Resilience course

It honestly drives me mad that people think autistic people aren't resilient. Personally think we're some of the most resilient people around. If NTs had any idea what we deal with on a daily basis to get through life.

A resilience course worries me. I've done training about resilience before and it was all about having to deal with the situation and it not being "fixed" in order to build resilience. I don't think this fits for autistic people at all. We need adaptations etc to cope. We need situations to be "fixed" or it can actually be traumatic. 

If the course has indeed been designed for autistic people I would want a clear layout of what the course involves and I would want those running the course to tell me how exactly it has been adapted for autistic people.

It honestly drives me mad that people think autistic people aren't resilient. Personally think we're some of the most resilient people around. If NTs had any idea what we deal with on a daily basis to get through life.

A resilience course worries me. I've done training about resilience before and it was all about having to deal with the situation and it not being "fixed" in order to build resilience. I don't think this fits for autistic people at all. We need adaptations etc to cope. We need situations to be "fixed" or it can actually be traumatic. 

If the course has indeed been designed for autistic people I would want a clear layout of what the course involves and I would want those running the course to tell me how exactly it has been adapted for autistic people.

I think resilience is one of the most overused words currently in the English language, it also seems to be a word suffering from mission creep. I wonder how long this course the organisers went on was and what it taught them about resilence? If they can't get their heads around autistic needs being different before you've even started the course, then I doubt if they will suddenly acquire it half way through.

Who invited you and why did they invite you? If it's something benefits related, then you'll probably have to go and endure it or get sanctioned. If you have to go, then I suggest you write a list of questions you have about the course and add too it during breaks and just keep asking. They'll probably mark you down as being disruptive, awkward and unwilling to engage, which will be true-ish, but if there's no come back financially, then I'd go and be awkward.

Expecto_Patronum said:

It honestly drives me mad that people think autistic people aren't resilient. Personally think we're some of the most resilient people around. If NTs had any idea what we deal with on a daily basis to get through life.

Having been through a period of my life when people kept telling me how resilient I am, I thoroughly agree. I found this at the time and it really resonated with me:

Expecto_Patronum said:

it was all about having to deal with the situation and it not being "fixed" in order to build resilience. I don't think this fits for autistic people at all.

There are a lot of situations where resiliance is necessary though.

If you are a factory worker in a loud, bright and smelly environment (eg assembling items from freshly painted components) then you can't tell the employer to turn the lights down, make the machines quieter or make it less smelly, you need to learn resilance if you want to work there.

This may include hearing protection but the rest is largely immutable.

Not every situation can be sorted with Reasonabe Adjustments which is why this sort of thing exists.

VLD said:

It is supposed to be for autistic poeple but the organisers don't seem to have any understanding of autism

I would go to whoever organised the course for you, clarify if this is supposed to be for autistic people.

Have you met the people runnin the course? I assume you have as you comment on their knowlege so I would write to them and ask them if they can explain how the course is designed to help autists in particular and what methodology it uses.

This should give a clear indication if there is a confusion about the autistic alignment or if they are just lying. Maybe it is actually designed well and it hasn't been communicated well so I would consider which of your autistic traits are most affected by it and ask them how it will help these when you are at the course introduction.

I've done all sorts of things in my life to develop resiliance whether working in a physically hostile environment, working with constant interruptions, interacting with lots of stressed people or in a role where I am constantly changing tasks to keep the "plates spinning" in order to maintain a service.

Maybe they have some of these techniques you can use to help yourself, maybe not but remember to ask for clarification when the course starts and give them feedback at the end where they have room for improvement. Be a part of making it better for the next autistic person.