HOW "SEVERE" IS MY AUTISM?

[@strictnonconformist7369]

As a late diagnosed (but spent most of my schooling K-12 in special ed and/or speech/OT therapy) audhd with dyspraxia and dyslexia and now being 52 with burnout, your support needs can increase with sufficiently intense burnout. Apparently to those that are perceptive, I'm readily recognized as autistic in a short time frame. Well, I can't say I've tried too hard (male) at body language masking, except during job interviews. I work in tech, there are apparently quite a few of us in that field. Perhaps if things had been in the DSM earlier, I would have been diagnosed as a kid. I certainly didn't blend in K-12. Don't beat yourself up over what your profile is: allistics are equally all over the map in their own ways. It's not a choice we've made, it's what we are naturally, and there's only waste getting upset about that. Just allow others to have their own voice in whatever form that takes, you can't do more than that.

[@gregofthedump]

Yes. That feeling of being burnt out. There are things I have to avoid in order not to feel burnt out, such as drudge work, I.e. administrative tasks, or so-called routine tasks. If I tried to make an actual routine of them, I would burn out again, just thinking about them. Took me years to accept that I couldn't operate in the way that most people can.

[@Surfer8652]

I've recently discovered I might be autistic and going through that self assessment process (not formally disgnosed yet), and it's such a hard thing to analyze and explain to others. I think of it (it being "mild" autism) like an uncanny valley of sorts...it's not severe enough to be obvious to other people unless they've spent a lot of time with me, but it is severe enough to have caused a lot of social issues fitting in and maintaining relationships, I feel I need to hide the odd stims I do, and I accomplished much less academically than I was capable of based on intellect alone due to executive function difficulties, etc. But when I talk about these things with others, I'm trying to focus on the symptoms first when explaining it ("I'm really good at x, but I have a lot of trouble with y") instead of starting with using the term "autistic." Then if people find my symptoms odd or surprising and start to ask why I'm like that then I'll tell them I'm likely on the spectrum. But our struggles are real regardless of how well they fit into a certain label or severity ranking.

[@kashinewell6239]

You explain this so well, its like you're saying all the same things I'm trying to tell everyone and dealing with late diagnosis now too. People seem confused when I try to explain it too but can't figure out why... I thought I wasn't saying things well but after listening to you I think we are describing things exactly how it is but People get hung up on things looking different so much they can't even hear what we're saying but then say our disorder is somehow this annoying inflexible thing. We're not, just been misunderstood a long time and I think it's valuable to have so many autistic people try to say it in their own words. I'm trying to listen to all the work of everyone on youtube putting out videos like yours and figure out why everyone's story sounds so hard when everyone seems so genuine and beautiful. I love autistic people and want to hear everyone's experiences and include their ideas while figuring out something I can do to help one day. I'm in the same situation of perpetual burnout now and getting more problems with people because the exhaustion is making me seem more weird and people have been treating me like I'm misbehaving when it feels like I'm having a seizure like experience and I wonder if sensory overloads are more like a siezure than a "meltdown" as people seem to call it which is just so alienating to hear because it is like when you yell in a cats ear and they jump and run away, something happens when I get too stressed and my senses freak out where all my masking is gone and suddenly I'm being so mistreated and feel like I'm not safe around people or in certain places. If I'm just allowed to take a day off when I need whenever I know I need it I will be fully functional how I'm meant to be. But without that I'm not sure if I can work so I'm working it out with the doctors getting diagnosed. Thanks for all the videos and work you put into sharing all this and hope you are doing well

[@AutisticRebbetzen]

Thanks for making this video. It's an important topic. Functioning and severity labels are incredibly damaging. It is damaging to people with lower support needs because needs they do have get dismissed by others and it is damaging to people with higher support needs because they are presumed incompetent into adulthood. Different people have different needs, but these labels have a really loaded history and need to be tossed in the trash entirely. There are nonspeaking autistic creators though! I personally use mouth words, but I'm always trying to diversify my playlist of autistic creators talking about autism. I found your channel in that process, and some of your videos are in it! 😃 There are also non-speaking creators in there too, including Ash Keeps Talking, Incredibly Neurodiverse, Kit Autie, and J Gregory.

[@Authentistic-ism]

I've been diagnosed a few months now.... disclosing and asking for accomodations is SUCH a black hole for all my spoons right now .... Asking for written communication mainly. Recieving phone calls where i have to ask for written communication again because they forgot to write it on my chart and they won't let me speak in order to ask and then the cycle begins again.

[@Samantharichie1986]

I can relate to the burn out. I am 36 and just got diagnosed. At home with my husband, it is so easy for me to speak my mind, but at work I can't seem to get the words right and my mind goes blank

[@laurainrevison1162]

Add about 20 years that b.s. and people want your to perform when NT can't do most of that or maintain

[@Gandalf_the_quantum_G]

"and other fun mental health problems..." 😅. I'm having both conditions as well asd and add. I do like your videos, but until now I didn't listen properly to this one, so I'm now in the middle and try to figure out what it is exactly about. I guess you know this situation. Ah, well. Now I get it. Do you find it also interesting, that many other autistic people are so different to yourself - I oftentimes can't get along with many other autistics, just with a few, which are more similar to me. But actually these days I don't know any anymore. Just came to my mind, cause you mentioned, that you can't speak for these with severe asd - me I also can't speak for many other autistics, because I'm so different in many things. Fot me it got easier, since I accepted everything how it is. I'm not burned out anymore, but somehow really productive.

[@lardycake]

I believe you and I make it to the end of your videos.

[@haroldgifford852]

👍

[@theautisticpage]

First!