Don't Be Shy To Introduce Yourself

[Tom]

Hello! My name is Mattie Rose, but please call me Rose. I am (for now) a self-diagnosed autistic. I'm beginning the journey of obtaining a full diagnosis, and I'm scared that it's going to take me a long time. I have been diagnosed with GAD/MDD (since age 15) and ADHD (this year), but I've been suspecting ADHD and autism for the last two years.

I'm a registered nurse and I work in a mental health facility. I have one beagle, and I'm adopting another one on Thursday! I love learning (about animals, my favorite band/artists, mental health/psychology, and more), and I love staying in my apartment where it's safe

Hi, Beagle's sound like great dogs. Is your dog in the Avatar a rescue? We have Chihuahuas. 4 of them.

 

[Mattie Rose]

Hi, Beagle's sound like great dogs. Is your dog in the Avatar a rescue? We have Chihuahuas. 4 of them.

Hi Tom! Beagles are great! My avatar is a picture of Cherry. She's almost 2 years old (we think) and I've had her for almost a year. As you can tell, she's only got one eye.

Four chihuahuas! That's a lot of personality!

 

[Tom]

Hi Tom! Beagles are great! My avatar is a picture of Cherry. She's almost 2 years old (we think) and I've had her for almost a year. As you can tell, she's only got one eye.

Four chihuahuas! That's a lot of personality!

That's great you taking care of Cherry. I have a Finch like that. One eyed Billy. He was bullied and injured in a aviary (by other birds) so I took him and two others (one missing toes). My daughter's partner takes care of aviaries as a job (like in hospitals, old age homes, etc). I am taking the damaged ones. But they are doing great and thriving. Billys like a whole new bird.

Yes, much personality in the Chi's. With people they are unusally sweet. But with other animals they are terrors and they fight constantly among themselves. But their antics have me laughing many times a day.

 

[Litzi]

Hello, all! My name is Litzi. I live in the States, on the West Coast. I've recently been diagnosed with autism, and jeez - a major relief/explains so much, but also feels like a major bummer sometimes. I present super "normal" as I have really good social/performing skills - probably a big reason I wasn't diagnosed until a couple months ago - but interaction, dumb social stuff, and what I call the sensory assault of everyday life wear me the heck out. I'm creative and analytical and athletic and really happy with a whole lot of personal space-time. I've got some fairly serious PTSD also, but learned to manage it well over many years.

My biggest struggle right now is MONEY. I'm an adjunct professor and writer/scholar, and these industries have really gone south over the last few years, with fewer and fewer opportunities and less and less pay for those that still exist. I love my work, but there's just not much of it. I'm exhausted with trying and trying to break out of academia into more regular, better-paying employment and not succeeding for reasons I can't fathom (and boy, have I tried). I know this is an objective problem, as I have many brilliant colleagues and friends in the exact same boat; but for an aspie/autist ("autiste" as I like to say, haha) the ongoing instability is especially depressing and demoralizing. It's been a good 20 years of this and a gal can take only so much!

On a brighter note: like many of you, I ADORE animals and have a darling kitty named Sophie who is my precious girl. Life is mostly quite wonderful, though I would love more financial stability and more good, trustworthy friends. I'm hoping to find a bit of community here. It's been great reading all of your posts and feeling less alone.

Xo - Litz

 

[SRSAutistic]

Hi everyone.

I was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at age 3. I am smart, shy, kind, and nice. Many times, people take advantage of me. I think this caused me to be bullied in high school. As the autistic brain is wired differently, it is impossible for me to fit into the mostly neurotypical (NT) world. I cannot make any NT friends as they all think I am 'weird' or 'odd'. All the NT social skills are very hard for me to learn. However, when I come on autism forums such as this one, I feel like I am welcomed, accepted, and understood. I feel that with time, I might make friends on this forum.

I have some special interests such as electricity (plugs, voltages, electrical sockets/outlets), the battery health of electronic devices, and time (clocks, time zones). They are so intense that they are the only thing I think and talk about.

Hopefully I will make some friends on this forum.

Nice to meet you all!

