How dare they discriminate against Aspergers?

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And some that post have better writing skills than professional journalists, and that receiving a government check might just be inhibiting their growth by allowing them to stay in a safe little environment, playing video games and reading fantasy novels.

I think what Darklord was talking about was a policy or program to stimulate greater participation of disabled people in the workforce. I'm not sure what you mean by public relations but transitional skills development sounds like a good idea for existing staff who may have autism to better integrate into their jobs or improve their teamwork skills. But Neither will solve the issue of how to pay for these services, in particular in the private sector, unless you can give some tax incentive for hiring autistic staff.

Yay for creeping corporatisation.

How does having the ability to post on a forum qualify one for being able to work? I really cannot see the corrolation between the two. Also, I would not have applied for SSI if I honestly thought there was a chance I could hold a job.....and I am still going to attempt to find something again because it was denied. Sure I can work, but not to the expected standards so if I am lucky enough to get past the interview and get the job it usually does not last long at all. posting on a forum does not mean I will do well in all work settings.

I know, I know, I have had hundreds of jobs, it was meant to be encouraging, that sometimes disability prohibits growth because we don't have to get out there and go through the crap. Growth does involve pain and discomfort sometimes.

Do not undervalue your ability to write, many would envy you that. There are even sites for writers, people pay for everything from short thank you letters, to school papers, to work related things. (Sorry, can't tell you where it is, found it a months ago while writing a few papers and was astounded it was even legal, since it offered papers for students).

You did not specifically direct this at me, but I've had others do so. I find it interesting that people think that the beginning and end of my goals is to get on SSI and then do nothing. Of anyone's goals. Still, you mentioned writing and I used to be a professional writer - I was actually doing pretty well until I got a workload to match other people working in the same field, overloaded, and crashed and burned. I actually crashed and burned twice, as I tried to pick it back up a year after the first crash and do it all over again while I was crashing and burning out of my fourth attempt at college. One of the reasons I was able to do as much work as I did is that I was also self-medicating my ADHD (which I did not realize I had - I just knew that ephedra made it so much easier for me to start, stick to, and finish things). After three burnouts in a three year period, I found it extremely difficult to function at the level I had previously comfortably worked at, let alone the level I had attempted to work at.

But the truth is, I really do want to write again. I think maybe I can, but it is difficult for me to write much of anything without treating my ADHD. I have dozens of projects I've started but not developed. I have barely written one chapter for any of them, but I have tons of worldbuilding.

So, I need medical assistance.

It is also difficult for me to focus on work that has long term gains and short term work and commitment because a) I have immediate needs that are constantly going unmet or are barely being met, and b) because ADHD throws a huge wrench into this precise kind of work.

I could do some freelance writing online, and have looked into that in the past. Writing short articles for people for small amounts of cash. I can't really make a living on this, but I could easily supplement an SSI check with it. What I do know is that if I do a certain amount of freelance writing (say, enough to make a living) that I will hit a point where I overcommit, crash and burn, and be unable to do any work at all for a year or more, and possibly have further long-term consequences such as those I have been dealing with since 2004.

As for being able to work because you can type on a computer, I submit that the inertia of getting stuck on the internet and browsing fora all day is significantly different from doing, and sticking to, a job. I don't function online in any kind of organized way. I just wander from website to website and participate in what amounts to casual conversations about subjects that interest or even enthrall me. If I am working at a job, these interests are what will have my attention - never mind that the difference between being at home in an environment I have a lot of control over (noise, light, space, people, smells) and being in a workplace where I don't control any of those things is the difference between being able to function and experiencing constant overload and regular shutdowns.

Further, I am not very functional if my ADHD is unmedicated, and most jobs do not currently offer health insurance (and my diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome may disqualify me from insurance until the law says pre-existing conditions do not exclude ay more). So if I get a job now, I will lose the fairly small benefits I have now to perhaps make more money maybe and lose my insurance benefits. So I lose my medication and a chunk of my functioning. Working twice as hard to get half the results of the people around me before even taking overload and social deficits into account strikes me as a losing proposition.

You cannot judge how well anyone will function in a work environment on the basis of their participation online. You simply do not have sufficient information to make that assumption. You also cannot judge what someone hopes to do in the future on the basis of the fact that they are trying to get support now so that they have some kind of foundation to do those things in the future.

Not having had insurance for over 9 years I can say first hand that medication is available for those without coverage. But that's probably not the point.

Hope your money comes through.

I know about programs to get medication cheaply.

Stimulants are strictly controlled, which means - among other things - you can only get a thirty day supply at a time, and that you have to get a new prescription, in person, from your doctor...which means a doctor visit every month. There's more overhead here than just getting the pills.

And there is a parallel universe in which you caught pneumonia at that time, and died, for lack of assistance. And another universe where you got help, and are in a better place than you are right now.

The trouble is we can't hear the stories from that ghost who didn't make it. ALL of the stories of struggle we hear (in the first person, anyway) will be about scraping by, but eventually surivivng. That's not because that's what usually happens -- it's because the people who don't make it don't tell any stories at all.



