Gaming the search for autism treatments
I have autism and dyslexia and I wouldn&#x27;t change it for the world. That said, I understand autism varies a lot person to person so I can only offer my experience.<p>For me my problems in life have never been a result of my autism or dyslexia, but a result of how people expect or want me to be.<p>I won&#x27;t go into details, but I know I&#x27;m pretty smart and I&#x27;ve achieved more than most people I know largely because of my autistic obsession with anything I&#x27;m passionate about. However I&#x27;ve also found my professional life to be extremely hard now I&#x27;m at a more senior level in my career. I can&#x27;t communicate well. I hate social interaction. People often think I&#x27;m rude because I don&#x27;t ask how their weekend was or make eye contact. And on occasion I can come across mean and cold without meaning to do so because find it difficult to empathise.<p>I lost a job a few years back because of my autism and over the course of my career I&#x27;ve been rejected from countless positions because of my poor communication skills or being &quot;a bad culture fit&quot;.<p>I&#x27;m not bad at all communication though, I&#x27;m fine explaining things with text, diagrams and examples. Plus, I&#x27;m a really good developer. But non of that ever seems to matter. Sometimes I wonder if it is even me with the problem, or if it&#x27;s really that people have a problem with me and how I work.<p>Who cares if I&#x27;m not overly social? I&#x27;ve never minded it. I quite like being non-verbal and obsessive honestly. But I guess I can understand where neurotypicals are coming from to some extent. Sometimes I wish more people were like me too. Sometimes I wish I could treat people who think talking about their weekend or celebrating the birthday of a colleague they dislike is more important than doing something productive. But you know, I also appreciate not everyone is like me, or needs to be just like me to be worth a damn.<p>Perhaps I&#x27;m just venting. I understand some autistic children are completely not functional and need some help. It just upsets me when people think autism needs treating because it&#x27;s probably the thing I genuinely love the most about myself.