Asperger's & Autism Forum

I think this is my first thread created here so please be gentle...

So in another thread someone mentioned they have a job in their special interest. I was wondering how many of you have been able to translate a special interest into a career?

For myself I tried with two of my interests. I have a degree in history. The career paths there are museums & teachers/professors. I can't see myself standing in front of a classroom or leading a tour! The other is tanks & military equipment. I tried to get a commission in the Army but for various reasons dropped out of the program ( I think a little of that B&W thinking reared its head).

We didn't have multiple toys to line up other than matchbox cars. We had 1 Barbie and multiple outfits.
Didn't have computers and video games to become obsessed with.
We were sent outside to play and our play was never observed.

Didn't have the resources we have today to have the opportunity to learn everything we could about one particular subject (mine was that I learned everything I could about music I liked but my information was limited to what was written on the album covers. But I could tell you at that time who sang what part and who played what instrument and could recognize them by their sound.)

We got thumped in the head to knock some sense into us often.
We were kind of forced to learn to behave normally.
Teachers checked behavior boxes in report cards that parents never looked at.

Kids didn't have a voice and was basically just something belonging to the parents.
Everyone (including teachers) used corporal punishment or worse and it was acceptable so we also...

Hello,

My 12-year-old son's main interest is diving, which is not surprising at first, but it is unusual because he is particularly interested in fins.

He is passionate about the fins, so he sleeps by putting them at his feet, but sometimes he takes them in his arms as he would with a blanket.

In the morning before leaving for school, he installs them comfortably on the pillow and covers them.
Obviously, it's a pleasure for him to put them at his feet.

I think he is attracted by the contact of the rubber and the prolonging appearance.

When we go to a sports shop, he asks to see and test the fins.
He prefers the Beuchat Contact Spirit fins.

Can I let him live this passion?

Thanks.

I have just come to realise that a former boyfriend has many Aspergers traits, he is completely wonderful, but we struggled on an 'emotional' level. It was only after a surprise trip (which triggered a meltdown of sorts) and complete shutdown that I even realised. After the trip I was going through all the things he had said to me, trying to re-process them literally and I remembered that he had once said he was autistic, something I thought was a joke at the time. But I looked into it nevertheless.

I care for this person deeply, and when I met him a week after this emotional trip, I mentioned very softly that it may be Aspergers. He looked very surprised but not upset, and then buried himself online reading about it on his phone. We have broken up so its difficult for me to be in contact with him but I feel compelled to help him. I know no one knows him as well as I do emotionally. His 'best' friend (they rarely see each other, but went to school together) described him as having...

My love life has always been awful. I've had a total of four romantic train wrecks over the years (and no, I don't mean a train crashed while I was on a date).

First was in seventh grade. I'm not sure why, but this girl had a crush on me, and I didn't feel the same way. I didn't handle that well, and she ended up hating me for a brief period of time. Now, we're pretty good friends, so that kinda turned out okay.

Second was my freshman year. I had a crush on a girl in my class named Emma (my first crush). Imagine my surprise when she told me that she already knew about it! Flash forward a few months... She got mad at me for putting notes in her locker, we got into a fight, and things escalated really quickly. (This next part is one of my biggest regrets.) I snapped at one point and I told her to, and I quote, "go choke on a rock." It was the worst thing I had ever said to someone, and to this day, I have no idea where it came from. I immediately regretted it. After that, things...

I was wondering, which fashion brands do you consider to be dead or fading?

I think Nautica is a prime example. The brand was in its prime in the 1990s, but ever since David Chu sold the brand to VF, VF completely mismanaged the brand, leading to the brand fading into irrelevance. This year VF sold the brand to Authentic Brands Group, a company known to buy dead or fading brands.

You know the type, the people who will constantly complain to you about their problems without doing much to fix them and won't ask you a thing about your life. Even though I feel bad for these people, I can't deal with them for too long without me being drained and feeling bad.

Does anyone tend to attract these people? I know they're called energy vampires or soul suckers and for good reason. They don't want to actually fix their problems or take some responsibility for them, they just want someone to tell them what THEY want to hear and dump all their issues onto you. I realize that we all go through times in our life where we want pity and feel pity for ourselves, but I'm talking about people who are like this 24/7 and just don't have the insight or maturity to be anything more.

Me? As I recall I was just turned 3 (circa mid April 1979) I was a late talker.

And then for a few years I had to have speech therapy as I spoke with a lisp, couldn't pronounce my S's.

How about you lot?

Wow something just hit me out of the blue. I've tried to explain to my daughter in law, because I didn't know my son had shaved his beard until she pointed it out. I don't look at faces - I may stare into one eye but I don't really see the face. In a crowd it's just a bunch of faceless people I'm walking through. I don't recognize someone I may have spent an hour talking to last week because I'm not looking at the face.
So, okay I know all that, but what just hit me was thinking about sitting in elementary school. No, I never listened to the teacher but I was having to look up and I would be picturing people figures (faceless) walking or sitting or doing whatever along the blackboard frame or what have you. If I was supposed to be looking down at my desk I was drawing these figures doing different things - but I never put a face on them. I know - it was one of my weird quirks - but the thing is, is lack of faces.

I never did because I was never diagnosed. But I'm sure I have Asperger. I even flap my fingers all the time, and a million other things. I never got any support from anyone, including my parents, who think everyone should be the same, it's wrong to be different. And have ordered me to make friends, and to follow the crowd and always do what the other girls were doing.