In the middle ?

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I don't like socialising so I don't want to be on social media, anyway. Nowadays I have a middle-of-the-road life which is enjoyable, save for the tiredness. Perhaps my greatest wish in life is to be an Average Joe, so I'm arranging my life accordingly.

Middle is great because you become kind-of invisible. Then you can be free to think and do whatever you want in the space between and beyond.

I relate as much as I'm able. I wonder, for me, if it has much to do with my original dx being PDD-NOS. even my psych team didn't know where I fit in with autism. I'm not close to high functioning, but I'm too functional to be low functioning. I'm hovering there in the middle, excelling in some ways, needing support in others.

I used to be a more conventionally functional person; I could hold hold a job for up to a few years when I was younger. But I was also wrecking myself trying. So was that really all that functional? I doubt it. I actually have felt more stable since recovering from my last burnout, which has made me a less conventionally functional person. It seems contradictory, but it's truth. I know my limits with life now is all. I'm getting off topic. Sorry.

I type in info from criminal cases on my job----on a PC. I "enter data."

I used to use a CRT to do this. A CRT is an old-fashioned monitor which has an attached keyboard.

There were still "keypunch operators" when I started working. Some people still used manual typewriters.

It's a very easy job for me. I've been doing this for 40 years. Next week, is my 40th anniversary on this job.

Thanks!

I have ruling of moderate level of disability (Polish: orzeczenie o umiarkowanym stopniu niepełnosprawności) because of mental illness. I can go to the doctor on my own, ride in public transport as a passenger without help of an other person. I do not need help of other individual in the simpliest life tasks like eating, using a toilet, moving from place to place (for example in home or in the city). But I am very poor in occupational area (I have no job since above 21 months, when I was it, it was very simple), have no driving licence, have no friends. I live with my parents and I have never had a girlfriend.

I would say that I am not high-functioning, but also not "bookishly" low-functioning because I do not require very substantial support.

I would say that people with really mild autism do not need support or ruling of disability because they are really high-functioning. I am lower functioning that they, at least so far. I have not mild level of disability, but moderate. I might be rather handicapped than mentally healthy because I received moderate level of disability, which is closer to severe level of disability (znaczny stopień niepełnosprawności in Polish) than to lack of level of disability (between moderate level and lack of disability there is also mild level of disability).

Interestingly, people with just mild intellectual disability do not receive ruling of disability at all in Poland, even ruling of mild level of disability (when they have no other long-lasting problems with health). I think that it is unfair, definitely.

I’m also in the middle, obviously not anywhere near level 3 autism but also obviously very different from level 1. I didn’t get assigned a level when I was diagnosed, that I’m aware of (technically I’m diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, which probably implies level 1 - which is also why I usually say I have autism instead, because when people think “Asperger’s,” they think of someone significantly less affected than me and essentially hold me to NT expectations I can’t meet). I managed to get two positions as a part-time janitor, but only because the companies were desperate for employees (my manager at my first job asked me several times if I knew anyone else who would like a part-time job and was asking me to cover extra shifts every week), and I couldn’t handle the stress (I hung on until the first company was sold to another company, but I was cutting myself multiple times a day and lost the second job when I was hospitalized for mental health reasons). Doubt I’ll ever manage a job again, if nothing else because my memory is pretty much shot from ECT for severe treatment-resistant depression (didn’t do a thing for that) and I also have selective mutism, meaning I’m incapable of any job requiring significant social interaction. I can’t even get hired for the kind of crappy jobs that “anyone” can get, I applied for easily over fifty jobs of that sort and can count on one hand the number I heard a peep back from. Probably will also never be able to live independently, much to my chagrin.

In terms of eligibility for disability benefits I'm regarded as severely disabled. An adult with care and support needs under the care act 2014

^ Stuck in the middle in terms of functioning and severity.Not stuck in the middle as in a borderline between NT and ND.