Yours Truly,

SRSAutistic

 

[Alexej]

HI and Welcome @Litzi, @SRSAutistic, @Mattie Rose, @Zalafini39

 

[Heidi Moonfall]

Hi, I'm 55 and know I am an Aspie.. researching, reading, studying and testing for Autism Spectrum Disorder has made me feel free for the first time in my long painful life. But I will try to begin now and not be too upset how much suffering, hiding i have done my whole life... because now I know and even without an official diagnosis which seems impossible w/out healthcare and ignorance amongst therapist. When i was younger i literally thought i was an alien and wondered if my family were observing me. I just always felt so different and now after researching, i tick all of the boxes...and everything makes sense for the first time. I found some people online similar (videos) and I can't believe how there are people that understand and maybe feel like i do on the inside. I have almost no friends and thought i'd try some forums. I'd love to know if anyone know any Star Trek forums or people over 50 w/ASD. Thanks for any thoughts

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

A number of us on here over fifty, you should fit right in be part of the tribe, may even find some on line friends. My wife is really into star trek , watched from the beginning myself, not quite like her, prefer real astronomy. Must admit good for the imagination. The world would not be the same place if not for this show.my older son's common law wife is a real fanatic. strange enough I probably know more about the show than she does, having aeidetic memory, being older, and having a greater knowledge of science. probably explains this. I am not a fan of the latest iteration. the more they deviated from the theoretical possible with artistic licence, the less it impressed. Could not imagine a cell phone with video chat thirty years ago. only the artsy guys could see this, the realist scientist's said it would require to much data. how times have changed.

 

[Crossbreed]

Hello & welcome.

...an official diagnosis which seems impossible w/out healthcare and ignorance amongst therapist.

If you are in the USA, see
Autlanders, Thriving Outside of the Box: Finding Support Resources in the USA...

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

Sometimes validation is more important than a official diagnosis, this site is good for that.

 

[BexyBlu]

Good afternoon from Scotland. I am Bex, 43 and have unfortunately been waiting for 4 years to have an official diagnosis due to my area having only one official diagnostic service and thousands of referrals. I have however been 'diagnosed' by several others who are themselves autistic, adults and children. I have done voluntary work with autistic services and have campaigned in public to stop budget cuts for others like myself in particular children in schools who desperately require proper funding for autism and other spectrum related disorders. Once I started to look at the autistic spectrum disorder for me everything fell into place dating right back to pre school organisations, it simply made more sense than all the other diagnosis I had up to now received as an adult and had always questioned as I knew them to be incorrect. I have also done all the usual online self diagnostic tests, aspietests.org and scored through the roof on every test. Sadly I even took screenshots of my results. Nice to be here among other non neuro typical like minded folks

 

[BexyBlu]

Hi everyone.

I was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at age 3. I am smart, shy, kind, and nice. Many times, people take advantage of me. I think this caused me to be bullied in high school. As the autistic brain is wired differently, it is impossible for me to fit into the mostly neurotypical (NT) world. I cannot make any NT friends as they all think I am 'weird' or 'odd'. All the NT social skills are very hard for me to learn. However, when I come on autism forums such as this one, I feel like I am welcomed, accepted, and understood. I feel that with time, I might make friends on this forum.

I have some special interests such as electricity (plugs, voltages, electrical sockets/outlets), the battery health of electronic devices, and time (clocks, time zones). They are so intense that they are the only thing I think and talk about.

Hopefully I will make some friends on this forum.

Nice to meet you all!

Yours Truly,

SRSAutistic

I can fully identify with everything you said in your introduction. Nice to meet you

 

[CrazyCatLady]

Hi, my name is Vicky. I have appointments over the next month to hopefully be diagnosed. Thankfully my workplace are paying for me to go private as I have been waiting for the NHS for ages already. I feel quite nervous even though I'm pretty certain I know I am autistic, I've spoken to a few people in work and they have said they can see I'm showing signs and I've researched and I know I do things that would point to autism too. Anyway as my name would suggest I love cats, I have 3 and a house bunny. I just love animals really I also love reading fiction, comics and manga and playing video games. I guess I'm a bit of a geek really! I'm a bit of a loner, I love spending time just me and my husband, socialising is hard, I have to force myself to do it most of the time. Unless it's when I go to see my nieces and nephews, I love spending time with them

 

[Zakle]

'ello, folks! I'm Zakle or Simon, and I'm non-binary transmasc. I use they/them most of the time but he/him is also perfectly okay. Please do not refer to me by she/her, thank you.

