Penguinblue

I feel driven to respond after reading your response to BugleFingers (whose response I agree with). It really sucks you are feeling shame about your difficulties with working. I believe a lot (not all) of the difficulties that neurodivergent people have with work isn’t anything to do with them, but about the pressures of living under the tyranny of late-stage capitalism.

I don’t think you not being able to work without burning out is evidence there’s something wrong with you, I think it shows that most people don’t get any kind of support in finding sustainable work. I hope you can find a way to forgive yourself for whatever you feel are your failings around employment because you’ve done nothing wrong.

Apart from what BugleFingers wrote (especially doing work you are interested in), I found self-employment/freelance work to be life changing. I like being my own boss because I can choose when I work and when I don’t (with restrictions, obviously) and have found a way to make it work for me and my family.

It feels important to say it took me time to get to a point where this was financially practical, though. I went through a lot of jobs where I went through a cycle very similar to yours (don’t listen to the person trying to diagnose you with more disorders; you getting depressed from work doesn’t equal another diagnosis). I found my profession by doing jobs that seemed interesting and honing down what I actually liked. I think it’s about balancing out what is important to you (e.g., making money, having nice things, having free time, ext.) with what is necessary (e.g., housing, food, bills, etc.).

I hope you can find a job that works for you, OP. Good luck.

Follow hashtags and you can decide what content you want to follow. You can then follow individuals from there.

Swipe typing is not great. I come back to it every few months to try it again and always end up frustrated. It’s good if you are a tap typer, though.

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No it’s not. From the National Autistic Society:
"Asperger’s syndrome’ (often shortened to Asperger’s) is no longer used as a diagnostic term for autism and is considered controversial due to the history of Hans Asperger, which is summarised below.

Historically, Asperger syndrome was used as a diagnostic term for some autistic people who did not also have a diagnosis of a learning disability. Broadly, it is now agreed that what was referred to as Asperger syndrome is part of the autism spectrum and there is no need for a separate term.

Some people who received a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome continue to use this terminology to refer to themselves. Others do not, usually for two reasons: because the term is no longer used officially; and because of revelations about the Austrian psychiatrist Hans Asperger, who Asperger syndrome was named after and who was complicit with the Nazis."

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/what-is-autism/the-history-of-autism/asperger-syndrome

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We realised that labeling people based on their level of functioning was extremely unhelpful and debilitating so they changed it to level of need. Also Asperger worked with the Nazis and may have been one.

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But isn’t this the entire point? You like to call yourself that, and that is perfectly fine, but ultimately all of these words come from psychiatric diagnosis, from the DSM. That is where the labels were defined, that is where our cultural understanding of the neurotype comes from.

Our culture has defined that you are disordered because of your way of being, you’ve been diagnosed as such. Another culture, a former culture will not have defined it that way. So you calling it a disorder is not based on anything absolute, it is based in a cultural understanding.

I was diagnosed with autism level 1, not aspergers, because: 1 - We now understand that describing people based on ‘functioning’ is extremely damaging to the individual; and 2 - Asperger tested on children for the Nazis, and I think we can all agree that’s not cool.

All of this is cultural, we didn’t know about the damage of functioning labeling at the time that diagnosis was accepted (or the whole Nazi thing), and so our cultural understanding of the condition has changed.

Understandings of disorder are cultural, not absolute.

Words matter, otherwise verbal assault wouldn’t constitute a hate crime (at least in the UK). You used an ableist word and that matters. The word has an interesting history, in case anyone is interested (see below) and using it is ableist given it used to be a psychiatric classification. I am assuming you wouldn’t use the ‘F’ word to describe gay people or the ‘N’ word to describe black people. Those are just words, too, what makes them different?

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/the-sinister-history-of-the-word-moron-explained

Also, taking the “science doesn’t care about your feelings” line of thinking is really lazy. We don’t have to keep the status quo. In fact, it’s generally good if we don’t. I can see from your responses that you aren’t interested in discussion, so I’m leaving it here. It’s OK to be wrong about things sometimes. Maybe you are wrong about this. Maybe not, but maybe you are.

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I respectfully disagree. If no one ever questioned society there would be no progress. Society is constituted by people and people can change their minds, that’s how progress happens. It’s why gay marriage is legal in so many countries and women and black people have equal rights (at least in law).

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Great, I’m glad it was. Hopefully you can find a family member who helps prove your case because mine sure didn’t.

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Did you complete any forms before the assessment? I had to complete a few forms before assessment which asked me questions based on the diagnostic criteria which then went towards the psychiatrist’s final evaluation. Assessment styles seem to vary wildly between services and counties, though.

To answer your question more directly, though, yes, I thought of loads of things I forgot to mention in assessment afterwards. But then I was given my diagnosis at the end of the assessment so it sounds like your psychiatrist deals with things differently, at least in that example.

If I can give you some advice, I’d suggest you put it out of your mind for now until you get the result and if you do not agree with the result, appeal with the extra information (if you can). It would be a good idea to start a log of supporting information when you remember it, as well. Keep it somewhere handy, like a small notebook you keep on your pocket or a notes app on your phone. I think that’s good advice for everyone going into an assessment.

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