Overcoming the challenges of being on the autistic spectrum

For those of you that know me, the vast majority know that I am on the autistic spectrum. To give a quick definition of autism, autism is defined by a certain set of behaviours and is a spectrum condition that affects people differently and to varying degrees. I wrote a blog post a while ago on my experiences of university as an autistic student. However, in this blog post I aim to talk more specifically about the challenges I faced as a result of me being on the autistic spectrum, and how my skills and strengths allowed me to overcome these challenges.

In my opinion, I would say that the challenges that I have faced in the past and still face now because of my autism condition are quite typical of the ones that other autistic people face. One of the biggest challenges that I have faced is that I have always struggled with adapting to any sort of change. For example, back in the days of primary and middle school, I used to get stressed and feel anxious if there was a last-minute change to the routine of my day. Furthermore, the transition from middle school to high school, as well as from high school to sixth form proved to be extremely difficult for me at first. My autism condition also meant that I faced various challenges when it came to socialising and communicating with others. This is one of the most common challenges faced by people on the autistic spectrum. In my specific case, it meant that I was quite a shy person before university, and I often found social interactions and making friends quite overwhelming.

However, even though people on the autistic spectrum face many challenges, they also have a lot of strengths and skills that allow them to thrive and succeed in life. One of my biggest strengths that I have always had is my ability to maintain a strong work ethic and stay organised. Because of my organisation skills, I have usually been able to keep on top of things, whether it has been academic related or personal related, and my strong work ethic has enabled me to do well when it has come to studies. Furthermore, an important skill which I have developed as a result of the difficulties I have faced is resilience, and not giving up in the face of setbacks and challenges. The challenges that I have faced which are specific to my autism condition have been plenty, but being resilient has only made me more determined to overcome them and not let them become a barrier to what I can achieve in life.

Furthermore, the skills and strengths that I have developed as a result of my experiences of being on the autistic spectrum have turned out to be my biggest assets throughout university and my life in general, and have really helped me thrive in lots of ways. My organisation skills have meant that I have found it easier to set both short-term and long-term goals for my personal growth and development, and my work ethic has allowed me to meet most of them. Moreover, because I have developed strong resilience skills, I was able to adapt to the transition between school to university a lot more easily. Despite the transition between school to university being steep, I was determined and resilient enough to adapt to university life, and therefore I was able to have a more positive mindset when it came to starting university. This made it easier to cope with the transition.

My social and communication skills have also improved immensely due to my willingness to constantly challenge myself when it came to meeting a range of people and making friends, both at sixth form and at university. Moreover, I strongly believe that my organisation skills have helped me in my friendships as well. Staying organised meant that I was able to balance keeping in touch and meeting my friends with my busy schedule, making many of my friendships easier to maintain. I now no longer consider my social and communication skills as something that hinders me, and if anything, I now consider it as one of my biggest strengths.

I hope this blog post has given you an insight on the specific challenges I have faced as a result of being on the autistic spectrum and how my skills and strengths have helped me overcome them. One of the main things that I want you to take away from this blog post is to value and reflect on the strengths and skills that you have. No one is perfect, and everyone has weaknesses and difficulties that they face. However, the biggest thing that has helped me in the past few years despite my autism condition is positive thinking and appreciate the many strengths and skills that I have. Not only has that allowed me to succeed, it has allowed me to turn my autism from my biggest weakness to one of my biggest strengths. Instead of completely dwelling on the current challenges that you face and things you are not good at, reflecting on your current skills and strengths and thinking about how you can use them to overcome your weaknesses and difficulties will go a long way in maintaining a positive attitude, which will inevitably make it easier to thrive and succeed.