So fed up with having to deal with other people.

I'm with you in many respects, Pixiefox.

I see more and more evidence daily of behaviour in NTs that irritates and exhausts me.  And much of my anxiety, too, stems from not being able to defend myself well.

I had a really rough day at work today.  I enjoy the work I do (support worker at a special needs day centre), and I indentify much closer with the clients (many of whom are on the spectrum, but with learning disabilities too) than I do with most of my colleagues.  When the clients arrive, I'm into their world and out of the NT colleague world with it's back-stabbing, gossip, passive-agression, put-downs and trivial preoccupations. Earlier, I was 'passively-agressively' told off for, essentially, doing my job properly.  I was so pre-occupied with my 1-1 client, that I failed to notice that another client had walked out of the centre alone.  Her carer had left her to go to the toilet without asking if someone could keep an eye.  But I was the one in the wrong!

Later, I was completing a report and someone said to me 'You're supposed to do that in black biro' (I was using blue, and always have for the last 6 months).  Another staff member intoned 'Yes, it's a statutory requirement of the foundation.'  I checked the report over.  Nowhere did it say 'Complete in black biro only'.  And I'd never been told.  Never.  So how am I to know?  But I still got a ticking off!

It's just tiring and petty.  People don't tell you things... then have a go at you when you seem to be not toeing the line!

I've been reading Steve Silberman's excellent book 'Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism (or how to think smarter about people who think differently)'.  I underlined a couple of passages this evening...

'As the mainstream world had a long argument about vaccines, newly diagnosed adults were engaged in a very different conversation about the difficulties of navigating and surviving in a world not built for them.  By sharing the stories of their lives, they discovered that many of the challenges they face daily are not 'symptoms' of their autism, but hardships imposed by a society that refuses to make basic accommodations for people with cognitive disabilities as it does for people with physical disabilities such as blindness and deafness.'

and just as I'm railing at the use of the word 'disability'...

'Neurodiversity: the notion that conditions like autism, dyslexia, and ADHD should be regarded as naturally-occurring cognitive variations with distinctive strengths that have contributed to the evolution of technology and culture rather than mere checklists of deficits and dysfunctions.'

He records visiting Autreat, the annual retreat organised by autistic people for autistic people.  He said upon leaving

'After just four days in autismland, the mainstream world seemed like a constant sensory assault.'

Quite!

I'm with you in many respects, Pixiefox.

I see more and more evidence daily of behaviour in NTs that irritates and exhausts me.  And much of my anxiety, too, stems from not being able to defend myself well.

I had a really rough day at work today.  I enjoy the work I do (support worker at a special needs day centre), and I indentify much closer with the clients (many of whom are on the spectrum, but with learning disabilities too) than I do with most of my colleagues.  When the clients arrive, I'm into their world and out of the NT colleague world with it's back-stabbing, gossip, passive-agression, put-downs and trivial preoccupations. Earlier, I was 'passively-agressively' told off for, essentially, doing my job properly.  I was so pre-occupied with my 1-1 client, that I failed to notice that another client had walked out of the centre alone.  Her carer had left her to go to the toilet without asking if someone could keep an eye.  But I was the one in the wrong!

Later, I was completing a report and someone said to me 'You're supposed to do that in black biro' (I was using blue, and always have for the last 6 months).  Another staff member intoned 'Yes, it's a statutory requirement of the foundation.'  I checked the report over.  Nowhere did it say 'Complete in black biro only'.  And I'd never been told.  Never.  So how am I to know?  But I still got a ticking off!

It's just tiring and petty.  People don't tell you things... then have a go at you when you seem to be not toeing the line!

I've been reading Steve Silberman's excellent book 'Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism (or how to think smarter about people who think differently)'.  I underlined a couple of passages this evening...

'As the mainstream world had a long argument about vaccines, newly diagnosed adults were engaged in a very different conversation about the difficulties of navigating and surviving in a world not built for them.  By sharing the stories of their lives, they discovered that many of the challenges they face daily are not 'symptoms' of their autism, but hardships imposed by a society that refuses to make basic accommodations for people with cognitive disabilities as it does for people with physical disabilities such as blindness and deafness.'

and just as I'm railing at the use of the word 'disability'...

'Neurodiversity: the notion that conditions like autism, dyslexia, and ADHD should be regarded as naturally-occurring cognitive variations with distinctive strengths that have contributed to the evolution of technology and culture rather than mere checklists of deficits and dysfunctions.'

He records visiting Autreat, the annual retreat organised by autistic people for autistic people.  He said upon leaving

'After just four days in autismland, the mainstream world seemed like a constant sensory assault.'

Quite!