What it's Like to Live with Autism

By: Travis Breeding

Hi, my name is Travis Breeding. I am 35 years old. I was diagnosed with autism when I was 22. I am the author of over 15 books about life on the autism spectrum. The books include discussions on common comorbid mental health conditions that coexist along with autism.

I reside in Huntington, IN. I live with my parents and three dogs – Miley, Bella, and Scooter. I love to hang out with my dogs and take them on walks.

I enjoy playing basketball with friends. I played basketball in elementary school and was one of the stars on the team.

I have had many challenges with being on the autism spectrum. Keeping employment has been the hardest part of autism for me. Traditional jobs just do not work for me. Instead, I am trying to make it through life and support myself as an entrepreneur. I love to write books about autism.

I recently started my own publishing company – TEB Publishing – to help other people publish their books. My goal is to help parents of children with autism tell their stories in a book so that they can share their stories with the world like I do.

I also hope to help publish books for autistic teens and adults who want to tell their stories. I personally believe everyone should be able to write and publish their story in a book.

Life was easy in elementary school. Things really began to become a challenge for me when I got into middle school and I started having to change classes.

In elementary school, kids played on the playground. But in middle school kids stopped playing games on the playground and started talking and gossiping.

Social rules changed in middle school like I had never experienced before.

Thankfully, I had my trombone. I joined band in sixth grade. My trombone became a special interest. Many people with autism have a special interest in something and in middle school and high school, my special interest was the trombone.

In middle school, my band teacher was my favorite teacher and band was my favorite class. I could not stand my other classes and had trouble focusing on homework, but I was always able to focus on playing the trombone.

I often escaped into imagination and pretended I was in the philharmonic as a principal trombone player. I wanted nothing more than to have a career in music. That was before things became difficult in college and my dream was upended so that I could build a new dream of becoming a published author who helps people understand autism.

In middle school, I was in concert band and jazz band. I loved jazz music.

In high school, I was able to join the marching band and make a few friends that way. It was hard making friends and there were people that I thought were my friends who were not really my friends.

The friendship/acquaintance ratio is a real thing. I make friends easily. I can meet someone and say hi to them and think they are my friend instantly.

I have learned that neurotypical people take a much longer time when it comes to making friends and this is where the friendship/ acquaintance ratio comes into play.

When I am around most people, I feel they are best friends. However, they think of me as an acquaintance.

I won all kinds of awards in high school for playing trombone including the John Philip Sousa band award and the Louis Armstrong jazz award.

In school, things were more of a friend to me than people. By the time I was in high school I was particularly interested in people. I was more interested in girls than boys and wanted a girlfriend, but I had no idea how to go about talking to girls. Dating and relationships are challenging with autism just like employment is. Anything that involves a big level of social energy is a challenge for me because it causes so much anxiety. But I overcome a lot of anxiety to put myself out there and get to know people.

After high school, I spent a few years in and out of college before I finally received a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome at the age of 22. Now I spend time writing books about autism spectrum disorder and raising awareness of what it means to be on the autism spectrum.

Today, life is good. I am a happy person. I wish I could earn more money to be able to get my own place and live independently and that is one of the reasons I am so excited to share my story and books with you.

If you would like to get to know me, please find me on Facebook. You may also visit my website at http://www.tbreedauthor.com to learn more about me and my books.

I would love to do public speaking and share what it is like to live with autism. If you are looking for someone to speak, please contact me and let me know.

This was me in a nutshell. I hope you have a good day.

If you would like to share your personal or family story or to nominate someone else to be in an upcoming issue of Special Needs Living, email us at SpecialNeedsLivingIndy@n2pub.com.