Classic Autism Thread

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Though I echo the sentiment, I feel uneasy with use of the high-functioning and low-functioning labels in this context. Nathan Selove did a good job explaining why.

I have had an uneasy feeling for some time now, sometimes tempted to talk as though my experience was representative of all people on the spectrum, when I know that's not the case.

If anyone wants to go into more detail about what life is like with those stronger traits, that would be welcome.

I was like that. My mother called it 'not having the gift of gab'.
She wanted me to have conversations with her but I didn't know how to do that.
I didn't talk to the kids at school either. Some kids called me outer space.

In second grade I got detention for being late from recess. It didn't occur to me to tell the teacher I would miss my bus.
I walked home and got lost and didn't get home until after dark.
My parents were mad, the school was mad, the teacher was mad. I don't know why I didn't think of telling the teacher.

Despite not "appearing" classically autistic enough to be diagnosed early, and therefore not given special education, therapy, or other supports, I relate more to the everyday life and struggles of classical Autistics than of Aspies. For that reason, I find many of the topics on here hard to relate to, except those by Ezra and a few others like him.

When I was finally diagnosed, I was diagnosed with Autism, not Asperger's Syndrome. And based on testing, I require moderate support, not mild.

I was diagnosed level 1 almost five years ago, but I’m getting reassessed in the next couple of months because I feel like level 2 fits me better. I’m on SSDI after leaving my last job due to having severe self injurious meltdowns once every couple of weeks and having the paramedics called repeatedly. I’ve had the cops called because I wandered away and my friends couldn’t find me for nearly an hour. I can’t live on my own because I lack the self help skills to do so, and would likely starve to death if I didn’t have my roommate around to remind me to eat, and my family checking in to ensure I have food in the house. Despite being fully verbal, I lose my speech under stress, and find talking to be overwhelming and tiring, so I’m trying out going semi verbal to see if that helps my energy levels. I’m in traditional therapy, equine therapy, speech/feeding therapy and group therapy, and I used to receive occupational therapy through my job coach.

I used to describe myself as an aspie because I was diagnosed at age 21, but my mom saw autism in me from the time I was eight and didn’t have me looked at. Given all of this, I feel that autism fits me better than asperger syndrome, a sentiment echoed by the woman who gave me my executive functioning test (on which I scored in the first percentile with a raw score of 69. The average score was 100 and the standard deviations were in increments of 15.)

Do your therapists support you going semi-verbal?

StarTrekker, that sounds very familiar. I have had the cops called because my employer could not find me. I cannot live on my own because I lack the self help skills, and need reminders to complete everyday tasks, and help with cooking, cleaning, calling, and driving. I find talking to be overwhelming and tiring, and would love to try going semi or non verbal to see if that helps my energy. I have tried traditional, speech, and occupational therapy.

I think this thread should be stickered. That way new members who are Classic will have a place to start and may

be more inclined to stay.

I think the social club element is important for people like me because many of us live in completely NT worlds. This

site is my only contact with others on the spectrum. It could do with being more diverse though as we seem to be a

huge majority here. Also it would provide an opportunity to learn more; I am still very ignorant about autism.

I know how you feel. On another autism forum I had an experience of a similar nature, being far, far lower functioning than everyone there. It made me feel awful. I considered their problems so petty and was frustrated because I would've given anything if just that was the extent of my issues. If I brought up topics that were not typical among HF autistics, I wouldn't receive any advice or support. Everyone else was just living their life - going to school and working, building friendships and relationships - meanwhile, I was "stuck" because of my traits. It made me more acutely aware of what I couldn't do compared to other people, and I felt like an outlier, which was doubly hard to deal with because it was supposed to be a forum where I was like them. For me, it was a relief to find WP, because even though I'm still lower functioning than most here, there's much less of a gap.

I'm sorry if you've had an experience here similar to my previous encounters. If there's anything the HF majority can do to make WP more inviting and inclusive, please let us know. I'm sure that most of us are very eager to bridge any gaps between the HF and LF experiences so we can help each other. Perhaps a new sub-forum could be created that focuses on problems posed by Level 2 autism. I think we have enough members to justify it.

This is a most excellent idea.

I'd agree that this deserves its own category, e.g. 'ASD Level 2 and ASD Level 3' under General might be a good fit.

Again, I'm HF, and I wouldn't go there to tell people how to live, but I would absolutely go there to fill gaps in my understanding.

What about those of us that don't quite fit in either?
Remember, a big part of autism is uneven skills. So many of us may be level 2 or even 3 like in some areas, but ahead in others. For me, I'd place myself pretty solidly 1 1/2 evened out. More struggle than most on here, but I think less than you or Ezra. And how the day goes can change that.

All my previous ones have; I'm only on day two of experimenting so far so I haven't tried it on my current therapists yet. I expect they'll be fully supportive. My individual therapist I've gone non-verbal on before, and she had no problem with my AAC. My roommate is great about it, it doesn't bother him at all and he's extremely patient.

I would absolutely recommend looking into it. It's only been two days for me, but already I feel calmer and less stressed by interactions with my roommate because all the pressure to respond to every one of his "NT-conversational" comments is gone; I don't have to talk in the car (I do the driving because he's new at it and gives me major anxiety); and I'm completely free to use verbal speech in whatever way is most comfortable, which in this case is primarily short one-to-two-word phrases, sometimes repeated over and over. (I like talking to the wild geese that live around our complex and verbal stim by saying, "goosegoosegoosegoosegoose" repeatedly as fast as I can).

I'm getting much more comfortable using text to speech in public as well. I used it today to talk to my roommate in front of the kid manning the front office at our apartment complex, as well as at Walmart, passing by the moms selling girl scout cookies. I'm confident that the next time I'm out alone and need help from an employee, I'll be able to use my AAC to get what I need.

I'll report back on how things go in group therapy. Ordinarily I have to make some sort of verbal sound to indicate that I want to say something, because the conversation bounces from person to person quite quickly. I have a button on my text-to-speech app that is pre-programmed to say, "I have something to say," so I may try using that to get people to pause while I write out my response. I'm really excited, I feel like I have a new lease on life. The only hard part will be getting my family members used to the idea, because they're only going to see it as a regression and me "folding deeper into my autism". They tend to ignore or minimalise my autistic experiences (my mom moreso than my dad, who has actually gotten a lot better, but I expect to run into difficulty with both of them on the subject. Fortunately I don't rely super heavily on them for support any longer, and only really see them in a casually social context.)

I am Level 2 as well, with selective mutism, Complex Trauma, and a stroke. I'm frustrated by people who assume I'm HFA just because I did well academically.

What AAC app/device do you use?

I use an app called Coughdrop on my iPad. It has buttons that can be edited to say certain things, as well as a QWERTY keyboard, which is what I use most frequently. It's available on android too. The first year is free, after that I had to pay $200 to use it permanently.

I don't understand what you mean when you say this. Can you please explain so that I can understand?