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From my point of view it's about expectations. An autistic person needs to have the environment adapted to endure while a non-autistic person is more likely to adapt easily. It all comes down to how much energy it costs to analyze and adapt the environment, for me that cost is through the roof. For kids this means that, no, you should not force my kid to do certain tasks, a no is a no, like grabbing the arm and drag the kids. Adapt the food in the school kitchen to things they like, it's very hard for autistic kids in general to eat mixed food etc. Lower the noise level in class. As an adult, just telling everyone that hey, I'm autistic, please treat me nice! may be just the thing to leaviate the tension. People around may find the weirdness explainable and that make it more cool than odd. My personal belief is that one thing that autistic people in general are very bad at loving themselfs. It's very easy to critique oneself. For me it was the missing piece. Constantly talking about selflove and that I'm worth loving. Also talking to some exterior person who can after listening to all the critique you have about yourself, wrap it up and just tell you that you're awesome. Of course this is true for everyone, but I think autistic people may be the harshest to themselves (and in general may be hit and miss with skills, i.e. being expert in computers but totally suck at tying shoes, thus failing often which lowers self-esteem). Feedback at work is often a pat on the back, but I really need to understand that the other person really understood my ideas and that we could discuss them properly. That gives me a sense of appriciation, while the pat in essence is meaningless. Maybe communicating things like that with co-workers will increase the reward at work as well. Masking in a sense is about trying to adapt to an environment that makes it's best to make it tough for you. Letting people know that you find certain things very hard to deal with (i.e. uncertain chores, when is something truly complete, the most LOL is that my biggest problem area at home is that I can't fathom the way my wife organize the dirty clothes, just a big pile! I tend to stay away because she hates when everything is in separate boxes pre-sorted..) may give you just enough energy to make the day much rewarding instead of tough. Also my example with the clothes is a typical hidden energy thief, you think about it every time you see it, every day, when you get that stuff sorted out it gives back loads of energy! |