Autism Is Not An Excuse To Do Nothing

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Some people who suffer from depression achieve things, some don't. Winston Churchill for example. A lot of top novelists suffer from depression and have been quite frank about it. I have experienced depression and anxiety (particularly anxiety) and there were times when I couldn't focus on any goals but recovering my equilibrium. However even during those times, my beliefs about didn't change - I still aspired to be the best that I could be, and during deep grief, caring for myself was the best I could be, and nothing else. We will obviously have to agree to disagree on that.

Disagree on what?
I didn't say that people with anxiety and depression can't achieve things.
I said that anxiety and depression, not only autism, are factors in a situation in which a person appears to be doing nothing.

So those are the things people ought to be doing something about vs. nothing if that's what constrains them from doing anything else. Then once the constraint has been removed, do something else - or work on the next bottleneck constraining them from doing something else. There's always always always something that can be tried & done vs. nothing & not trying.

Yes, I agree with this, it is critical to address anxiety and depression and work on reducing them and their effects.
This is why I often post that anxiety and depression are not inherently part of autism, as some people say that they are.
They can be developed, and they can be reduced, and it takes a lot of work to do that, which means it may take much longer for a person apparently doing nothing to make even a small improvement than someone who is equally affected by autism but not by anxiety or depression.

I agree with all of this because I've lived it. It took tremendous effort to overcome anxiety/depression via various means int he beginning, but then bit by bit I've become better balanced and it takes less and less effort to achieve better and better results. Same sort of thing with finances.. it takes a monumental effort int he beginning to start accumulating some savings, but then the compound effect takes hold & dollars start adding up faster and faster. It's worth the time & effort it takes to make even small improvements, especially knowing that everything eventually will get better and easier as time goes on.

If it's a very small subset, then why is it a "trend" she's noticed? I get the idea what she's saying applies to a bigger sample of people.



This. I honestly don't think many people actually want to do "nothing". They do it for a reason.

And some people sometimes need to take a break instead of just jumping into something else whenever something doesn't work out...some people get burnt out which can significantly effect functioning, just trying to go do a bunch more stuff doesn't really help that. Not everyone can do the same things at the same pace...seems like a lot of times people can lose sight of that and want everyone to keep up with them.

I think the anti-embroidery remarks typify the error exemplified in the post. That is, that it is no one's business to judge what activities are worthwhile and what are not.
It's a great concept and in keeping with our cultural values. "One should strive to better oneself." The problem comes in when people start arbitrarily devaluing certain activities. It shows a naivete on the part of the author. How one betters oneself is a personal journey.

I agree with this. But I also think that people don't expend enough time/energy/effort determining what, specifically, that reason is for them, and then what course of action to take in order to do something about it & overcome it.

One comment I have about people posting about their successes is that it can help others if they post how they achieved a specific thing, not only that they did.
A lot of people have goals but don't know how which concrete steps to take to go towards the goals, but they might get some clues if someone posts what they did to achieve a specific thing.
For eggsample, when I read Temple Grandin's Thinking In Pictures, she wrote about how she wanted to get into animal behavior field, but she was not initially studying that area, but she contacted someone who worked in that area, and they helped her get into it.
In my life, I copied what she did, and so far it is working out for me too, to get into the field that I want to study without having studied it early on in college.

Sometimes the something people need to jump right into is rest/healing - but it should be with intent and action, IMO, vs. deciding to "do nothing." People should decide to rest, recuperate, heal themselves in whatever ways they need to etc. That's not doing nothing. That's actively doing something, even if that activity is slowing down to a near stop, sleeping, meditating, taking the time to prepare healthy healing meals etc.

Part of the problem here is comparing oneself to others. There is no set pace we all must do things at. The only person we should compare ourselves to is the person we were yesterday. It's about bettering yourself. It doesn't matter if someone achieves less than others so long as they're improving upon what they used to be able to do. Sometimes people regress a bit and accomplish less for a while, so what? Just keep moving forward.

I don't expect or want people to keep up with me. I want them to want to do better for themselves than they've managed to so far. Set their own pace, then break it & achieve personal bests. That's what it's about & what I encourage. Heck, be faster, better, smarter, richer than me! I just think more people ought to embrace a mentality of continuous self improvement regardless of what others are doing around them.. to compete with themselves vs. others if they're not the competitive type at all. Personally, I do both - I try to focus on my own improvements, but sometimes am motivated by others who are vastly better at something than I am in order to push myself to try to catch up to them.. sometimes literally, ie the few times I've gone for a run with someone else who's a much better runner than I am. I found that trying to keep up with them was far more possible than I thought I was capable of, and it was very motivating. It made me realize I'm capable of doing much more than I realize and believe I can.. so, sometimes there's value in trying to keep up with others - so long as we don't lose sight of the fact that the only one we should ever really want to be better than is the person we were yesterday.

You're getting too hung up on the needlepoint thing. Replace needlepoint with playing video games, or doing sudoku puzzles, or posting on wrongplanet.net forums.. or whatever. The author's point was that if there's one hobby/past time thing that you do that occupies ALL of your time, it's not a very well rounded & enriched life you're leading. That's it, that's all.

You're getting hung up on missing my point. It doesn't matter what the activity is. There's no way to know it's value to someone else's development.

Sure there is.

If one can observe someone spending ALL of their time on one thing that doesn't help them obtain their basic needs (food, shelter, clothing, medicine etc) & does come at the opportunity cost of learning/doing/achieving other things that would make them a more well rounded person leading a more enriched life then one can determine that the value someone gets from whatever singular activity they partake in is not the sort of value that advances their development in.. life in general.

That's why these things are generally perceived as hobbies or past times vs. productive things that advance people's lives, and why NT's would likely consider many of these things, when done in excess, to be a waste of time.

Why do you think it isn't possible for someone else to make an assessment and judgement call as to whether someone else is utilizing their time well or not? People do it all the time.

I can say what other people are doing is a waste of time and what I'm doing is not. It's my own personal perspective and I don't give a damn what others say.

Sorry, but interacting with others constantly and doing multiple new things does not make a person automatically better.

I think before you have any goals, you need to have a sense of self and a meaning and purpose in life. That could come from religion, the love you get from your parents and partners and pursuing activities that you love doing. You don't have to have a job, or money, or great physical health. But you have to see meaning in yourself and your place in the community, because without that, your life has no purpose and you might as well do nothing and let the world pass you by.