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> Some people simply aren't apt for the real world I'm confused by the juxtaposition of this statement and your preceding thoughts- it seems like quite a jump

> Some people simply aren't apt for the real world I'm confused by the juxtaposition of this statement and your preceding thoughts- it seems like quite a jump to say what seems to boil down to "Existing with mental illness at work and feeling like you have to hide it sucks" and then expand that to "People with mental illness aren't fit for the real world". Who decides who gets to be classified as "apt for the real world"? There are a ton of depressed people out there, and for that matter, a ton of people who feel like they got screwed at birth for having the wrong color skin, the wrong sexual proclivities, the wrong family, etc. I think if you were to add up the people who feel like they've had to fight through a disadvantage, you'd find that they're the majority, not the minority of people in the real world.

matkinz 8y ago
I didn't say "people with mental illness aren't fit for the real world", but "some people with mental illness aren't fit for the real world". In this case, regarding autism, it's called "spectrum" for a reason
- jerf 8y ago
  "In this case, regarding autism, it's called "spectrum" for a reason" Yes, it may be easy on HN to forget because we get a lot of "high functioning autists" here, but the word "autism" encomposses the 15-year old boy I met stuck in a wheelchair, whose only verbal communication is what I can only describe as a "bark" when something was not to his liking. "Mental illnesses" do not top out at "a bit quirky". It is neither inaccurate nor insensitive to observe that some people are simply incapable of functioning in the real world. In fact holding the belief that there is no such thing can itself harm people by preventing them from getting the highly-invasive help they need. That said, if we're talking about people who are in the workplace at all, we're not really talking about that set of people.
- RankingMember 8y ago
  I read the quoted statement in the context of the rest of your comment, which pertains to a workplace environment where the subject already lives and works in the real world, so they'd be on the higher-functioning end of that spectrum. There are certainly people who don't fall into that end, though.

matkinz 8y ago

I didn't say "people with mental illness aren't fit for the real world", but "some people with mental illness aren't fit for the real world". In this case, regarding autism, it's called "spectrum" for a reason

jerf 8y ago
"In this case, regarding autism, it's called "spectrum" for a reason" Yes, it may be easy on HN to forget because we get a lot of "high functioning autists" here, but the word "autism" encomposses the 15-year old boy I met stuck in a wheelchair, whose only verbal communication is what I can only describe as a "bark" when something was not to his liking. "Mental illnesses" do not top out at "a bit quirky". It is neither inaccurate nor insensitive to observe that some people are simply incapable of functioning in the real world. In fact holding the belief that there is no such thing can itself harm people by preventing them from getting the highly-invasive help they need. That said, if we're talking about people who are in the workplace at all, we're not really talking about that set of people.
RankingMember 8y ago
I read the quoted statement in the context of the rest of your comment, which pertains to a workplace environment where the subject already lives and works in the real world, so they'd be on the higher-functioning end of that spectrum. There are certainly people who don't fall into that end, though.