Social drift

I've experienced social drift (a decline in social status) as a result of my severe mental illness. It's not something I've come across with those who just have ASD without an intellectual disability. Though not  from a 1% type family my upbringing was more privileged than most. Prep and public school educated. Father had a goodish though not outstanding career at the Foreign office. Good enough to have an entry in 'Who's who'.

I never had a paid job as an adult, and only did a  small amount of voluntary work.Before getting social housing my late  wife and I lived in  private lets that accepted those on  out of work benefits. The only middle class thing I've retained is my left of centre socially liberal politics. I'm nowhere near as well educated as the average middle class person,nowadays, who's been to university. For various reasons, apart from a brief attempt at a history A level  correspondence course soon after my 1st hospitalisation, I've brushed aside  quite a few attempts to persuade  me to do a college course of some kind. Although not well educated by modern standards I'm not a stupid person. I do have the somewhat spiky cognitive profile that many with ASC/ASD have.

As an autistic person I don't identify with those who are intellectually disabled or at the other end - autistic high achievers. Autistic high achievers being a subset of highly intelligent autistic people.

For better or worse I regard myself as an outlier here. Someone demographically quite different from most participants on these forums.