Help for Young Adults With Asperger’s
Many people wonder why young adults with Asperger’s often struggle when it is time to transition to adulthood and independent living. Is it due to difficulties in the social world? Rigid thinking style? Challenges with day-to-day independent living skills? At OPI, we believe that it is a combination of all three. We have been successful in helping young adults with Asperger’s on the path to independent living because of our unique approach to treating the many challenges faced by young adults with Asperger’s syndrome.
Life is pretty structured, planned out, and predictable when you are a child. You live with your parents and they take care of all your basic needs. These include housing, food, clothing, paying bills, doing laundry, and washing dishes. You get up and go to school every morning, come home and do your homework, eat dinner, and go to sleep. You are surrounded by a group of peers that your parents have placed in your life, or that you interact with because you go to the same school, live in the same neighborhood, belong to the same club, or play on the same sports team. Until you finish high school, there aren’t a lot of decisions to be made.
However, around the time you graduate high school and start college, there is a big question that every young adult faces: “What do you want to do with your life?” For any young adult, this question can be confusing and overwhelming. But if you have Asperger’s syndrome, this can be the question that stops you in your tracks.
Challenges that Come with Asperger’s
Young adults with Asperger’s are often challenged in social situations. You might miss social cues, have difficulty initiating and maintaining conversations, and present as awkward. So how are you suddenly supposed to go out into the world and make friends on your own? You might have begun isolating at this stage in life. This often happens through excessive computer use where you can escape face-to-face social interactions, while still trying to socialize to some degree. As humans, we all desire relationships and connections with others. So without a strong sense of social support, taking that next step in life can be even more lonely and frightening.
At OPI, we offer our in-vivo socialization group to help you learn, practice, and master socialization. We do this through education, role plays, and improv games. In conjunction, we offer our “unplugged” group to help you explore and build a healthy relationship with technology. We also have social outings every weekend and in-house clubs every week for you to connect with others over common interests and practice your newfound socialization skills.
The thinking style of many young adults with Asperger’s presents in a very rigid, black and white way. You might view the world as if there are only two possible options: right, and wrong. It’s hard to know how to choose the next step in your life when there are endless options. We often see young adults with Asperger’s feel stuck or have difficulty launching at this point in their lives. Through individual therapy, group therapy, and our various OPI departments (education, career/volunteer, extra-curricular etc), you will challenge your rigid thinking, find alternative options, and then go out in the world to try new things and create a more balanced way of thinking and living.
Helping Young Adults with Asperger’s Find Independence
One component of becoming an adult is independent living. This includes all of the day-to-day chores and responsibilities that people take on in order to function and manage on their own. For many young adults with Asperger’s, these tasks can be overwhelming.
Some common challenges for young adults with Asperger’s are time management and organization. If you already struggle in these areas as an adolescent, how do you pay bills on time, show up to scheduled appointments, and maintain a living environment that is clean and organized? How do you balance self-care skills like cooking, cleaning, personal hygiene, and budgeting? Without knowledge or support in these areas, many young adults with Asperger’s will struggle to live independently adding more anxiety and feelings of being stuck.
In our six-week Life Skills workshop, we teach and practice basic independent living skills. Additionally, we offer individual life coaching to hone in on each individual’s specific needs. Having a life coach allows young adults with Asperger’s to practice their independent living skills with support before they have to do it on their own.
Many young adults with Asperger’s seem to experience “failure to launch” because the transition to adulthood can be especially challenging for them. At OPI, we help them get unstuck and move toward independence. You will build social skills so that you can create a supportive social network of accepting peers. You will explore the possibilities of your future by challenging your black and white thinking. You will learn day to day living skills with continued support so that you can live on their own with a sense of pride and self-sufficiency.
At OPI, we understand and anticipate the challenges that you face as a young adult with Asperger’s. We want to help you on your journey to answer the million-dollar question: “What do you want to do with your life?”