Self Entitlement

I don't understand where the self entitled attitudes of people that post here comes from? Autism isn't a death sentence and it doesn't stop you from being alive start actually living your life instead of acting like the world owes you

  • It's complex, but a quick thought is that everyone should be entitled to reasonable adjustments so they can do their job. It's just that no assumption should be made that everyone's needs are the same, and you only need one toilet break every three hours, say.

    Yes, there are some problems whenever there is a legal or policy threshold, which can be minimised by putting the thresholds in appropriate places and judging fairly.

    Something seems to be limiting me a bit, but it's subtle and hard to explain. Since diagnosis is the first time in my life I've considered myself to have a disability.

  • I think Rose's post might be trying to encourage people with autism to stay positive and not spend so much time thinking they are disadvantaged? And maybe try thinking what you can do for the world rather than thinking what I want to get from others. I think a lot of people on this forum have done very well. They are not limiting themselves because of their condition, and many have shared lots of personal growth experience here and hence helped out a lot of people who are struggling to how it is possible to make positive strides in life. 

    On a related subject, I am personally a bit confused with the concept of disability benefits though. So it would be nice to hear more thoughts. Being autistic makes you eligible to ask for "reasonable adjustments" in the workplace or at school. For example, you can get a good/quieter desk location, extra time on tests, and extra money (disability funds). And it kind of does seem a little unfair... Because most neurotypicals would also benefit similarly from these things. So it seems a bit unfair that autistic people can get these extra things while neurotypicals cannot. The argument for this is typically that autistic people may have more struggles than neurotypical people, but I'm not completely convinced that this is a good argument, since every neurotypical person is different from each other as well, and there are some that are at very close to but just short of the criteria for ASD. Let's looks at one dimension of diversity among people, there could be people with IQs ranging from 50 - 150 in the same workplace (below 70 is intellectual impaired, 100 is average). So OK, the company decides to give intellectual impaired some "reasonable adjustments", but does it make it fair for those that have e.g., 72 IQ, as they are not much different from those that have 69 IQ. And within the "intellectually typical" range, those with 100 IQ are given the same requirement and expectations as those with 150 IQ. So I guess life is unfair this way, and since it's unfair to a lot of neurotypical people too, we should be more understanding and accepting of sub-optimal circumstances.

  • It effects are all in different ways, I know some can live a relatively good normal life but for some, it is the opposite.  I guess you could argue i am self-entitled I do feel like it is a curse I struggle with depression and anxiety which means I stay inside as much as possible.  My sister believed it ws a curse on my family, my dad was aspergers and so was my sister and so is my son.  It is different for everyone

  • I don't think it's so much a sense of 'self entitlement' but more a case of 'self not being disadvantaged when compared to other non-autistic people'.

    No, autism is not in itself a death sentence.  And left alone (my 'self entitlement' to not having others interfere with the way I want to do things and run my life) I function to my own satisfaction with few problems. 

    But having others try to dictate the way I do things, telling me what I should and should not be doing when I am merely minding my own business and harming no one else, and being criticised for the way I see and do things means I do have a sense of 'self entitlement'.  I am only asking for me to not have to suffer detriment due to my autism. 

    And surely that is not too much to ask.

  • I thought you didn't like whinging? It's also a little hypocritical to talk about self entitlement and feel entitled to judge everyone else's state of affairs. Some people ask questions here to "actually start living their lives".

  • I'm not sure what you mean. I see all kinds of attitudes here. Some people are distressed in various ways for various reasons, but I don't think you're talking about that.

    (Edit: OK, I see the thread 'for adult diagnosees' this refers to now. I don't think anything exceptional about it, and in my opinion the poster was asking a reasonable question about a process that was important to them.)

  • Wanting to be sent one's own diagnostic report does not really count as a self entitled attitude. Some people have a lot of difficulty living their lives because of their condition, and because of how they are treated by others due to their condition It would be better for us to at least support each other, because it is sometimes so difficult to get needed support from others.