Mild, Moderate or Severe?

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Do you get a bus pass that is for people with disabilities or what?

Some low income people can't get a special bus pass where they don't have to pay full price because they aren't a senior citizen or they don't have a disability.

My wife suggested I come here to learn about Aspergers--although it ceased to be a major issue in our marriage years ago. I'm smart enough to know that just because you have fixed a problem--that doesn't mean there aren't much better ways of handling things the next time. I'm also lucky enough to get job that didn't require much in the way of social skills at first, and learned them as needed in two decades of on the job training. Thus, at least in the business world, my social skills are actually pretty decent--I can more than hold my own, especially with difficult customers. Aspergers can actually be an advantage with unreasonable customers trying to play the "empathy card."

There is a bus pass of some sort available. But usually the government put up enough red tape that would be a barrier to most genuine cases. IMO i get a bit bored hearing whiners go on about free bus pass travel for having relatively trivial complaints. If you've worked and paid your taxes towards the government you damn well better get some value for your money. I've contributed enough to this sodding government in social security that those b*****s can pay for my diesal for a whole year.

I never cease to be amazed how much the british tax payer is willing to have a polticians penis inserted up their rectum until they begin to think things are getting abit unreasonable when their colon is sticking out of their nostril.

I found a way to cheat the system and I ride the bus for free....

To the person responding to me, shut the fu ck up. You don't know s**t about me, so don't be a moron.

When you have a friend who has a prosthetic leg due to a deformity compared to some aspie or chav w*ker who can walk, you wonder where the logic lies. Free bus passes should be ideally reserved for physical disabilities.

I'm happy to pay for my way because I don't tolerate fraud like you seem to, apologist. Get it right.

To be candid I really don't give a rat's behind if someone rides the bus for free. If there were a way to get free gas, I wouldn't ever pay for that either.

Wow. Uhmmm... Have you considered that many of us are unable to drive because we have autism? And that people with prosthetic legs usually CAN drive? If anything, wouldn't it make more sense to give bus passes to people who couldn't drive at all, rather than simply people with physical disabilities?

But this is all rhetorical: Most bus systems can easily afford to have discounted bus passes for all disabled people, regardless of whether or not they could theoretically drive; and in many of these cases, it's not whether or not they can drive that's the issue--it's whether or not they could afford a car on the limited income that often comes with disability.

It's kind of sad that some people refuse to think to the point that they still believe the old myth that disability's not real unless it's visible. Some of the most disabling conditions in the world (as far as GAF goes, so that we have a consistent measure) are actually completely invisible.

I wouldn't say severe and I wouldn't say mild.

Level of connection to reality has nothing to do with "how autistic" a persn is. Yes we can have fantasy worlds but that is only one of the possible traits and it is more of a peripheral trait than a central one. As in, it isn't one of the traits that truly makes a person autistic. It is merely one possible outgrowth of those traits. A person without a fantasy world can have far more severe traits in other areas than you have ever had in your entire life.

That's because there is no line from mild to severe autism. No high functioning or low functioning either. Autism consists of too many traits, in too many combinations, for anyone to possibly be able to line people up from mild to severe. And attempts to do so can have surprising results -- in some studies, those with the greatest number of observable autistic traits have the best outcomes. Beyond that, many autistic people have abilities that change from moment to moment in drastic ways. How do you rate a moving target like that?

I'm just diagnosed with plain old autism. When people add a descriptor to that officially, it's severe or low functioning. This despite my objections to the entire concept. It's often out of my control.

As for my connection to reality, it's pretty rock solid. I tried to get away from it in my teen years through a fantasy world and drug use, (and was persuaded by doctors into pretending, long story) but even then, for all my work at it, I could still only really perceive reality. In fact, extremely direct perception of the real world is an autistic trait. It's well studied and quite common for the type of autistic person I am.

My perception of the world around me is so incredibly direct that I struggle to produce communicative language. I learned language first simply as sounds and squiggles and learned to imitate patterns of sound and squiggles at the right times. I had a severe delay in receptive language and in the ability to connect language to what's in my head. For a long time I could superficially use language but only in terms of what someone might be expected to say, not what I would say. I learned in adulthood to write about what I was thinking instead of what might be expected.

I have always had trouble connecting intent to action. I could do triggered actions but not deliberate ones. This has gotten worse with time due to an autism related movement disorder.

