The 2 obstacles (part 1)

Hello readers and welcome back to my blog. For this, I am going to publish a two-part blog (spanning two posts) about 2 obstacles that I have to overcome that magnify the difficulties of adult living as a person on the Autism Spectrum. The 2 obstacles that I have to overcome are social skills deficits and anxiety.

First, I want to talk about social skills deficit and how it can hinder independent living for adults on the Autism Spectrum. Social skills involves interpersonal communication and interactions with other people. Aspects of social skills can be both verbal and non-verbal. It is how the human race builds connections with each other, both professionally and non-professionally. For the neurotypical population, social skills comes easy. People can talk and make connections with each other rather easily. For those on the spectrum however, social skills can be difficult in both a verbal and non-verbal sense. Struggles can occur in the messages they send both through talking and from what they convey with their body  language. A lot of the times, I struggle with talking with others and maintaining conversations with others as well as integrating socialization into a work setting. Sometimes, I choose to focus on work while at work over socialization. Non-verbal communication/messaging is another social skills deficit, struggling with making sure I am not sending out unfriendly vibes/negative overtones when I am not speaking to others. My struggles with this are not unique in among the population as these kind of issues are the reason for so many social skills classes targeted at kids on the Spectrum so they can learn these young.

Social skills deficits can cause lots of work related issues. Interpersonal communication is likely to be a part of any job, whether it is with a consumer, a colleague, or a supervisor. A lack of these social skills communications can lead to issues such as saying something inappropriate or making the consumer uncomfortable with you. For example, as someone who works with clients, lack of social skills can make a client not want to continue with the services I am providing, and it can cause me to lose hours and reflect poorly on both me individually and on the company in general. It can also hurt in obtaining a job as social skills deficits being put on display can hurt chances in a job interview as well. So, one of my great obstacles is social skills deficit and overcoming them so I can help maintain jobs and make myself more marketable to those I encounter in the work setting.