Autism-Open Access
Open Access

Self-Awareness in Young Autistic Men: Affecting Personal and Professional Lives

Feifan Zirong^{* *}Correspondence: Feifan Zirong, Department of Special Education and Counselling, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong, Email:

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Description

The topic of self-awareness in autistic people has typically been studied from a deficiency perspective. Recent studies, however, have refuted this by highlighting the value and potential of autistic self-awareness. We argue that autistic individuals perceive self-awareness as a crucial element of both their professional and personal life, extending this shift in perspective to vocational training.

Everyone agrees that self-awareness is the starting point of conscious experience. However, it has been noted that autistic individuals lack self-awareness and the capacity to distinguish between the self and the non-self. This hypothesis is supported by neurotypical developmental norms for self-recognition, selfobject differentiation, and expectations for neurotypical selfdifferentiation. These include recognizing and expressing facial emotions as well as expressing emotions in the social-relational and emotional spheres of self-awareness.

Compared to neurotypicals, autistic individuals have been linked to distinct memory processes related to the self. For instance, researchers have observed that autistic people have a limited sense of self-awareness when recalling their experienced past and encoded context. As writing autobiographies needs skills like self-awareness, inventiveness, competence, and a desire to communicate, autistic individuals's autobiographies have challenged notions that autistic persons have poor autobiographical recall.

Since autistic people appear to be emotionally distant, Studies contends that autism must be viewed as a disorder of emotional self-awareness. A number of researchers, however, have questioned this understanding of autism, pointing out how autistic people may process and assimilate internal and external information differently from neurotypical people and that autistic people's self-awareness is not diminished but potentially harmed by their negative self-beliefs as a result of low self-belief in their socio-emotional competence. For instance, researchers demonstrate that autistic adolescents are acutely aware of their social obstacles and actively work to overcome them.

According to studies that claims autistic individuals lack or have limited self-awareness or have trouble identifying internal states might be regarded as one strand of widespread perceptions of autism as a weakness. By denying them traits like self-awareness and reflection, such representations demean people with autism. According to studies, autistic people may have trouble identifying their own internal states because they don't match up with the expectations placed on them by neurotypical, or neuroconventional, norms.

According to researchers, self-awareness is essential for autistic persons to thrive. According to studies, autistic adults who rely on interpersonal support, communication assistance, and selfinitiated social anxiety management techniques grow more selfaware. Protection against autism burnout is correlated with autistic self-awareness and self-control. Recognizing and fostering hobbies and interests, building relationships with others, and creating coping mechanisms all depend on the development of autistic self-awareness.

Conclusion

Self-awareness is essential for taking advantage of social and professional possibilities that might build on interests and strengths and result in the emergence of expert competence in the workplace. Young autistic men who consider themselves successful at work share four traits, according to studies: being one-self, being competent professional, overcoming challenges in a neurotypical world, and connecting and relating to others. Successful autistic people can serve as "a reservoir of wisdom" for other autistic people, their families, and professionals who work in human services.

A variety of techniques designed to raise autistic people's selfawareness are closely related to an autistic self and self-reflexivity. Vocational Rehabilitation Interventions (VRIs), such as specialized job placements, are designed to help autistic people find and keep employment in the labor market. The use of VRIs has helped young adults with autism develop their capacity for independent self-care, keep their jobs, and extend their working hours and level of independence. But as various researchers have shown, there is a fundamental need for interventions that focus on contextual issues if employment outcomes are to be improved. Environmental factors can function as both barriers to and facilitators of autistic people finding employment.