Disclosure of autism at work holds risks and benefits

Yes i did mean friends:)

Often, the burden seems to shift from providing direct care to struggling with the financial and legal issues of institutional care. It's awful, but I've seen too many friends travel too similar paths to believe it's not common. :(

I still remember when my daughter got assessed and the psychiatrist basically said. I know you probably have hopes and dreams for your daughter. But you need to put those away and forget them. That she would never be able to talk etc. My daughter can now talk some, I think she understands more than she lets on. We're doing great with potty training fortunately what we have are severe behavioral problems and communication. (She refuses to wear clothes, hits and bites, and basically screams all the time)

It's just harder than most can possibly imagine. When I look at her I see both my hopes and dreams from when I first held her still. The worst is seeing parents and neurotypical children together. I'm both happy for them but I get so envious. As time goes on too I'm finding my extended family invites us to less and less.

As someone with many Aspergers tendencies, I can tell you that most work, school and social environments are not great for us.

While I think it is annoying to have Aspergers and be expected to act “normally,” I can see it would have many downsides for people to claim Aspergers status and bring this into regular office environments rather than develop coping strategies.

It takes very, very little time for normal people to come to understand that I am “weird” and that I don’t provide expected responses to normal interactions.

This year, my social weirdness has resulted in situations where I have gotten into fights with my coworkers who decided to attempt to bully me after they realized that I don’t have normal social skills.

Unfortunately, the only techniques I have at my disposal are to make it very, very costly for people to bully me. I don’t have the ability to come up with proper responses to nasty comments in real time. When people say things to me I don’t like, it takes me a long time to articulate to myself what the problem is and why it made me mad and by then it is too late - That person now thinks I am an easy target and persists in their behavior.

After reading and learning more about Aspergers I realize that this trait and many others are common. It was very helpful to learn from other people with this sort of condition and have developed coping strategies. I truly recommend doing a lot of research (not on the internet, I mean real books written by qualified people) if you suspect you have Aspergers.

I tend think about something someone said or did to me for several days and even months. I seethe.

Normal people tend to have situationally appropriate responses to small provocations, I develop anxiety about them.

I manage a team of people and get paid over $330,000 / year. The idea that I still act and feel this way is insane and so immature but that’s how my brain works.

I have a brother in-law (20yo) that's also on the spectrum (aspergers).

In an attempt to help with general anxiety that's associated with Aspergers, we introduced him to marijuana (as it has a relaxing effect), but that just mainly causes more anxiety.

However, it turns out that microdosing on psychedelics has been quite the panacea. I'd highly recommend reading the book "A Really Good Day" that goes over the safety aspects, myths and such.

In a span of 4 months, the kid is completely changed. Far more sociable. He's communicated that his anxiety is gone. He has become more thoughtful and far more self-sufficient. His ability to communicate/articulate his needs & desires, relay stories from his day are new behaviors that have presented himself since this regimen has started. In a sense, he has gone from "more autistic" to "more typical teenage/young adult boy" in a span of 4 months. He still does say that his condition is still apparent and that his ability to intuitively react to emotion/facial expressions/body language hasn't necessarily developed, but with the anxiety removed, now he can read body language cues with ease as he is not debilitated by the anxiety of the interaction and move forward in the interaction rather than recusing himself and living in his own bubble.

The reason this appears to work is because psychedelics increasing brain plasticity/neurogenesis. Even after the doses stop, the benefits will continue to remain as new neural connections have become established. A regimen can be used for say a month or two and be stopped with the benefits derived, so it's not something one necessarily needs to engage in for the rest of their life.

His immediate family doesn't know that this regimen is taking place, but everyone in the family during gatherings attributes his demeanor change to his "summer job" which "opened" him up, and are so "proud" of him and his growth. Of course, spending 12 years in a social school environment did nothing to open him up, but a 3 month summer job did the trick. chuckles

Of course there are stories of people who have taken very large tripping doses and have had catastrophic effects, so it isn't without risks, however, it appears that the risks are pretty minimal and also very manageable at microdose quantities.

So far in my microdose experiment, n=5 have had absolutely no ill effects and has been tremendous boon to mental state/cognition/clarity in general.