As said, my perceptions of my surroundings are more direct than most people I know including most autistic people. I struggle with language and abstraction. Most of the time I cannot use language at all. When I do use it, I use it as a complex collection of patterns rather than a set of abstractions. I relate strings of words to situations. I have trouble with the level of thinking required fir "simple" abstractions like "cat".

This means when I look around me I do not see a collection of objects. I see near-pure sensory data: shapes, patterns, colors, textures. I do the same with every other sense. That is how I live most of the time. To recognize an object takes extreme effort. Again most of the time I just don't. I perceive my body as an external set of sensations as well. Thisis what it's like to live in the extreme opposite of fantasy and it is every bit as difficult to function as extreme fantasy if not more. (After all what the vast majority of people perceive is essentially fantasy -- they see what their brains tell them to see.)

Anyway, I need at least some help with every normal daily activity. I way more than meet the criteria for ICF/MRs and nursing homes and struggle to stay out of them when the world's prejudices say that's where someone like me belongs. I also struggle greatly with words, and go most of my day unaware they can even exist. To use or understand them is like climbing a high cliff and the moment I stop, I fall back down again. Same for recognizing categories like objects around me.

This likely makes me at least as far from the norm as you were if not more. But likely in a totally different direction. Someone like me doesn't fit on your measure of severity because the defining measures of how I am unusual and how you are unusual stick outbin different directions. Maybe that in itself will teach you to beware of easy categories and avoid rating people. Especially with such a lack of understanding of the diversity of autistic people. You don't know us and you can barely guess at our offline lives.

The severity of my AS solely depends on the activity/endeavour I am engaged in.
Albeit - In a controlled class environment, I am rather mild, I can function and engage in conversation well enough.
- In a library I can act somewhat eccentrically, but still mild. (Over excitement when I obtain a book I have desired to read, I may lecture on the subject of the book.
-At home, without someone constantly minding me - Moderate. I tend to be clumsy and antisocial if I am not constantly nagged about certain tasks.

So, what environment were you referring to?

Ill go on a limb and say mild, if it is even AS. I still want to believe im just shy.

Mild.

I have a vehicle, live on my own, and have a job (albeit crummy due to the economy, but I plan to move to Calgary to get something better)

I had a boyfriend, but we are no longer together due to the fact that he has to go back to El Salvador. He was denied permanent residency by the government...but we are still on good terms. He accepted me for who I was, but sadly the government didn't want him since he didn't have university education. He had some aspie traits.

I have a really good friend...he is from El Salvador too, but he has permanent residency and is about to become a Canadian citizen.

I am high fucntioning. That is why I think I am mild. but on your list I am not mild. the doctors say I need full tiem care. I can not live on my own. can not drive. I am not good at loking after my self. i just dont think of the things I have to do. I need reminding. I need to get todl to do the thigns in the day alot. there is a timetabel. At morning tea time I eat morning tea. I get told it is morning tea tiem and I know what to do. I want to have a job. Also I have done some of a university degre. my inteligence is with in normal leavels. I think this makes me in the midle on your numbers. But I do not think you have it right. high functioning autism means mild.

You also need adequate keyboard skills, with all due respect.

what do you mean exactly? do you mean I do not have good typign skills and that I need them? and that I need respect?

Helixstein means that you're misspelling some words and not capitalizing the first letter. But I think Helixstein needs to stop being so picky. Your typing is perfectly understandable, and this isn't a school essay; it's an Internet forum. Perfect grammar and spelling aren't expected here.

"With all due respect" is a phrase that means, "I am about to say something that could be taken as insulting, but do not want, or do not intend, to sound insulting."

High functioning autism means nothing. It's a meaningless term. Here you are--you say you could do a college degree; you also say that you need reminding so you remember to eat. There are people who can do everything on their own but can't go to college; and then there are people who need an aide all day, but have college degrees. Doesn't that strike you as a little paradoxical? It defies all categories. And so does autism, in general. You're simply autistic, and that's it.

Incidentally, have you looked into getting a computer program or PDA that would remind you to do things? I'm not sure if it would work for you, but it could be worth a try. If you can get it to beep at you and remind you that you're supposed to be doing whatever it is you're supposed to be doing, you might not need a person to do it.