Laddo

Joy Division - She's Lost Control

Hi Michelle, welcome to the forum!

I really don't understand you Waterboatman. Why join an autism support forum only to say autistic people are defective? Can you honestly not see any positives of being autistic?

Firstly, do you have to be so rude in all your posts or what? Secondly, read my first post properly. I define my meanings for using the term 'white' to describe the culture or collection of cultures I'm referring to.

Can you stop trying to derail the thread please? Like I said, the point of this thread is to debate. If you don't like it, you don't have to read it.

I'm a bit dubious about the true statistic being so low. I see aspie traits in people so often yet they probably are undiagnosed. I'd be willing to bet that a huge proportion of scientific and creative communities have aspie traits. I wonder if the world's governments are aware of this but keeping it under wraps? I think it's a great idea for us to include AS in our special interests. Considering the huge amounts of information we can collect on our special topics, I think autistic people would be the best people to carry out research on autism. Sadly, before we do this we need to change governmental views on us to actually allow us to carry out this research. We definitely do need more unity.

This is getting absolutely absurd now. It seems like they're just sending you from department to department as they so often do. Seriously, what has happened to work ethics in this country! All everyone seems to do is palm off work onto other people which results in disasters like this one. I wish there was something I could do to help you, Mihaela. If there is anything I can do, please don't hesitate to let me know.

I'm seriously getting to the point where it feels like moving north or west and living rough would be a better option than what I have now. I'm all too aware of the fact that my parents don't understand just how much I suffer from social anxiety and really could not last long in the types of jobs that are heavily advertised in Kent. As a result of this, I'm feeling less and less welcome in the family home and I'm getting worried that I may not even have a choice in sleeping rough. I keep ending up missing Jobcentre appointments because my anxiety gets too bad and whenever my parents find out about this, it's always the same sigh-and-tut type of reaction. I know I need to go on ESA rather than JSA but I can't do it alone. I'm seeing a doctor tomorrow to hopefully get a doctor's note saying I can't work in certain jobs and thus need to go on ESA, so this may help but could also fall through. I'm really desperate.

I was thinking it could start here and potentially grow it to a full website in time. I'm very keen to teach myself web coding so I would be up for trying to get the website up and running if there was enough interest. (And if I can organise and motivate myself!) I just think it would be a good way to communicate with NTs that autistic people do have a purpose, as well as maybe giving the aspies whose artwork is showcased a little self esteem boost.

I try to keep going with my life but keep smashing in to dead ends. It happens time and time again. Nothing ever seems to work out. Now I'm beginning to think the area I live is in holding me back MASSIVELY. The mental health services around here are seriously lacking. There's no NAS branch anywhere near me, no Remploy branch, no nothing. It's near impossible to get a GP appointment urgently. The majority of jobs advertised are for HGV drivers, 360 excavator operators and salespeople. None of which I can do. I'm also part of a dating site for autistic people which seems to have NO active members anywhere near me so I can't even find love. Kent is a dump, well and truly. I hate it so very much. There's nothing for me here. I feel so trapped and helpless in this ****hole. Sooooo, the obvious solution here would be to move. But I can't, because I have no money because I can't find a job. Any advice on how to get out of this place would be very gratefully received.

In my opinion, the news is quite useful for getting basic information about an event, although I rarely trust the full news story these days. All too often the facts are manipulated to keep the people on the government's side. And it works. It works. People actually believe the rubbish that's vomited at them from their TVs. You should be glad you don't watch TV, Mihaela. There is still some good stuff, but most of the programmes are barely different to Victorian freak shows. So much of it these days is just poor-people-baiting.

I am oh-so sick of the current obsession with 'business' in this country! When I say 'business' I mean all the worst parts of business, too - manipulating others, using ridiculous buzzwords and the constant lying and altering of truth. Young people are being pushed away from following their dreams and pushed into the execu-world. I did a Business and Communications Systems GCSE which was essentially half ICT and half Business Studies. The business studies side basically taught me nothing useful apart from a few terms and phrases. Now I know it's only GCSE level, but why is this being considered such an important subject when you don't actually learn anything? You can't really learn how to be a successful businessperson - if you don't have a manipulative, competitive and ruthless personality you will not do well in business. Simple. Plus, it's so irresponsible to hold 'business' in such high esteem when it has been proven through several stock market crashes, recessions and depressions that the current system does not work! The older generations are essentially setting up the younger generations to be drones. And what happens? The ruthless prosper, the meek are trodden on. We need to give future children the tools they need to succeed. This does not include a load of stupid phrases like 'blue sky thinking' and all that waffle - no, they all need to be encouraged so they develop some self esteem, they all need to be able to find and develop their best skills during their school life. They say school is a horrible environment to reflect the working world, well... can't they make the working world more pleasant for everyone including shy people? So there's less unemployment? Stop the depression epidemic? Keep NHS costs down because people tend to be healthier if they're happier? Oh wait, no, that won't let rich people have even more money to buy things they don't need. How selfish of poor and shy people to be fed up with the shocking deal we're getting. How unreasonable.

No worries Mihaela. I fear this may just be yet another pipe dream anyway as I think you need a load of qualifications that I can't afford to get in order to work with autistic people.

