working on change in core features of autism - is it worth the effort?

I do enjoy life thank you.

On the work front, many businesses are starting to realise the value of neurodiverse views and ways of looking at the world, one of the biggest of these is GCHQ, apparently ND's being a unique and useful way of dealing with national security issues.

For me being authentic, is not trying to fit in, I've mostly found that this fails as people know you're not being who you really are. I find people are generally quite accepting and quite a like a different perspective. Those who don't, well do I really want to be around the small minded? Apart from aggravation they being nothing to my life.

Having jumped into a study of behavioural theory I can appreciate how you feel.  Unmasking too - what the devil does that mean.  I agree that the simplest solution to a problem is often the best - I'd love to be able to avoid situations which are complicated however, mainly work, requirements confound that.  Hmmm... how good would it be if there was an organisation that goes out of their way to search out, support and employ autistic people... Maybe another question for me to pose the community...

I too have different perspectives on what being successful means in comparison to most it seems.  I suspect that it is the workplace situation that is often a key confounding variable for many autistic people -certainly the biggest issue for me.  I hope that your health allows you to enjoy life nonetheless :-)

Thanks for your reply.  I too am unsure what "being authentic" means. Hehe tho; I think I'm being so now.  I reckon that what I wonder about is the extra layer of complexity that comes in social communication regarding having to work out what neurotypical experience and behaviour is and putting something in place to accommodate them and whether it is worth the effort in continuing to try. I agree with you about how selfhood changes when in social contact and flexibility is required.  :-)

Thank you for your reply - I understand from it that like me you have several learned strategies yet remain functionally autistic with the question remaining about what constitutes the genuine you.  I also concur with the value judgement analysis that almost inevitably takes place.

I wonder if it is worth compiling a list of "top tips" strategies such as those explored in "games people play" for sharing...  Might be worth exploring further....

Thank you for this post, it's exactly the sort of thing we ought to be evaluating. 

When it comes to being your "true Autistic self" it's a bit of a "seeing the wood for the trees" problem I found...

One thing that is worth bearing in mind when comparing our "Value" to the Allistic majority, is to consider how well we do in life. Are we, in short an advantage to the human race or a disadvantage? 

Since I've been on this forum I have learned a lot about Autisms basic nature and come to understand what I & my autism really does "bring to the party". A clue can be found in the fact that I very very rarely get invited to parties, and even less often will actually attend one. 

Otoh, although it's faded a lot over the last few years, I've always been keen to participate, and if possible "help" partly becuse at an early age I decided to trade for what I need, rather than steal it. Seeing teh Harrison Ford film "witness" in my youth cemented the idea in my head that although I am clearly a social misfit by nature, it takes co-operation between multiple individuals to do teh really useful buig things, like "putting up a barn" as the Amish do in that film, a REALITY that puts my basic isolationist nature in teh DISADVANTAGE pile. 

As a consequence I've lightly studied boks like "Games People Play" so I could learn the rules and participate better from a more informed perspective.

This begs the question of how much of me is "mask", and how much of me is real "personality"?

After forty years of acting in ways that were perhaps initially very much not in my basic nature, but learned behaviour from multiple sources I am in some situations very socially adept and smart, as much as my NT colleagues yet in a second I can give myself away as "not quite right"

At the end of the day one can use the "status" to keep the bullying and sarky comments down to a more manageable level.   

"Be your authentic self". A lot of the time, I don't actually know what this is. How we are around others is usually in relation to those people (I think this goes for anyone). The only time I'm probsbly "my authentic self" is when I'm on my own or in flow. 

Flexibility of ourselves is required depending on the situation.

Thank you for your reply :-)

Thank you for your reply :-)

I'm my authentic self, I wasn't diagnosed until I was 50 and I'd struggled all my life with fitting in and socialising, getting it wrong, getting bullied and picked on, being told I was embarassing, diagnosis was such a relief. I feel I'd rather have people reject the real me than the one I was pretending to be and in fact the real me is more accepted and liked, I don't know about successful in the workplace as ill health has stopped me working. But then success as the world see's it has never been a motivator for me, as an autistic person, it's something I've never really understood.

I try to keep things very simple, I have an instinctive dislike of theories of behaviour. I tend to view the concept of 'unmasking' as problematic, to me it is just another pressure on autistic people to behave in a certain way, a way that is not attainable by some, or not useful for others.