Mild, Moderate or Severe?

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I have been diagnosed with classic autism and was more severe when I was younger. Now I still can't get a job, I don't have my own place or anything like that. When people first meet me then they think I am normal. I am able to hide some symptoms well. When there are loud noises around me I start breaking down. If the noises are expected I don't react nearly as bad. There are times when the doctors think I am "out of touch with reality." but I think most of the time I am actually more in touch with reality than the general population. I have a little bit from each category that you listed so I don't fit anywhere. My category actually depends on how stressed out I am. When there are no stressors going on then I am as close to normal as I am able to be. If everything around me is severe stress, then I am usually psychotic or close to it. The docs say I am high functioning classic autism.

Personally I find Sydney fine in regards to typing on these forums. Though I tend to proofread my posts and try to get most grammar, spelling, and mechanics correct---it sometimes is stressful. I taught high school English for 19 years before becoming a gifted intervention specialist---so it's kind of built in to me. But I once made a post a long time ago about saying I was going to stop being so obsessed with proofreading my posts. But I still do it a lot. I would feel less anxiety if I didn't proofread so much. As long as our posts are understood, I don't see a problem with them.

What difference does it make? We're all here.

"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."

It is good that it is perfectly understandable. thank you for explaining. I don't go to coledge. I study with corespondance. my spech langae theripist used to help me but then she went away and I begane to fail. I need her help to explain what it means. But also I think you are right. autism is just autism. aspergers is jsut autism also.
I do not knwo how to do that. I have a prgorm that can talk on the computor. I do not use it. I do nto know what a PDA is. they will not let me live by my self I think even if I do have one. they say I need suerpvision. they say I might do somthign dangerious. I do not think I will. But when I try to say I will not they say they have seen me do thigns in the past that are dangeious. they take me to do grocerys and orginise taht and everythign that needs orginising. I help wtih cookign and cleaning. Btu they do lists for me to do it. Because I can be forgetful and get confused. they also say becuase I have tantrums.

A PDA is a "personal digital assistant", a small cell-phone-sized computer that can run programs. Nowadays, PDAs are built into smartphones, like an iPhone; and there are programs that can remind you to do things. The people who are making lists for you--they could put the lists into your PDA, and you could just call up the program when you wanted to do that task, so nobody would have to stand there and prompt you. Or, if you wanted to remember to eat at some time, you could program an alarm to get it to remind you. I don't know if you have an occupational therapist; if you do, that might be something to discuss with them, since a lot of occupational therapists have been lately taking advantage of smart phones/PDAs and the programs you can run on them. I mentioned this because it's been helpful to me. You're probably right that this wouldn't allow you to be completely independent, but it might be something that would decrease the number of things other people have to remind you to do.

Do you have a case worker? You definitely need to talk to them about getting another speech/language therapist. If the person you had before was helping you with your schooling, and you're failing since they left, that's a definite sign that you are missing something you need.

"A PDA is a "personal digital assistant", a small cell-phone-sized computer that can run programs. Nowadays, PDAs are built into smartphones, like an iPhone; and there are programs that can remind you to do things. The people who are making lists for you--they could put the lists into your PDA, and you could just call up the program when you wanted to do that task, so nobody would have to stand there and prompt you. Or, if you wanted to remember to eat at some time, you could program an alarm to get it to remind you. I don't know if you have an occupational therapist; if you do, that might be something to discuss with them, since a lot of occupational therapists have been lately taking advantage of smart phones/PDAs and the programs you can run on them. I mentioned this because it's been helpful to me. You're probably right that this wouldn't allow you to be completely independent, but it might be something that would decrease the number of things other people have to remind you to do.

Do you have a case worker? You definitely need to talk to them about getting another speech/language therapist. If the person you had before was helping you with your schooling, and you're failing since they left, that's a definite sign that you are missing something you need."

I think the PDA is a good idea. I will talk to my mum about it. I used to ahve a ocuapational theripist. I do not any more. I do not have a case worker. I have a social worker and a pscolgist and a psyciatirst and mental health nurse and caregiver. Whch one do I talk to about spech langage theripy?

which one is the qote button?

The button on the top right corner of every post.

I consider myself to be relatively mild. I'm an info collector. I probably have the largest personal book collection in this part of the state. Very little fiction.

I have few friends and none that I make an effort to keep in contact with or visit.

I had fuzzy brain most of my life, but that seems to have cleared up a lot since I quit grains and milk.

But on the other hand, I don't go out of my way to avoid people, and I'm quite happy to meet people in one's or two's.

I don't give my family enough attention. I'm sure my wife and kids aren't happy about it, but I'm becoming more aware of it and will discipline myself to making more of an effort.

Sydney--Try the social worker or the psychologist for a referral to a speech/language therapist. Just ask whoever you're seeing first, and if they don't know, try the other one. If not, maybe you could get your mom to ask around.

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thank you I will do that.