aspergersissues:

[snipped out rest of good stuff, because this caught my eye]

A friend of mine recently described himself as “too disabled to work, not disabled enough to get disability benefits.” If you think that kind of life situation is best described as “functioning,” then you are a shit. Seriously. When I look at you, I don’t see a person. I see a turd.

Of course I know you don’t see anything when you look at me either!

Also in that situation, though I have been on SSI in past over presumed mental illness (unrecognized autism + PTSD).

What is even more infuriating is that this is a very, very common situation where I am living now. 

From http://www.dontwritemeoff.org.uk/en-GB/About-the-campaign.aspx:

From this research, the Don’t Write Me Off campaign found that of the people we surveyed:

• just 15% have a full-time job
• one third are currently without a job or access to benefits

And, AFAICT, that would be on the supposedly “high-functioning” end of things. Other figures from the NAS indicate an 88% unemployment rate for people with Asperger’s diagnoses, and 98% with autism. How people are supposed to live like that, I have no idea. Sometimes I suspect we aren’t. 

And I am painfully aware that I am very lucky to be living with—and financially dependent on—someone who treats me respectfully, and not in poverty these days. That should not be a matter of luck.

Sometimes I do get really, really frustrated trying to communicate. Even in writing.

That is all.

codeman38:

[Seriously, go read it. It’s excellent, and touches on so many myths about autism that have been irritating me. —codeman38]

(via youneedacat)

This shit gets overwhelming sometimes.

Warning: Abuse of an autistic child

youneedacat:

(PDF)

ETA: I did find this a bit triggering, through remembering shitloads of experience of How Not To Handle A Meltdown. Complete with baiting, at times.

Originally reshared on G+, with my commentary:

The best treatment of this I have run across. I particularly like the repeated emphasis on the fact that the person melting down is far less happy about the situation than any bystander. A confrontational approach will only make the situation exponentially worse when someone is having the equivalent of a seizure (and may, in fact, also be having problems with TLE or other seizure activity triggered by stress), speaking from experience.

One addition, stated more explicitly: If the person is (reasonably safely) trying to go somewhere quiet to calm down, the worst possible thing to do is get confrontational and try to stop them from leaving. They may not be able to understand what you’re saying at all right then, and if you physically grab or block them, things can swiftly turn ugly. The person caught in a meltdown has basically no control over their response to feeling trapped and attacked, when their nervous system is ratcheted up into fight or flight anyway and the overloaded sensory processing turns about everything into a threat.

Most people will certainly learn from experience how better to avoid and deal with that level of overload, but this advice definitely does not apply only to kids. For that matter, it applies to anyone who is sufficiently upset, for whatever reason—not just people on the autistic spectrum.