High Functioning Autism and residential care

Thanks for your thoughts.

I think what I hear you say is your son is autistic with more extreme executive function disabilities and a little more difficulty with social 'rules', but could excel in jobs suited to his intellect? Would he suit a philosophy club? A book club? Or a DIY workshop? There are these Philosophy in Pubs meet ups around the UK.

Some of these problems you've described sound like normal issues many of us needed proper classes or time to focus on mastering a way to navigate. By this I mean, spending 6 months to a year working with reminders for lunch and spending a few weeks or over another year or so working on what to eat when (especially if there are gut allergies). Sometimes just having time in a kitchen to work with preparing and making food, learning the chemistry of the process, spending time experiencing and expanding a taste / smell palette can actually help. The need to eat should trigger a desire for a taste, which interacts with the biology. You body knows the minerals and vitamins it needs. It sends the thought of an apple if that is what it has been exposed to for the nutrients contained in an apple. Culinary Art is a way to help train the body. 

For myself, I have budgeted bottled water (at this age I try to stay with glass). So I stay hydrated. I don't drink alcohol much, so while some people subscribe to a wine club, I simply have water. But it has a high sodium and mineral content as I used to have problems with dehydration until I started this. I keep one by my desk to make sure to get through it in the day.

I don't have a specific routine, I have pre-planned tasks. I've learned to check the weather and visualise what I'm wearing tomorrow. I also have photos on my phone of outfits and look through the day before. Once visualised, I have difficulty not wearing it the next day. I have a coat which I only wear below 7*. Next, I try to stick with 100% wool nearly year round except above 21. It's a human-biology temperature regulating fibre. All natural fibres might can help train the body to respond appropriately over time. But, this became much more noticeable by 30, only I wish someone had told me when I was younger. It turned out I couldn't understand how to dress for a few reasons. 1. Polyesters are a petroleum by-product. It is basically a teeny tiny micro-plastic thread. The human body cannot breathe in plastic, it just sweats and feels out of sorts. Like nature, it will then work overtime to try and create balance with something it wasn't designed to wear. Because this is a type of low-grade internal stress, I hadn't noticed, I had turned off my sense-perception to clothes because my biology felt trapped and just a little tortured in unnatural fibres. There was a time when I started to 'wake up' natural fabrics. It was freezing and I was sweating but cold. Something wasn't right. It would be a long journey until I discovered this. 

Unfortunately, the skills we need help with, we might not figure out on our own till our 30's or even later in life. Many of us are completely shut down to various sense-perceptions because we're Autistic, which means designed to be Highly Sensitive, often unprotected from the elements and so assaulted by a world which is too loud with unnatural lights, toxic 'scents', digitised. Food is further from what it originally was, seeds are being genetically modified beyond what's natural to the human biology.

I say all this because, the core issue is always human health (rather than having a routine) and human well-being. Sense-perception can be one of our greatest strengths, but like any art, it takes safety, exposure and patience and focus. 

This is why functioning labels make no sense to me.  I thought "high functioning" usually referred to someone who lived independently.