Tag: education

Autism in the Workplace

Greetings Earthlings! 🙂

Did you know that between 75 and 85% of people with autism cannot find/maintain employment, despite many being highly educated?

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Shocking statistic isn’t it?

But why is it so?

Most of us have a strong desire to work and the qualifications to boot, but what we lack are the skills to navigate the workplace and or the interview process.

For many people with autism, the interview is perhaps the most difficult part of the employment process. Unexpected questions can throw us, social niceties can go over our heads, eye contact is a struggle and repetitive movements are often hard to control. We like structure and routine, things we can control and predict; interviews take us out of our structured comfort zones. All these difficulties coupled with the mere mention of the ‘a’ word sadly may see your CV dropped to the bottom of the pile.

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Of those lucky enough to get over the hurdle of the interview, further problems may lie in navigating the workplace itself.

The workplace can be overwhelming for the best of us, but for an autist, this can be even more so. Noise levels and repetitive sounds, the pressure to reach deadlines, the unappetizing smell of your co-workers lunches (whenever someone has fish at work it’s a real struggle for me to hold back my gag! 😛 )- it can be a sensory smorgasbord, not to mention the potential social issues! Some days it just takes all your strength to hold back a meltdown.

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Most employers do not understand the needs of an autistic employee, and as such we may easily fall off the career ladder- and not just for reasons of poor coordination! 😛 😉

However, the tables are beginning to turn for the better in terms of making the workplace autism friendly- in fact many companies are now specifically seeking to employ autists to mine our oftentimes untapped skill sets.

But while we wait for the rest of the working world to catch up, here are a few things that you can do to better help you to thrive in the workplace:

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  • Talk about your struggles– shoving it deep down isn’t going to do any good! Talk to someone when you’re feeling under pressure at work- trust me you’ll feel all the better for it
  • Know your limits– if you feel a task is getting on top of you, or you want to jump out of your seat with antsy frustration, take a break- have a snack, go to the bathroom, have an early lunch, or if the company allows it, a quick scroll on your phone. When you feel that overwhelming tidal wave approaching, get out of it’s way; don’t let it take you down
  • Take care of yourself– get enough sleep, stay fed and hydrated. In my experience the combination of exhaustion, hunger and or thirst with the added stress of a tough work task can run the risk of meltdown. Get to bed early, keep snacks and a drink nearby and work will be much easier to cope with
  • Get involved in the work social scene– now I know this one can be troublesome when social anxiety rears it’s ugly head, but making the effort to engage with your co-workers will really help. Many times I’ve forced myself to go to social work gatherings entirely out of my comfort zone and barely knowing the people that would be there, and you know what? It helped me make some brand new friends and put a fresh spring in my step 🙂

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I’ll delve into more of my tips and tricks for finding and maintaining employment in a later post 🙂

Enjoy the weekend everyone, be sure to get that Christmas shopping done on time (I may or may not have finished mine a couple of weeks back…#organized! 😛 )

Aoife

9

Autism and Pensivity

Greetings Earthlings! 🙂

This week I’m going to talk a little bit about pensivity and autism, or as my sister describes it in my interview with her, “staring into the abyss.” 😛

We all have those moments where we retreat into ourselves. Our eyes glaze over, we tune out from our surroundings and make weird, subconscious facial expressions as we dreamily ride the thought train round and round.

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For an autist, these spells of introspection tend to happen a little more frequently. Our minds move so fast that we often find it hard to concentrate, and somehow we slip into this abyss of swirling thoughts:

‘What do I want for dinner tomorrow?’

‘Is evolution real?’

‘What would I look like as a blonde?’

‘What would it be like to have an Alpaca farm!?’ (genuinely spent a weekend considering the practicalities once!)

These are just a few of the millions of questions that I spend my time pondering in the abyss, proceeding to explore these thoughts in minute detail! 😛

I’ve been known to spend almost an hour lying on my bed, staring into space without saying a single word to anyone!

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Once I’ve fallen in, my mind could literally go anywhere-I’ve even conjured up a musical based on the music of My Chemical Romance during one of these particular spells!

It’s not a bad thing in my experience, I get some of best ideas wandering the abyss, but people just don’t know what to make of me in this state in social situations. As my sister says, it really creeps her out watching me! 😛

I suppose I can’t blame her when I often sit around staring like this for 40 minutes:

 

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Half the time, I’m not even aware that I’m doing it, which can be awkward on a night out.  If it get’s very loud or the conversation goes stale, I just slip down into the depths, awoken from my reverie several minutes later by bemused friends and colleagues! 😬

What people fail to understand however, is that I am perfectly content in my little bubble. Yes I look strange, and my face may not show it, but I’m perfectly fine 🙂 In fact I sort of enjoy thinking, just floating around exploring the darkness of the abyss. It’s actually a little bit soothing in an odd way.

Autists are not good with the unknown. We like structure, things we can predict and prepare for. By questioning, or pondering the unknown in our minds, this can help to make the world seem a little less scary. Knowledge is power after all!

So don’t panic if you see me stumbling into the abyss- I’m probably just wondering where I can buy an alpaca! 😛 😉

Enjoy the weekend everyone! 🙂

Aoife

1

Should I Tell My Child They Have Autism?

Greetings Earthlings! 🙂

So today we’re going to discuss a very important question when it comes to growing up with autism- should autists be made aware of their diagnosis?bitmoji185739333

Now this question is a little bit tricky.

On one hand, we have the parents who do not want their child to know at all; they want their child to grow up as “normally” as possible so that they may never be held back by the autistic label.

In a sense, part of me would agree with this approach. In a lot of ways, growing up undiagnosed was a blessing in disguise. I was never treated differently (well, by teachers at least- children are another kettle of fish!) and I grew up to be a “normally” functioning adult with a job and friends, never held back by the autistic label.

Buuuuuuutttttttt…

Whilst I can appreciate a parents desire for their child to thrive, the decision not to tell a child about their diagnosis ultimately amounts to sticking your head in the sand.

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We cannot ignore autism and pretend that it’s not happening. There needs to be interventions, strategies and most importantly, understanding.

We don’t just grow out of autism, we need to cultivate an environment so that we can grow around autism. Without self awareness, this will ultimately make life difficult for your child.

What if they found out some other way that they were autistic? If they overheard a teacher, accidentally caught sight of their notes or were taunted by another child? How would you feel if your parents kept something like this from you?

At the end of the day, your child needs to know about their diagnosis; maybe not today or tomorrow, but when the time is right, they will need to know.

Yes, there were some advantages to getting a later diagnosis, but ultimately, life would have been so much simpler for both my parents and I had we known that I was on the spectrum. We would have known how to manage meltdowns, my peers would have understood me better, I wouldn’t have tortured myself for being different- I would have understood and learned to better accept and love me all the sooner.

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So don’t worry about holding your child back, or upsetting them; take a deep breath and find a way to tell them- they will thank you for it in the end 🙂

Aoife

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