Generation X applies to people born between 1965 and 1981.

The 1954 to 1965 years (as in news stories applies to the younger baby boomers.

The awareness of the Autism Spectrum (beyond classic Autism) with the Autism Spectrum for the older-half of 'Generation X' was pretty much non-existant.
 
MROSS said:
The 1954 to 1965 years (as in news stories applies to the younger baby boomers.
Click to expand...
I was born in 65 so I'm sort of both.

When my mother tried to suggest there was something different about me my father replied "Rubbish. He does it deliberately just to give me the shits.". At that time I had no idea what it was that I did differently that upset people.
 
Neonatal RRT said:
Well, the primary experience from someone with an ASD-1/Asperger's variant is that "it didn't exist". We didn't understand that we were experiencing our world in a very different way than everyone else. Why? We didn't talk about it... with anyone. Culturally and socially, we were just expected to be like everyone else.
Click to expand...
This. I agree with everything you wrote, but 100% this.

There was such a pressure to conform. Anything that wasn’t popular and cool was weird, and if you were weird you were ridiculed, ostracized, and sometimes beat up just because.

Having or showing emotions was not allowed. You were either tough or you were a crybaby. I had teachers and other adults tell me to grow up and toughen up. If I got beat up, no one got punished - those same adults told me to fight back or stop being weird so they wouldn’t target me. It was especially frustrating when I didn’t know what I did wrong.

Masking wasn’t a social tool - masking was survival. I learned to hide everything and carefully test a person’s trustworthiness with small things before sharing any real emotions or interests.
 
This post resonates with me. l received too much attention, and l also was a nerd, not really into the opposite sex. so l didn't like the attention l received. l was constantly told to smile, when l didn't care to smile. l am now pretty good at masking, because l don't want to be seen as different. I like being alone, it doesn't bother me. I hid my emotions because l wasn't allowed to have them thru my childhood or teenager years. Now l understand l took to long to process my emotions. My daughter was a happy child, she liked homeschooling, as l could fit in her specific interests, food choices, sleeping choices. She hit some emotional roadblocks , but l believe if l took her into to be evaluated, that label may hold her back. Then she may feel inferior, which l didn't want to happen as she was progressing into a young adult. So she has been in a longterm relationship, and has graduated from the uni, and has a great job that keeps her challenged. And she handles all her choices on her own. l think she would have suffered in a bricks and mortar school. She eventually did attend a performing arts high school which allowed her creative side to come out. She did well there. She wanted out of homeschooling and or online school, and she made the decision. I presented this option, and she chose it.
 
Outdated said:
I was born in 65 so I'm sort of both.

When my mother tried to suggest there was something different about me my father replied "Rubbish. He does it deliberately just to give me the shits.". At that time I had no idea what it was that I did differently that upset people.
Click to expand...
Born 1963 - that "hard to define" (I swear unamed) generation caught somewhere between 'The Baby Boomer Generation' and 'Generation X.'

A Generation being caught in a rather awkward zone - caught "in the middle" and not readily "fitting-in" between the adjacent older, and younger generational values.
 
Thank-you for the three upvotes (as of ths writing).

Those of us who were born in those years somwhere between the 'Baby Boomers' and 'Generation X' have experienced immense personal challenges, and social changes in the world at large throughout our lives. To add in the experiences with the Autism Spectrum naturally presented further challenges.

Any experiences over the holidays, or upcoming experiences to interact with people from both the older, and younger generations?
 
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