General Autism Discussion

And 99% of the time, the only jobs available are social jobs. I dunno if the same is true for Canada, but this country just don't like introverts in general, let alone ones with autism.

Most early jobs that you'll get, especially when paying your way through school, are going to involve customer service in some form.

The reality is, just about every job that isn't complete shit requires some minimal social skills. If only to be able to get along with your co-workers.

Actually, scratch that. Even the shitty jobs require social skills. Part of the reason they are shitty is because they involve putting up with dumbass customers.

edited 8th Mar '18 11:25:30 PM by M84

And people get very confused when you don’t want to progress from the really shitty behind the scenes ones to the slightly less shitty customer facing ones, the amount of times I’ve had to explain to people that I don’t want to go from being back of house at the bar to being a bartender...

I’d argue that there is antiher option for some of the social conduct rules, self advocacy, don’t just teach autistic people what the social rules and such are, also teach them how to explain their disability to others, I suspect that my regular self advocacy is part of why I don’t have to difficult a time with people, I let people know that I’m socially weird, I explain that I’m doing my best to address it but that I sometimes don’t notice if I screw small things up.

People with give you a lot of social leeway if they know that you’re having trouble but trying to address the problem.

The good news is that they believe you. One blog entry about the problem of the autism unemployment rate being so high brings up the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" problem.

Doesn't The Good Doctor actually portray Dr. Murphy's disability in addition to his intelligence, and thus demonstrate why he needs accommodations?

edited 9th Mar '18 4:32:00 AM by BonsaiForest

They believe me becuse I know how to self advocate properly, I don’t open with “I’m autistic”, I explain my traits and how I act, the actual label autism doesn’t have to ever be used by me, now I do use it because I like to spread awareness, but I don’t have to.

I was effectively self advocating my autism before I knew it was autism, because I learnt how to explain the way I act socially to people.

Ah yeah. I've heard about that kind of situation. Where some autistics have been able to successfully explain the way their mind works, but if they say the "A" word, then suddenly, they're accused of lying, because they don't fit the other person's assumptions about what autism is.

That's what I meant by proper training—how to self-advocate is not easy, and requires a considerable amount of skill itself, something few people, either autistic or not, have a lot of. Social skills training should focus on how to educate the people around you, not mimicing them.

Of course, a lot of employers have personality problems of their own. many business owners and executives tend toward the narcisistic end of their own spectrum (I have been a business owner and a manager myself) and aren't interested in someone who challenges their world view. They are interested in a lower ranked version of themselves. That's unfortunate, and there may not be much one can do with such people. But there are other opportunities out there, and with a little bit of guidence one can take advantage of them.

I have an advantage in that people I've run into either don't have any concept about Autism at all (so I'm their first real education on it) or are well educated enough that when I do say the word autism they go "oh that makes sense, I wasn't sure but figured there was something", I've yet to run into anyone with a negative stereotype about autism. There's a reason my support office suggested that I might consider going into the support field myself, I'm good at explaining things, I suspect because growing up I was actively encouraged to question everything and be involved, including questioning if my parents had any idea what they were doing (and it the same manner in which they'd question each other or me).

I suspect that a big cause of issues with some people is that because they're not used to self advocating they accidentally come across as excusing their incorrect behaviour instead of explaining it.

My biggest problem with jobs is that my employers often expect me to just know what to do with little explanation. I need a little more training than that and a little more time. I need to know exactly what you want from me and I need details if you want me to do it right because I can't read your mind.

And then I also get in trouble for working too slow because I'm trying to make everything actually look organized and presentable.

I'm so glad I got out of the service industry.

Here's a pretty positive review of Keep the Change, a romantic comedy about two people with autism, that breaks some of the generic rom-com rules, as well as portraying autistics more 3-dimensionally than usual.

For one, every single autistic character is played by an autistic actor. They were even allowed to adlib dialog.

There's also the fact that the two autistics in the couple are very different people with very different personalities:

They also both have character flaws:

This indie film is being screened in local venues and is not nationwide yet.

That intrinsically sounds bad.

