Why is life so hard for those with autism?

Life with autism is hard. It’s confusing. It’s frustrating. And it’s exhausting. To be successful, people with autism need to learn functional skills. Those skills that neurotypical people learn instinctively from their environment do not come naturally to people on the autism spectrum. Some examples of functional skills that are difficult for people with ASD to learn are Banking, Paying Bills, Driving, Ordering pizza, making a purchase at s store, and problem solving in all its forms.
The Linear Autism Method (LAM) explains how these difficulties arise. It’s due to the linear nature of the mind. This is not about intelligence or willingness – it is about brain neurology, and how the brain stores and retrieves information. The difference in the autistic brain neurology makes many aspects of life difficult.
For example, those with ASD usually don’t draw on past experiences, they typically don’t read context well, and they certainly struggle to read others’ emotions.

Why do we need to focus on Happy AND Functional?

We can teach many functional skills, but many people with ASD don’t naturally possess the social skills or the ability to build happy relationships. Sure, we can teach them through repetitive experience to pay the bills correctly, but teaching someone to feel good enough about themselves that they can be happy in their life is a different story. This requires a lot of effort, and metacognition.

When it comes to Emotional Skills, Metacognition is Required

Metacognition is the capacity to reflect on one’s own thoughts and cognitive activities. It includes the following components: 

• Awareness: The ability to identify and comprehend one’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses. 
• Knowledge: An understanding of how the brain operates and how cognitive processes work. 
• Regulation: The skill to manage and oversee one’s thoughts and actions to achieve desired results.

This is very complicated work for someone with ASD who might be frequently scrambling just to interpret the world around them and the meaning of different experiences. It’s like being required to have a whole second level of thinking going on all the time! Many neurotypical people, like the fish in the fishbowl who can’t see the water, struggle to recognize their own thinking patterns.