Some Navel Gazing is totally appropriate on a Saturday night/Sunday Morning

[wook77]

On Thursday and Friday nights this past week, I volunteered at an emergency shelter. Tucson declared a state of emergency due to the cold and the fact that 14k people were without heat. Unfortunately, the shelter didn't get a lot of usage but, still, awesome idea

Comments

[iamshadow]

You make me wonder how many people who are homeless are on the spectrum. I know there are high correlations between mental illness and homelessness, but so much of ASD is simply down to never quite fitting in with society. I know I've worked my arse off at jobs, put in 100% more effort than any other cashier, taken pride in my work... and still ended up shafted because I'm that bit odd, not interested in staff politics, and so on and so forth

[wook77]

I think that that's what got to me so much - the loneliness of their world. I'm so used to just nattering on at everyone that it's hard for me to shuffle off that comfortable position and go beyond to where a simple question might possibly be intrusive. IDK that I could deal with not making eye contact though I realize that there are entire cultures that view that as rude and there are those that cannot do it

[iamshadow]

No problem - that's why I commented.

I got a diagnosis in my mid-twenties. Because of increased recognition of high-functioning ASD and learning disorders, kids today get recognised in day care or primary school. However, people of my generation or older don't get a DX unless we recognise it in ourselves and seek it. Asperger's research didn't get translated into English until after the fall of the Berlin wall. By that time, I was in late primary school, headed for high school. By the time Asperger Syndrome and high-functioning autism were widely recognised in the English speaking world, I was almost an adult. There are millions of people out there who only find out about their own ASD when they have a child and that child gets diagnosed - like Liane Holliday Willey, and Valerie ParadižEye contact is a big thing that people have trouble with, though some autists go the other way - making eye contact that is far too intense. I have had patches of this myself in the past. Like you said, though, eye contact might be a cultural thing - I

[wendy]

Working in the downtown library here taught me so much about the homeless population, and my own biases. It was both shocking and enlightening and it changed me forever.

I'm proud of you for volunteering Wook, you are awesome.

[sugareey]

Wow. It really doesn't give you a different insight on things, right? I'm glad you volunteered, and thanks for sharing your experience with us!

[syredronning]

A touching experience. I wouldn't have time or energy right now to volunteer like this, but it's definitely something to consider in the future.

(Also - when I was quite stressed out lately about my first-world job problem, I met a friend who has gone through two cancer treatments in her life already, can't work anymore, doesn't know what to do right now - she's married and her husband is awesomely supportive but it's put a big strain on them, of course. Stories like this one really shifts your world view, IMO.)

[enchanted_jae]

Your post should be published somewhere. We are all guilty, to some degree or another, of looking through homeless and labeling them as such, and we forget that they're people. They have their own issues and personalities and hopes and dreams, and it's important to remember that.