Yes, life is suffering (does any adult not know that?), but concluding "therefore we should do nothing," is a non-sequitur. It sounds to me like, "no one helped me in time a need, so no one should be helped in a time of need." Or, "if I can't have you, no one can (so I'm going to kill you)."

I have a relative who survived an historic event where 140,000 people died in a few weeks. And I have never heard her say that someone else's problems or suffering was meaningless because of that (or because "life is suffering," which she well knows). OTOH, she has a friend, who was abused growing up, and does that all the time. I don't know what the difference is, but the magnitude of one's suffering doesn't seem related to me to their propensity to decide to care about others' suffering or not.

This is whole subject is very tough because it is about survival (and pain). I see a "prisoner's dilemma" going on: "If no one is going to help me, then I'd better save all my resources for myself -- and I'd be a fool to help anyone else, since no one is going to help me back." OTOH, if people are generally helping each other, it makes it less of risk for me to give to help someone else. Unfortunately, in the USA I see a "phase change" which is cascading into every-man-for-himself territory.

Taxes are unpopular, however war/terrorism/crime are even more unpopular. Crime and terrorism are widespread in hostile ghettoes. Slums of America breed the hardest criminals. More police are needed to clean up those streets. Taxes pay for more police to keep everyone safe and arrest the criminals. Education and opportunity for young people may help lift them out of poverty and/or crime. Reduce poverty and reduce crime through an effective action plan.

Unions would not be forced onto disabled people but they would be voluntary to join but offer them more assistance, legal aid and special attention in regards to employment. Disabled people of their carers would be told about the assistance the Unions could provide them and they could be signed up as Union members when they are employed. High rates of unemployment for disabled people, Unions only traditionally cater for employed workers.

I agree, and this is deeply worrying.

That's more than a little glib.

For me, one of the reasons I was approved for disability was not being able to predict what I will and won't be able to do on a daily basis. But I have never run into a person who ever assumed that (before I mentioned it to them).

I have found that reality matters against people's ideas about one's disability. If someone asks how I'm disabled, and I try to explain, they usually don't understand it (and I don't usually feel like giving them a 20 minute lecture on my medical problems), but that doesn't stop their imagination from running wild. Problems, in their imagination, are so much simpler -- there are no complications. And they don't know what "cognitive disorder" or "neurocardiogenic syncope" is, but it since I'm not drooling it doesn't seem very bad to them.

They wonder how, if I'm so disabled, can I afford such a big house (answer: it's my parent's house, and I answered the door because they weren't in at the time). How can I afford an iPhone? (answer: it's an iPod not an iPhone, because I can't afford an iPhone's or it's service plan. And I do need the iPod, because without a device to remind me and keep lists, I forget what I'm going and end up going in circles all day long).

People need to be careful about assumptions like that.

Thank you for pointing all of this out.

I neglected to mention that while my writing is generally good, I don't really have a lot of direction on what I can write - I have a tendency to go into detail and explanation about things, but lately I have been mostly feeling unable to access a lot of language and writing shorter posts. Tonight I was able to write more extensively than I have been for some time, but this certainly doesn't reflect an ability to decide on writing the things I want to write, nor even an ability to consistently write.

There are all kinds of assumptions being made here, all kinds of broad statements.

I don't see anything wrong with taking the attitude that it can be a good thing to be forced by circumstances to count up our abilities and strengths and try to take it from there.
It helps me, just as it helps me to mentally slap myself when I find myself thinking of how hard I have had it/will have it/. For me, it's pointless and feels, now, to be self indulgent and self pitying and a waste of time and energy at best, and a path to failure at worst.

Just saying what has worked for me.

I am really ok with more and more people getting "benefits", just trying to point out that it might not be in their best interest.

A comment about this country becoming more "every man for himself" is true in a broad sense, and that seems to have been what this thread started with.

Well the A.S label does not qualify people for services where I live under the Lanterman Act even though I have heard of people with A.S that want to sue. So my having autism we are speaking of differing worlds of context. My world is mostly surrounded by social services, day programs and friends that are support workers. I am talking about using pre-existing programs in connection with inclusion public relations to create more effective results with support programs. Transitional skills development is the focus and intents of employment day programs.

The remarks about moaning really seemed like hate speech rather then constructive solution making. It's like you are mocking me and others because we did not turn out as good as you. So it tends to make some feel inferior and that you are better and that we just got an issue with moaning. Even worse because I stand up for myself and type on a computer then I have the ability to work like you when you are not an expert to know what you are really talking about.

I've got one of those spit nails and come and get some advocacy mentalities. I was about to tell you to get off you high and mighty bum and help and quit moaning yourself. But I figured you wanted to push it a little to test the social participants to see how far you would get with it before backing off a little before you got the bottom end handed to you in text which I deem my job which you would agree I'm able to do because I can type..

It is a good point to make. I just see the system as so restrictive that 'spoiling' people seems unlikely to me to be a too huge a problem.