Examples:
Yesterday I was at a health evaluation for a driver’s license. Everything went well with my physical health, but at questioning, my autism was bought up. I was accused of needing help with learning in primary school (despite of my grades, that were usually B (I know, I’m lazy)) and now I need a psychological evaluation.
When I started high school, most professors infantalized me, but later stopped after I proved myself (ok, some didn’t stop, like the slovene teacher and the sport teacher/coach).
When I meet someone new, they always think I am intelectually disabled, before proving otherwise…
Why is this happening?
Edit: It means a lot to talk to people who support me trough this (even if only on the internet). I took a psychological evaluation today. It included an iq test like form (easy, but didn’t finish the whole paper), questionairs and some cordination tests (that in my opinion I was bad at). Just waiting to get the results. Hopefully I’ll pass, but I can’t really do anything if I don’t, can just maybe try somewhere else in the EU (i think).
It’s a reason why I’ve not been actively pursuing a diagnosis. I’m managing it well and having a paper trail would just make some things more difficult.
That you have to do all of that for a driver’s license is wild… physical and psychological evaluations?! For a drivers license?!
No, the examiner acused me of having an intelectual disability, just because I’m autistic.
This is for a regular drivers license, yea? The only way those evaluations make sense to me is if you were getting some kind of license to race on closed circuits/tracks.
Sorry you gotta deal with it, regardless!
as i stated above. He is an idiot, say straight up to him : “you do not know what an intellectual disability is” and, to their next sentence, answer that you’ll be damn fine with lawsuit.
Autism not being described as an intellectual disability in the entire field of medicine that’s close to an autowin
Do you think the US system is better? Just let anyone and everyone drive 3 tons machines at speeds that would have been impossible to reach in any public mode of transportation 100 years ago?
I mean, the US has driving tests and written tests you have to pass…People don’t walk into their state’s Department of Motor Vehicles, say “1 license to drive please,” and walk out without anyone checking to see if they’re competent to drive a non-commercial vehicle.
Arguably they need to test people again once they’re seniors, when mental decline can start. But that’s another subject.
Yeah, no. A drivers license in the United States is much more like a participation trophy at this point. The testing process mirrors that.
The easiest test I’ve ever received was the written portion of a US driving test. I’m sure the average American would need no more than ten minutes of study to pass it. I regularly observe US drivers either willfully ignoring what they know from the test or having forgotten it entirely. Everything is bad here but for transportation I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the worst in the developed world.
Not everything is about the US, despite them living rent free in your head, apparently. Also, that’s not at all how it works in the US. But dont let the truth get in the way of your hate boner.
It pretty much is how it works with how easy to get your license in some States!
Maybe you need to work on masking. Pretending to be a “normal” person to fit in is a big pain, and something I personally hate. But if you act “normal” when meeting new people, they will treat you like everyone else. It’s tough to act this way but it might help you.
(It also sucks that we can’t be accepted the way we are, but that’s how the world is. As much as we might want to change the world, we also have to live in it as it is day to day)
Well, I think I am masking (very badly) and it effects my mental health, so I won’t try to improve it, but i still agree with you
I wish people with autism didn’t have to mask at all and could just be themselves
That’s fair. It’s a tough one to balance of having good mental health and energy vs being able to exist in the world.
I have found that once I got out of school and college and things that I “have to” do, I’ve been able to create and find spaces where I’m able to be more authentically myself, which has definitely helped me. Hopefully you’ll be able to find more of those spaces in time
Ye, what I usually do it mask until they treat me as an equal, then casually mention my ASD when it is relevant. I think it serves to normalize it without creating preconceptions.
I went through some similar issues at work. I’m pretty good when it comes to understanding technical stuff with their proper names and schematics, but I struggle awfully at understanding organisations (who to talk to when this issue arises, what to do when that stuff comes up, etc). I’ve been called disappointing because of it, yet as far as I can see I’m the most technically competent person on the team, by far.
It’s really frustrating and I have to rely a lot on other people when it comes to organising.
Thankfully the guy I mainly work with is very understanding and helps me a ton on that.
This! People only see what you cant do compared to them while being oblivious to the stuff they themselves cant.
There is also this bias that just because your clearly clever one way (like dealing with patterns off massive data web displayed on a a 4k monitor) means you must be smart everywhere else.
“Hey you’re smart, what is “math equations using more then 4 different numbers”…. I have no short time memory and need a screen for everything . I cannot possibly hold 4 numbers in my head at the same time and calculate.
So you are great at your job, people just don’t want to accommodate you, because they don’t care.
The thing is, I’m not officially diagnosed yet so I didn’t “come out”. I plan on doing it whenever my diagnosis is complete and then I’ll see if anything changes on that side.
Well, I dont think anyone can answer this definitively. But I recon its multiple things:
- autism is still widely unknown/not understood
- we‘re just starting to see people advocating since more and more keep getting diagnosed
- teachers are often not autistic and/or come from a generation that frowns upon disclosure of medical information
- lots of prejudice
- since you have slovene as a language, I recon you might be from slovenia, which is in europe. Europe is far behind the US in autism advocacy and slovenia as part of the balkans could be even further behind (feel free to tell me otherwise if you‘ve ever visited france, germany or GB for example)
- autistics afaik often report problems with speaking their mind or explaining their thought process (which would include me) and therefore get underestimated
Those are just my thoughts and opinions. Nothing of this is proven fact and I am happy to stand corrected. Just trying to give some ideas of why this might be a unhappy coincidence.
You can always decide to change this and write up a lecture or speech which you can hold at some event if thats your cup of tea. You can then educate large amounts of people in a short timeframe. Good luck.
Yes I see the balkan influence in Slovenia. I feel bad, because my father (also autistic) is on the doctor’s side even tho he knows I’m not intelectually disabled (he even thinks I’m smart). He just doesn’t want to question their authority.
On the unrelated note: I accidentaly said yes to a question I later learned it was partialy corelated with intelectual disability, so it might be my fault.
Its a dumpster fire all over the world and you‘re not alone. Feel free to go into research and help clear up this idiocy.
Well since that appointment, I’m scared I might lose legal rights so there will be nothing I could do about it.