Off-topic: Why does it say 'pies' at the start of my most recent post? I'm pretty sure I didn't put it there myself. Has someone been editing my posts or something? I swear something weird is going on with my account... On-topic: Do you have any updates for us Akunin? I'm interested to hear how things are going for you with this

I must admit, this is not going how I hoped it would. It's so sad that there is so little unity among aspies

Very nice, UnusualPatronus. A very powerful piece once again! Reading through the poems here (excluding my own because I don't want to play my own trumpet ) is sparking an idea in my brain to get a collection of art and poetry by autistic people together. Maybe that will finally put another incorrect assumption about ASD people to waste - the assumption that we lack imagination. We're creators by nature, whether it be art, literature or solving equations. I would give anything to see the results of a brain scan of an autistic person whilst they're creating. I imagine it would be fascinating. I can be naive too and have learnt that I suffer from executive dysfunction as well. It's a bit of a pain in the neck though - where do I go from here, knowing I'm always going to find looking after myself, the things that NTs take for granted, to be so challenging? I'm certainly having a hard time convincing my parents that I'm executively dysfunctional - they're of the impression (as are an infuriating number of people) that I'll be fine as long as I put my mind to it. They don't understand that if I give too much focus to social 'norms' overloads my brain and causes epic meltdowns of Chernobyl calibre. It's depressing to think that I may have to rethink my entire career so soon after finally deciding what I want to do with my life.

There are some good points here - it's always interesting to see others' viewpoints on such topics. Canopus, I was unaware that so many modern cultures today stemmed from Protestantism but thinking it through, I can see parallels between the religious movement and modern society. It is interesting that today's British and American societies are so heavily founded on a Christian religious movement considering Jesus reportedly denounced lust for money as sinful and was a proponent of sharing wealth - in other words, the complete opposite of modern capitalism. Does anyone know much about the Icelandic revolution? It was woefully unreported (obviously to prevent other societies from doing the same) but from what I've heard the people of Iceland peacefully overthrew their government and rewrote their constitution. In my opinion, a peaceful revolution would have to begin with the closure of all mainstream media outlets. They're all in the pocket of some political party or another and more and more media censorship is exposed every day. It's a form of mass brainwashing - people trust the media and therefore automatically believe most stories they read or watch on the news. It's actually quite worrying to me that people are so frequently told how to think and even more worrying that this actually works on such a grand scale. I wonder for how long the current systems will continue to operate? Will they end in peaceful revolution, multiple civil wars or will we all kill ourselves in the process? With the war on Islam that's being waged by most NATO countries, (anyone see the parallels with Nazi attitudes towards Jewish people?) I fear the latter option may be the most likely. In a kind of disgusted way, I'm almost looking forward to seeing how things will pan out.

So very true. So many countries are founded on violent acts. The world is almost too depressing. Every day I'm bombarded with stories of how politician X has screwed over the people, or organisation Y has failed and thousands of people have lost their jobs all because some idiot in a suit got greedy and/or miscalculated costs, or people dying in country Z because of a pointless war, and every time I hear this it hurts my head. Like physical pain shooting through my brain down my spine. Does anyone else get this when hearing of negative news? Some offshoot of sensory issues or something?

Trekster: What does the degree in autism involve? Is it for helping people on the care side or more a study of autism? Mihaela: Thank you, that would be great!

Even if it's just the three of you that would be enough for a York-based meet up I think. Of course it is up to the three of you what you do but this does show there are aspies living near one another.

I will reply to both UnusualPatronus's and Mihaela's posts later on when I've thought things through a bit more but after seeing a video of people fighting over slightly reduced products for Black Friday I have to say that Western culture is pretty damn sick. Look up 'Black Friday fights' on Youtube and you'll see what I mean. All those who took part in this absurd, shocking display of human depravity should be utterly ashamed of themselves. And society sees us as the 'disordered' ones! It's ludicrous!

Yeah, I thought it was a bit odd that this has come back from the dead as it has. We have a zombie thread! Anyway, I thought I'd throw my opinion on the subject into the mix. I've got to agree that I would not 'cure' myself if I was given the chance. I have seen too much of the bad side of NT life and it disgusts me. I would rather be lonely with few friends that have nine hundred thousand acquaintances whom I don't really care about and who don't really care about me. To a lot of NTs, friends seem to be little more than a status symbol, as is evidenced by social media - a lot of people have over 500 Facebook friends purely for the sake of having a lot of Facebook friends. I used to fall in to this trap, but that was in my days of trying to act neurotypical. I am now thoroughly ashamed of myself for being so shallow. Like many others, there are parts of having Asperger's that I don't like - I don't like the social anxiety, I don't like the co-morbid conditions such as digestion problems and I really don't like the dirty-sounding name of the condition. (anyone else think it sounds dirty or is it just me?) I do, however, like my attention to detail, my ability to focus incredibly deeply on something I'm interested in, my imagination and my heightened sense of empathy and love. From the look of things, it appears that most of the aspects of being autistic that people dislike are the ones caused by a judgemental, shallow society. To me, we are no different from any other so-called minority groups - LGBT, ethnic minorities, religious minorities etc. - so why should we arguably face more prejudices and discrimination from those groups? Because society still says it is okay. People with disabilities are still mocked frequently on TV, in films, in books etc. but you can't really get away with mocking gay people, or black people, or Jews etc. As aspies are so thinly spread around the world, there is also little chance for us to get together and plan protests and the like. Society knows this, and they actively discourage any sort of unity among aspies. I personally think we need to change that, and soon.

This is a career direction I have been pondering for a while. I love to help people and being autistic myself, it makes sense that I should help out other people with autism. I'm learning more and more about so-called 'classic autism' and think I understand it better than I used to. Does anyone have any advice on how to get into this type of work? I don't think I could do much of the more physically-demanding side of care work as my body is weakening but I could do everything else if I really put my mind to it.

Mihaela: Sorry to hear it. Try and take it easy tonight and tomorrow, yeah? Waterboatman: The idea of this thread is to share ideas and debate, not a rant