seriously I’ve had most of them and can probably give you a fair idea of what to expect, esp. if it’s your first job. I have sensory issues out the ass and had some pretty fucking severe social problems until I was about 15…moderate social problems between 25-30. Dyspraxia, prosopagnosia (that’s a fucking doozie for retail, let me tell ya), and intermittent visual agnosia and loss of speech.
For additional flavor, I also have anxiety and panic disorder, PTSD, depression, and agoraphobia so bad I was a shut-in for between 5 and 8 years.
So if you need tips on how to smile at strangers when triggered and depersonalizing, or how to run a cash register when you can’t read the keys, please feel free to ask.
This also applies to people recently getting out of an abusive situation, maybe homeless, underage, or otherwise discommoded. I also am slightly conversant with the labor laws of a handful of states, OSHA and EEOC guidelines, FMLA law, and a smattering of ADA.
I like to put this out there from time to time because there’s a lack of specific, realistic information out there for people who are “in the shit”, so to speak. Also, I mutually follow quite a few autistic people who are currently working retail and/or food service with same/similar issues.
w-umpscut asked: Oh and as a side note I love your blog :-). I just wanted to offer some insight. I don't want people to be scared by ADD medication. It is perfectly safe so long as you take it as the doctor prescribed it and make sure you eat enough. I just shied away from it for many years, and if I had had it earlier, my life would have been way better than it ended up being. It can also help with depression by correcting dopamine deficiencies. Dopamine is as important as seratonin. It is no magic cure though
I agree with you, and fully support the use of medication by people who need it.Many people have Autism AND ADD/ADHD. Sometimes ADD medication help people with ASDs regulate their attention.
Telling someone you don’t know that a specific medication will fix all their problems and turn their life around is dangerous and misleading.
lryl:
telephonoscope:
Imagine you’re almost 30 and your history is steeped in nothing but dropping out of highschool, dropping out of college/university 4 different times, no friends, a string of jobs that you’ve quit or been fired from, depression, panic disorder, and horrible confusion about WHY all of this has happened to you. You’re smart and you’re a hard worker. In fact you work harder than everyone you know and yet life is still really. fucking. hard.
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I am, for the moment self diagnosed. I am on an indefinite waitlist with the county to receive a formal diagnosis. I have been diagnosed bipolar, borderline, and ocd because women “don’t have spectrum disorders”. I would almost be willing to put money that some, if not all of those diagnoses would change or be removed in the face of a spectrum diagnosis. I’m waiting, and will continue to wait, for someone paid to evaluate the same criterion I’ve already examined to put down on paper that I’m autistic. Until then, I am self diagnosed. I am still me, I just now understand myself in ways I didn’t before.
I had six or seven diagnoses before ASD dx. Just about all of them were symptomatic of undiagnosed spectrum disorder. the depression, anxiety, and PTSD are pretty much gonna be there forever now, though.
(via azrikel)
