Published on 12, July, 2020
I find it hard to relax and often don't want to go out as I just end up getting upset, it's as if everywhere I go I see something wrong, even just going for a run in the park, kids are smoking drugs, people drinking and dog owners allowing their dogs to run about despite it clearly saying on the gate that all dogs must be kept on a leash. It seems whenever I get on a bus theres at least one PSD (personal stereo dhead) with crackling headphones and complete disregard for others or one woman with perfume that stinks the whole bus out and my latest annoyance is buskers...the trend now is that they have amplifiers and the music really is so loud that I want to scream at them. It also seems that everywhere I go there is people taking drugs, where I live they smoke drugs and sometimes the whole house stinks of it, you go to the park and kids are doing it and even yesterday I was at a market I seen people smoking it 3 times. On top of this, the place where I live over the last year has had 3 neighbouring properties do rennovations and each time they had no regard for sound regulations regarding audible noise coming from building sites, apparently you are anly allowed to make noise from 8am-6pm weekdays and 9am-1pm on Saturday but countless times they worked till late, on Sundays etc and when you tell the council they do nothing at all. Then theres those bloody chuggers...the high street is like a no go area sometimes, people jump in front of you and hold out their hand expecting to shake your hand like they have known you for years "hello my friend how are you..."...or they block your walking path to ask you if you can answer a quick question it only takes a minute..etc..Then you get people riding their bikes on the pavement, I have had 2 near misses already....then you've got idiots walking around with those crazy dogs which really annoys me despite god knows how many people getting their face chewed off. the owners waltz around all big and hard knowing that they are intimidating because they have an untrained wild animal that is bred to be aggressive. While all these things may seem trivial it seems society is on a downward spiral when it comes to casual law breaking and disrespect for others as in my experience it just gets worse and worse year on year....this is the society created by man.
I've already commented under "Work and volunteering" in a thread about what to tell employers, by querying some of the employer factsheets.
On of my issues is NAS's constant use of the Triad of Impairments to convey to others what autism involves. I understand the Triad to be a diagnostic tool determined by what is unambiguously distinctive. It is not meant to provide a pen picture.
In the factsheet "What is Autism?" (for employers) page 3 defines the common characteristics. These are divided into "Social Communication" "Social Interaction" "Social Imagination" and "other factors".
The last sentence in the first category, in a paragraph on non-verbal, they say "they may also find it difficult to maintain eye contact".
Amongst "Other Factors" "The person may also be sensitive to noise, smell, taste or touch" But nothing is said about sensory overload.
Eye contact is probably crucial to both communication and interaction, as its not just about eye to eye but not looking at what else is going on on people's faces, their gestures and inflexions. It probably explains a lot of this, yet is classes as a minor "may" be present symptom.
Also while "they may have formal, or stilted language, or a monotonous tone of voice", nothing is said about facial expression, which may not be appropriate and may confuse others. It is not just about what we read with our eyes but what we convey.
Using the triad, especially the "lack of imagination" thing doesn't cover what other people will perceive of people on the spectrum. I wish I could get NAS to rethink this.