Aspies For Freedom

No clue in those links to what the letters YAI stand for. Do you know?

NEWSFLASH FROM REALITY: NOT EVERYBODY IS JUST LIKE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unless you personally know Richie, who the hell are you to pass judgement on his potential ability?  It may well be that what he's achieved is the absolute best he can do - there is no such thing as a typical Aspie, we're all so different with skill sets scattered to the four winds.  That's why they call it a "spectrum".  So not everybody can do what you do - some can do more, some can do less.  That doesn't just go for Aspies, but the whole human race.

As long as he's happy I wish him the very best of luck.

Don't worry.  You still have my respect.  Most people wouldn't be able to get into such a class to begin with.

I struggled all the way through calculus I, II, and III, and then DifEq before finally burning out on math, but I still got my engineering degree and (a few years later) my master's in computer science.  I feel I should have been aceing math instead of struggling.  I blame my old elementary and middle schools for that.  They put me in all gifted classes except for math.  I had the privilege of taking math with kids who would literally demolish the classroom if they got upset with the teacher.  The math itself was baby crap, and they quickly realized they needed to mainstream my math.  Kind of embarrassing when most of the other gifted kids in the school were taking college level math and I was taking that crap.  

What about "breathe"?  Do they teach Aspies and HFA's how to breathe?  </sarcasm>

Isn't that the kind of stuff Dear Old Mom and Dad are supposed to teach all their kids, regardless of their neurotypes?

If somebody "thrives" in a group home but not at home, I'd hazard a guess they might have been pulled out of an abusive situation.  (I'm not suggesting that's always the case, but I bet it gets conveniently ignored sometimes when sensationalist journalists go digging for stories.)

Oops.. sorry, yes, it was GuessWho I was shouting at.  Considering we've got all sorts here from people cruising through professional jobs to people struggling just to keep their heads above water, it seems so presumptuous to assume that all Aspies should consider a supermarket job beneath them.

I honestly don't know whether the case in the OP would be a typical Aspie... I guess from the point of view of the article, about how this YIA mob had helped someone, they had to start with someone who needed more help than maybe some Aspies do.  

I don't know what I never needed that level of help, just that because I wasn't diagnosed til quite recently it was never an option.  I cocked up so many things magnificently - in terms of keeping myself fed, clean, well dressed and my home clean (or even having a home!) - and I learned a lot the hard way.  Maybe if I'd had the option of learning the easy way I'd have got to where I am now a bit less bitter and jaded?

Dang.. don't know what should read dont' know THAT.

The point I was making (that I didn't explain awfully well) is that yes, I survived without help, but that doesn't neccessarily mean I didn't need it.

So, you'd rather be unemployed and live off welfare than lower yourself to work at a job you consider "beneath" you?  

You don't have to remain beholden to your parents' values.

No - The article didn't make any mention of the average aspie.
People are different - social difficulties can impact heavily on peoples lives and restrict them in their ability to meet their potential.
Also the idea that all aspies have a high IQ is a myth.

That was directed toward GuessWho, but I think I can shed a little light on that.  I got my engineering degree and graduated into unemployment.  Pulled a little temp work but there just wasn't enough, so after enough of that I found a job at a supermarket... as a janitor on the graveyard shift.  I could never quite get used to working 3rd shift (working nights and trying to sleep during the day like some kind of vampire).  My feet blistered like mad from pushing a heavy scrubbing machine all over the store every night.  And, I even once had to clean up a pile of human excrement from where someone didn't quite make it to the commode the day before.  My co-workers there were a bunch of crazy stock boys who would have wrestling matches during the 2 a.m. "lunch" break.  But in spite of all that, it was a hell of a lot better than twiddling my thumbs while trying to find the next temp gig (which wasn't much better than unemployment).  It wasn't the engineering I had hoped to graduate into, but it was a lot more dignified than nothing.  I was just doing what I had to do.  About nine or ten weeks of that, and I finally found a job as a CAD operator at a nearby factory... a step toward engineering, and finally one as an engineer a few months after that.  Moral of that little story:  A crappy job is a much better motivator than no job at all, toward getting the job you really want.

Yeah, and also the degree to which one is obviously autistic is not necessarily a good measure to what kind of job they will get.

For instance, my dad didn't have a delay in self-care skills like me, and he wasn't nearly so sensorily sensitive as I am, and hasn't rocked much since he was a little kid, pretty much his only remaining stim is to bounce his leg.

