Does your AS threaten your basic survival?

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AS threatens my basic survival. I get lost a lot, which could be dangerous. I can't work, meaning I couldn't feed myself without SSDI and family support. I also couldn't find the grocery store if I did have my own resources through working.

Oops, OK, my bad. But cubicles still give me hives.

I don't believe I'm under any threat of failing to survive at the moment, so I have voted no.

yes, at least since i've been living independently, my AS combined with OCD stops me from doing most things.

Not presently. But there is absolutely NO DOUBT my impairments due to an ASD threatened my basic survival in all manner of ways which - in the past - have included homelessness, rape, imprisonement, the real and somewhat close predicament of murder, along with a few other things like not being able to read social situations accurately (hence the above little scenarios), social naivety and quality of life.......

when other people would get out quick, i would stand there naively smiling.

That's a weird coincidence - I fled from my job after 18 years - not entirely ground down but I just couldn't stand the stress of it any more. Didn't know of AS in those days. Then after a couple of years of acting like a hippie I took another job, and now after 18 years of that I'm near the end of my rope again, and long to do another runner. This time I'll be less of a hippie and more like my true self. What is it with this 18-year thing? Anyway, I hope you don't feel inadequate about not holding the job down any longer. Maybe it wasn't worthy of you, maybe your freedom is more important than a job.

Anyway, I'm voting no. I've survived 56 years and I hope to live as long as the average Joe. The world of working for wages and consuming looks to me to be just as helpless a fate as being an asylum inmate - hopelessly dependent on somebody else's handouts in return for reporting to a detention centre when they tell you to, using their tools to make what they tell you to make, always on their terms. The bosses are the only ones who are really capable of looking after themselves. One stroke of the pen from them, and the "independence" of the worker collapses, The basic system is little different from the old workhouse system where paupers would have to go, cap in hand, when they couldn't cope. The rules are a little less vicious, but it's basically the same deal.

People sometimes worry about me because I don't seem to be able to cook, when biologically there's no need for cooking, except in the social imagination. I "can't" tidy up, yet if you look, I always keep the basic hygeine and health standards intact, I've rarely been physically ill. My basic survival strategy is plain for all to see, and it works, in as far as I'm alive and reasonably healthy, and have sought help less, not more, than most people. There are plenty of judgemental types who would look at my lifestyle and feel sorry for me - but I feel sorry for them.

Anyway, you get my drift. By mainstream/NT standards, I'm failing at the game of life, and my capacity to survive is impaired because of autistic head problems and a wacky view of the whole game. But I don't see much to aspire to in the mainstream/NT world. They don't look particularly content to me. It remains to be seen who will survive the longest, me or them. I reckon it'll be me.

Daniel,

I thought the same about living off the land, etc... ACTUALLY,
in the US, you COULD maybe make a case for living in a national
park as a tourist for a long time. Of course, it would be austere.

Greantea,

That is odd. A lot of people here hear that arabs are FAR from that
forgiving, and Jewish people are NOT known for being reluctant to sue.
SORRY if that offends people, but it is the TRUTH.

postperson,

18 years is still nothing to sneeze at, and you have investments!

Asuigeneris1,

Who told your boyfriend he had AS?

zer0netgain,

A lot of NORMAL people are that way!

If you can't do basic things for yourself, you don't have AS. After
all, it DOES say that there is no clinically significant problem with
self help skills.


But HEY, I certainly CAN understand the obsessions, hyper sensitivities, etc... causing a problem. My first two choices were electronics/computers. If I had to do something else, it would probably be machinery, producing/designing products, or research. The world is getting dumber, corporate "culture" is GARBAGE, and the "immigration" now to supposedly handle deficits is so bad that I will likely have to retire or move industries within the next 20 years. I am happy that I am sheltered from MOST of it. If I went into retail, I would not be so lucky.

of course not, I'm only lightly tickled by AS so it doesn't really affect me to such a massive extent.

Yes, if I was on my own. Nasty things happen to me (self- and other people- inflicted) when noone is keeping a watchful eye.

I checked yes, mainly because I seem clueless when it comes to monitoring my own health. A couple of life-saving times my wife, daughter, and son had to take me to the hospital when at the time I thought that I was feeling tolerably well. I think one of the reasons that I'll be rounding sixty this year is that someone in the family is always checking up on me.

This is not my country of origin.

I suppose I'd have to say yes, it does.
Let's see...
Get lost easily, no sense of direction, get absorbed in things and forget to do things that need to be done, sense(s) of danger are out of whack, inability to communicate with most strangers, can't read most danger signs, can't work, some basic things often don't occur to me, random "brain glitches"....

Well put. That's typical of me too.

No. It makes it really hard to find a job and it makes me inefficient at a lot of things, but I don't think I'd ever die because of it. Even if I didn't live in the US where it's easy to live without a job, I think if I had made it to the age I am now, (or at least to about, er... 14ish, which is when I got control of myself) I'd be fine.

No. I know how to feed myself, wash myself & take care of myself when I'm ill. Of course a job would be helpful but my anxiety is getting in the way, not my AS.

i love everything you've said. i have a saying which is a twist on another one - "there are none so chained as those that think they're free".