Asperger's & Autism Forum

Following article, not written by me, might be of interest to some of you:

An autism diagnosis hasn't stopped this young woman from becoming a lawyer

RESHARE WITH YOUR NETWORK: I would like to share our first testimonial video regarding our IGNITE ASD program from IBM Lansing. It was premiered at the #IMAX Moscone Centre in San Francisco at which over 100 convention members attended at hashtag#THINK2019 (where 30,000 people attended).

I would be interested in your view of the material provided as it drew much attention and questions.
My IBM co-presenter Ingrid Weiss was also in attendance.

This was an important and pivotal day within IBM This vision is tightly aligned to the IBM Ballarat initiative - where we have commenced recruitment - as it refers to efforts in Australia
When Neurodiversity Works - Trailer (short)
IGNITE ASD (IBM IGNITE ASD site)
When Neurodiversity Works (long)

Please use this material as suited in your own communications or websites. Thank you for your ongoing support and vision.

A friend (one of very few who knows my diagnosis) recently announced that she has also been diagnosed as autistic. She was obviously expecting that this would lead to a sense of solidarity between us, but in fact we seem to have fallen out over it.

The problem is I just can’t bring myself to believe it. She’s very outgoing, popular and very much the life-and-soul-of-the-party, whereas I am the complete opposite. I know she has had serious mental health problems in the past (she’s bipolar), and obviously I don’t know everything about her (although she’s always been pretty open with me). But to me it feels like me grazing my knee then telling somebody in a wheelchair that I know what it’s like to be physically disabled.

As examples of autistic traits, she says she always buys identical underwear, and has IBS-type symptoms. She claims she can be socially inappropriate and “put her foot in it”, although I’ve known her for several years and never noticed this particularly (I have...

Good morning Autista peeps. I find myself looking once again on this cold dreary morning for the perfect Autistic song. One we can all connect with. Could their be such a song? Do you know of one? Does anyone want to get together with me to try and write one? I think we need a theme song. I can only try to come up with the words. I can’t play an instrument.

I really like, I am a rock I am an island . But he looses us several places. The song kinda reminds me of a child closing their eyes and pretending the world had gone away. Don’t we all have memories of that? I wonder if NT’s have those memories.

“If I never would have loved. I never would have have cried.”
Not true, we cry because we long for love. We cry because of our aloneness.

“I have no need of friendship.”
Most of us would say that is not true. We need people and we don’t want to go it alone. We just don’t know how. It seems there is no room for us in NT land. We constantly make blunders that they find inexcusable and...

Whether or not alexithymia is part of an individual's autism package, I frequently see it stated that one of the many autism traits is "Difficulty understanding others' feelings." I puzzle over this and what it means. I have difficulty reading others' feelings but I can understand them if they are explained to me. Is this not perhaps a poorly worded trait description or is it just that my own personal variation is difficulty in reading the physical signs of feelings?

Perhaps I am hung up on semantics. That does happen.

What is your experience? Do you distinguish between reading/recognising/identifying emotions and being able to understand them when someone tells you what they are feeling?

Let's see, guess I will start from the beginning...

The man I am with has AS and was diagnosed years back. We met on a dating app at the end of 2017 and met in person two months later. We originally didn't see each other all that often but typically messaged every day. As the months progressed we did start spending more time together. Then in September he moved in with me. To complicate things even more is that eventually this is going to turn into a long distance relationship because he has to move back to his home (which is part of the US at least but does require a plane to get there), even though he has been in FL for a year now.

We do sleep in the same bed, he holds me and lays near me while we sleep, and he hugs me even though I know that "touching" is not his favorite thing. We are also intimate when I initiate so no problems there. While we have gone out to eat a few times, we have never really gone out and done anything together. No movies, bowling, hiking, etc. Which I...

Today something happened that the title perfectly describes, I was beaten up in public because of my severe social anxiety. Apparently it's just an excuse to be a coward and that I should be ashamed to have it.

It's not just something I can "get over" or "just stop." It's been something that has haunted me my entire life, I've tried really hard as I've aged to deal with it, and while it has gotten better, in some situations I just shut down because of it still.

I debated for awhile whether or not I should make this event into a thread, but I felt that it was severe enough to release it. While this was happening, I noticed people just kept walking by, like nothing wrong was happening. I defended myself until I fell to the ground, then I did my best to protect my head and face until finally after my assailants were done, I slowly picked myself back up and limped home. I felt extreme shame, like maybe they were right in some degree and that I just needed to suck it up, but I know...

I said when I posted the #puppetgate video last week that I was working on some new videos in the usual Autistamatic format. Here's the first one of the new batch

In this one, I talk about autistic stims, stimming, why we do it and why it's important not to stop us from doing it.

As always, constructive criticism welcome

I apologize if this is not in the right place. Although I’ve had an account for a couple of years, I’ve only spent a little time on the forum and have trouble understanding the forum hierarchy and organization (also on mobile).

So I have a 12 year old daughter, diagnosed ASD who has always had a significant issue with sharing. She cannot appreciate the value in sharing anything. She also has a problem with personal space. Her younger brother cannot sit in her chair at the kitchen bar, or in her seat on her side of the car, or read any books that belong to her. As an example, there is a book that was bought for her that her brother has interest in reading. She will not accept that he be allowed to read it and then return it to her. She would rather give it up entirely. She becomes hysterical if the issue is pushed far enough but will never conced the point. This specific example can be applied to just about anything that belongs to her.

I will admit that I have winked at some of...

Ok so this semester I tried to go back at unni...
Ofc it was a failure, I cant stand goiing all day there , and I am unable to connect with anyone, I gave up a lots of classes already and now I have to go to some of them at least to not get a failing grade....

I deleted my old Wow account but I created another one again and I play from scratch, its actually the only thing that make me feel happy.

This feeling that I wont get anything positive from the real world is realy strong and I dont know how to change that at all...at least I need to graduate...