However, he is in a retail job at just about minimum wage (actually, 3 jobs to help pay for my college in addition to my mom's full-time job and tuition award and whatever federal funding we get), whereas I am on my way to being a physicist or other kind of teacher.

While I would generally be considered much more disabled than my dad was at my age (in fact he wasn't diagnosed with anything), I am very likely to get a job that pays a lot better than his jobs he's had. However, that doesn't make my need for self-care skills and other such things for independence go away.

Also, about teaching your kids independence skills - yes, parents should do this. But it isn't always enough, particularly for someone who's delayed in these skills, yet keeps an academic schedule that would be considered demanding even for typical students, and having difficulty learning new vocabulary and speaking.

While my parents are trying this summer to get me to learn these skills, I am probably going to have to turn to outside help, particularly when my parents work almost constantly it seems, and keeping irregular hours (well, they're regular per week, but differ based upon which day that I can never remember).

I'm the sort of person who needs to do things myself to learn how to do them, and frankly, when my parents aren't working they're trying to catch up on their sleep and fix meals for themselves and for me, and make sure I have enough to eat and drink while they're gone. And I wouldn't wake them up during their catch-up sleep, particularly my mom, who drives on too little sleep and she has no choice, but it's still not ideal.

They can't always be standing right there teaching me how to use the stove, and the washing machine, and stuff. But they're still managing to schedule SOME time, which is a feat in and of itself. Honestly, they put in so much overtime to help me with my goals, both educational and self-care and what-have-you. But we're only human, and sometimes there just aren't enough hours in a day.

A job at a supermarket is nearly impossible for me. Does that make me worse off than the guy in the story?

Here's the dangerous assumption: People who can't do supermarket jobs can't do any job. Not true. I would have a far easier time of it being a college professor.

They are trying to get me to take a job with fewer requirements. It would be a miracle if I could keep a manual-labor, low-cognitive job. And they would consider it a job well done to put me into one, because obviously this is the height of my potential because I have such a hard time with it!

My mother, on the other hand, cannot believe I am not a bestselling author yet.

There is the danger of assuming all skills are at the level of the lowest (or highest) skill.

This sounds like exactly the problem I have...yes, I have held a (low-skilled) food service job for 20 years (damn thankful to have it in these difficult times!) but I have always avoided class reunions because I don't know how to explain my "underachieving" to the classmates who (for the most part) disliked me but respected my academic abilities.  And as for the aforementioned low-skilled job, I do screw up regularly, in small ways and occasionally in large ways.  I hate the assumption that verbal skill or test-savvy should guarantee an easy walk to the top of some prestigious profession.  "But you can do anything you want!"  No, not by a long stretch.

I didn't live by myself till I was 36.  I was a tenure track graduate student, living in group houses or with various roommates.  Didn't cook, didn't drive.  My parents kind of despaired over whether I'd ever "get on with life."  (Note:  They weren't supporting me--I had fellowships and jobs.).  It wasn't till my 40s that I began to get decent at what you'd call "life maintenance" skills.  Now, I'm experimenting with cooking and other things--it's kind of cool.

My point--people have differing admixtures of talents and interests.  And develop them at different times and in various ways.  An advantage to living for decades is that life has chapters.  And they don't necessarily follow a logical order.

I know I can't do a supermarket job.  I tried.  I left.  I tried working in a smaller shop and got fired.  For years I was underemployed and people would say to me "why don't you get a little job at the supermarket?" and when I tried to explain that it would do my head in and I didn't know how other people coped with those jobs and that I was different, they'd get really angry and upset with me and say "Do you think working in a supermarket is beneath you?" and assume it was some kind of ego trip and that I preferred unemployment.

I didn't mind the waitressing.  If you get away from a table without screwing up the small talk too badly it can be positive experience.  It's funny too.  People come through the doors with thier 'party' and all of a sudden they are acting as if they were rich, famous, and somehow higher up the social status thing than what they were when they walked through the doors.  I think that's hallarious.  Then again - I only lasted a few hours waitressing, and I don't think anyone would ask me to do it again.  (The argument over the olives).

Also - I never minded arranging shelves.  There's something about a nice orderly shelf that's satisfies my soul.  If it wasn't for the flourescent lights and the echos and the customers.... *sigh*

Why couldn't you be a waitress Korrigan?

That's helpful.  I hardly ever consider how NT's get stressed out by the things that cause me overload now - but I should.... how egocentric of me!  And stress is not nice.  Suffered long term it can be debilitating.  Some people seem to react differently to it and thrive in a noisy environment, but it just wears others down.

Have you ever seen 'Faulty Towers'?