What is your biggest challenge with being an autistic adult?

NAS94217 said:

what is the biggest challenge autistic teens and young adults face as they transition to adulthood?

I work with teens leaving school and transitioning into the workplace and from what I see their biggest challenge is the unknown.

There is no book that explains all the stuff that neurotypicals just seem to understand - how to sell yourself in an interview, how to cope in a new team in the workplace, why your boss is always asking you to do stuff, why do I have to pay taxes, who should I speak to at work etc etc.

It causes lots of anxiety and is something I'm trying to help them through and use to build a guide for the next waves of leavers.

I'm not sure that NT's always understand that stuff, I seem to have spent half my life bringing up other peoples teenagers and at times they just get scared and confused and who can blame them? 'What would you like to do?' must be one of the scariest questions on the planet, there are so many options and often because someones been funneled down a particular educational path these options arn't as real as appear. The other massively scary thing that said to people is 'you can be and do anything you want', when someone says that to me, even now, it feels like standing on a cliff edge, no I can't be a do anything I want, I can't be an opera singer as my voice is knackered, I can't be an astronaut, I don't have the training, I can't be a nobel prize winning mathematician as I can barely add up. I know these are extreme examples, but it's being and doing anything you want is an extreme proposition!

I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up now and I'm 62, how on earth is anyone supposed to know at 18?

I think one of the most valuable lessons to teach the young and everybody else for that matter, is that change is the only constant.

I'm not sure that NT's always understand that stuff, I seem to have spent half my life bringing up other peoples teenagers and at times they just get scared and confused and who can blame them? 'What would you like to do?' must be one of the scariest questions on the planet, there are so many options and often because someones been funneled down a particular educational path these options arn't as real as appear. The other massively scary thing that said to people is 'you can be and do anything you want', when someone says that to me, even now, it feels like standing on a cliff edge, no I can't be a do anything I want, I can't be an opera singer as my voice is knackered, I can't be an astronaut, I don't have the training, I can't be a nobel prize winning mathematician as I can barely add up. I know these are extreme examples, but it's being and doing anything you want is an extreme proposition!

I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up now and I'm 62, how on earth is anyone supposed to know at 18?

I think one of the most valuable lessons to teach the young and everybody else for that matter, is that change is the only constant.