I have yet to be able to receive an assessment but I've been actively trying to do so. It's highly likely I'm on the spectrum—I have notes on possible signs from childhood and on into teen and adult years—but would prefer an official diagnosis.

There are few interests I'd say I'd actually have. When I was a child, it was rocks, coins, old books, and dolls. I had a shoebox full of rocks. Now, it's only Far Cry (mainly Far Cry 5). I've been recently reading Needful Things by Stephen King which had been recommended by my best friend and it's amazing; I've been genuinely enjoying it a lot and hope to read more from King. This one is actually my first novel from him.

Anyway, it's nice to meet everyone.

EDIT: The emojis I added didn't remain and I hope my introduction doesn't read as crass—that was certainly not my intention.

 

[Alexej]

Hi and Welcome @BexyBlu
Glad you have found us.
There are some other folks in here from Scotland.
Self diagnosis is not uncommon in the ASC community so you are not unusual in here if you self diagnose.


As I read what you wrote I was reminded of this

which comes from https://embrace-autism.com/ which I have found to be a useful resource.
I too have done a number of tests and I have a spreadsheet of the tests, answers and result.

 

[Fain]

Hello, everyone. 31 year old Scandinavian here, hope this post isn't too rambling. I initially got an autism diagnosis as a child, but it wasn't conclusive - a lot of hem and haw about "well they tick some of the boxes, but far from all of them, and it'd be irresponsible to assign labels", so we all ignored it because if you ignore something, it'll go away, right? (It didn't go away and instead caused everyone, myself included, to ignore huge red flags throughout my childhood, until it came crashing down in college when my brain couldn't keep pushing the problems away anymore. I have since spoken with an actual specialist, who confirmed that yep, autistic.)

I discovered this forum when I was looking for non-clinical portrayals of autism, as it helps me identify and come to terms with how my own life is affected by it, since my brain's spent so much time trying to ignore it. I'm a bit of a literal person, and the closer something is to my own experience, the more likely I am to make the connection that "hey, this sounds like me, I'm not alone". (Conversely, if something doesn't exactly match what I'm looking for, my brain parses it as not even remotely related. My therapist calls this the "apple pie problem": information, to me, is rigid and I can't do much with it. I can have all the necessary ingredients for an apple pie, but unless someone tells me "hey, you could make an apple pie with these", the idea would never occur to me. This is also why I struggle a lot to identify myself with clinical descriptions of autism, because they're not identical to my own experiences, so it can't possibly be similar.)

As for a few things about me, I like video games (RPGs and such for the most part), drawing, and worldbuilding, mostly of the fantasy variety. I love plants even though I have an extreme phobia against insects and haven't a single green thumb.

I'm currently trying to learn how to code. Zero experience in the field, which will play well with my 5 minute attention span and terrible math skills, I'm sure.

Anyway. Nice meeting you all.

 

[Alexej]

Hello, everyone. 31 year old Scandinavian here, hope this post isn't too rambling.

Velkommen
Welcome to the Forums.

Do make yourself at home and join in the chats. If you want to avoid the ads, pay the $10 to be a VIP.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

Hello all. I have been lurking around for a bit, but will introduce myself. I have not been diagnosed, but when I read about professional women with Asperger's it was like the penny dropped. Things that have always been so confusing and chaotic finally became clear; it all makes sense now. I mask well in many professional settings. I read constantly and also like nature and water sports. I am an RN and work in social services.

I am impressed with the level of individual and collective wisdom on this forum. I have already learned much. Thank you.

 

[Darth Vabear]

Hello everyone, saw this forum and immediately joined. I've not been diagnosed with Asperger but suffer from social anxieties in certain social settings and when entering new environments and new routines. Granted when I get use to them I can adjust well but its nice to talk with others who go through the same afflictions.

 

[Alexej]

HI and Welcome @Darth Vabear and @WhitewaterWoman
Glad to have you with us. Do hang around a bit and get to know us. There is a lot of info and experience in here, some of which may resonate with you - and that is good.