As an adult, what services would you want?

Post Reply New Topic

as an aspie who should be working on thier PHD as well, instead of working a dead end job (non-profit community Autism/mr services, or warehousing as the case is better described) . What I see a real need for is services for those of us on the higher end of the spectrum. In particular within the academic realm. I keep hearing the same story from folks older than myself of having been kinda shuffled into a grad program by faculty that had been mentors to them as undergrads (and then complaining that they might have wanted something else). Instead the path forward that I see is one of having to try and market myself (which I can't do). Nearly every grad school admission I have ever started to fillout ends at the point of writing an essay on why they should want me there. I have little doubt that if I was talking with someone who shares my interests (behavior analysis, autism, biology, math but not arithmetic) that it would happen on its own, mind you this doesn't help much when you can't seem to initiate a conversation. I'll spend months working on the same email and never send it b/cause it is not good enough, or I will send one impulsively (since I figure I never will do it if I don't do it then) however those typically result in letters I would never have sent if I read them a second time).
The fall used to be may favorite season, now it is the time of year that I just feel overwhelmed by a sence of failure and self loathing by my inability to accomplish the one thing I wanted to do sence childhood.

I'm still collecting all responses, so thanks to everyone so far. Keep them coming.

Mostly I am looking for an artificial brain, some kind of augmentation for executive functions. I have ideas but I am leaving it open for now because I do not know what has been done or what you may come up with.

Social skills training is being asked for by many people on this forum. I can understand that. I think I got my social skills training in my family, at church, on the job, in college courses, and in community service activities. And for me that stuff worked miracles over the decades.

I am great at GETTING jobs (great research, attitude, appearance, and just enough repoire in a quiet sort of way to slip thru the interview without anybody noticing too much "oddness"). I just often lose those jobs in the first 1 to 24 months, and could even stand to get hired at a lower rate in order to focus on getting the right kind of job. I think that an employment agency that understands autism could be a great service, somebody to help me get placed well and to get my career on track. I would pay 50% of my income if necessary.

Also, I am having trouble being ACCEPTED by professionals. When it happened with workmates, romantic partners, friends, and even dentists, I could chalk it up to experience. However, when I experience discrimination, stereotyping, unclear expectations, and what I can only call "weird rejection bordering on accusatory without explaining" at this point until I understand it better--from professionals who supposedly specialize in autism--I think that where with a regular person it would just be obtusiveness, ignorance, or just reality, even if they did not mean any harm, with a professional I think that it borders on abusive because they should know autistic symptoms better and be prepared to deal with them. (For a concrete example, one specialist said that I wrote emails that were too long and gave weird eye and hand signals about it saying it was some unverbalized open-mouthed but unspoken wrong and that it indicated I needed a better psychologist, but never communicated this boundary with me with clear criteria before suddenly rejecting me as a client, complications regarding fee negotiation went with that and I will never know the real reasons, but unfortunately that is not the only case).

So, I am thinking that some sort of care coordination person, somebody who specializes in advocacy and nurturing or caring thru transitions between various services could be really beneficial for me.

Community education is the most important as far as I am concerned. I have no problems with my community, but I see many people posting about problems in theirs.

When people hear the word autistic they think of two options. The savant who can do something amazing and not think twice about doing it, or the non speaking "tween" who is still in diapers and eats with his hands. There is no other option for most people to think about autism.

I am 47 and was diagnosed a few years ago. I had no idea that AS existed. When the first "You may have autism" conversation happened, with a young man with AS who was a friend of my older kids, happened I said "I most certainly do not!" Because I couldn't imagine what made him think I was autistic.

Not having heard of AS, I immediately thought of the child who the parents send away. Forever. I had no clue then that there were people with classic autism who could function. I thought autism was like a lobotomy. I admit this. I did not know. My full education about autism was 1. Rain Man, 2. Lifetime TV.

I was obviously, wrong. Educating people about this, teaching them that just because the person you are talking to doesn't speak in response does not mean he didn't hear you, teaching them that because we may come across differently does not mean we deserve less respect, teaching them that the one really cool guy thats just a bit off in shipping may very well be one of us, and he's the same as everybody else, may go further towards helping those of us on the spectrum than offering specific services.

I may be wrong.

I say this because there are no services related to my AS that I need. I adapted. I have mild AS, and I try to handle what life throws at me as best I can. Same as everybody else does. I could use getting some form of public transportation in my city. It's not because of AS though. I could use affordable healthcare (I voted for him and he didn't make it happen) and also psychiatric services. It's not my AS that makes me need the car, it's that mine was a pile of junk and it cost more to fix than drive. It's not my AS that makes me need insurance, it's just too expensive through my husbands work. The psych services, well I'm a housewife with kids. That should explain that.

But educating others would go a long way towards making most of our daily lives a lot better.

Frances