"Also have character flaws" seems to rather undersell that they're both terrible people, from the sound of it.

edited 16th Mar '18 6:52:57 PM by RainehDaze

That's not necessarily problematic in and of itself. Good representation isn't just about easily likable or sympathetic characters, but nuanced and complex characters as well, which yes may in fact be terrible people in the end. This becomes a bit more complicated depending on various factors since there's a lot of potential pitfalls to avoid, so I'd have to see the film and see how it handles things.

I feel like you might be failing at doing a romcom if your characters are unlikable and will have walked straight into simple cringe comedy.

I agree. Characters having flaws makes them human. I once read a book called Firegirl, about a girl who was horribly disfigured in a fire, and the boy who ends up coming to like her when no-one else - especially his best friend - does. And the girl, despite her horrible condition, is no saint. She's understandably pissed off at what her life has become and how people treat her as a result of her appearance, and her bitterness is clear, but that just makes her human instead of Incorruptible Pure Pureness.

Why is adlibbing dialog bad? The actors were given scripts, but told they could phrase things their own way, which the review says makes the movie better and sound more natural. (I didn't quote that part in my post, but it does say that.)

edited 16th Mar '18 7:09:46 PM by BonsaiForest

Again, it's not about having flaws, it's about describing something like that as a "character flaw". There are times to not be hyperbolic, but there are also times when it's best to just say "and they're an asshole".

Oh, just rephrasing lines. Ad libbing made me think making up new lines. Which, unless you're getting people specifically for their improv talent, generally seems like a bad choice in a scripted film.

It can work if the situation is properly set up, much of Thor 3 was ad-libbed.

Also I’m pretty sure Rom Coms are cringe comedy, on top of that don’t all Rom Coms have characters that are terrible people? Terrible people and cringe comedy are staples fo the Rom Com genre.

A brief article on a woman with autism who "camouflaged" her way into popularity, and suffered for it.

Before this part of the article, she talks about her early childhood, before the social pressures to appear "normal" and "fit in" took hold. When she was little, she played with boys' toys and acted very tomboyish. Once she cared what people thought of her, she hid her natural tomboyishness and camouflaged "normality".

She later talks about how autism and her life experiences have also helped her.

The issue with comedy and autism (and similar disabilities) is that if not done very properly it can turn the person's disabilities into a punchline of sorts-and then it can come across as laughing at the individual.

I'm admittedly not one to talk. I'm making an RPG Maker video game with an autistic protagonist, and it does play it for comedy to some extent.

Here's something very strange, which may explain a lot about the social aspects of autism: Amygdala neurons increase as children become adults - except in autism.

Now, I already knew that the amygdala was responsible for fear and anxiety. I know that in psychopaths, the amygdala is abnormally small - hence why psychopaths cannot feel fear and will throw themselves into danger for their own amusement. In autistics, from what I'd read, the amygdala can be abnormally large, or have lesions on it.

As for neurons - neurons are basically memories. Every time something happens to you that you remember, or you learn a new fact or a new skill, that is saved in your brain as a neuron. The more you know, the more neurons you have. Your brain also forms connections between neurons, called synapses. Autistics tend to have twice as many synapses as the average person.

But we tend to apparently not develop new neurons in the amygdala part of our brain.

But there's more: the amygdala is associated with social interaction.

Holy shit. What could this possibly mean? And what can be done about it? It's a good discovery to make.

Remind me not to watch this. They both sound like terrible human beings and that means the message being sent is "autistic people are awful". I mean seriously "I didn't know how you'd feel about being in an open relationship." So she just cheated instead? That's revolting.

Well, I'm glad that it turns out I'm not the only one.

I'll note that most autistics I know would be among the least likely people to cheat. Because that would be breaking the rules, and we tend to have a thing for rules.

I prefer to think "they're terrible people that just happen to have autism".

edited 23rd Mar '18 5:05:30 AM by PhysicalStamina

The story of the movie is based on the first romance of the lead actor. Who is the director's boyfriend.

She wanted to make a movie about an autistic romance, and she thought the ways to make it more authentic were to hire autistic actors, and base it on a true story.

So, apparently this is a true story.