Hello my name is Ron but I go by Germanium online. I am an self diagnosed autistic that under previous DSM4 definitions would have likely been diagnosed PDD/NOS. I have struggled with coordination all my life & extreme nervousness. I have also struggled with mild to moderate fecal incontinence since childhood.
Other things I have struggled with are depression, anxiety, myoclonus, Dysthymia, being a slow learner & in special ed classes 3rd through 6th grade & special classes for slow learners in 7th & 8th grade. I suffered a stroke just over 3 years ago which thankfully didn't affect my mental functioning thought wise but did affect my motor functioning as well as sensory issues over entire left side of my body. It was at that time I found that I had a missing A1 artery in my brain which reduced blood flow to front part of my brain likely since birth. This likely is why I couldn't perform well beyond a certain time limit as for example my hands when learning to type would after 1 short paragraph at reasonable but still low pace would ball up & refuse to cooperate & my performance would fall from 35 WPM to less than 10 WPM with lots of mistakes. I get overloaded very easily & do my best work when allowed to work at my own pace.
I am 65 years old now & retired from truck driving 4 years ago due to pain from piched spinal cord caused by 3 ruptured cervical disks. I drove truck for 20+ years. Last 10 years with same company. I was reasonably good driver not making any really bad mistakes that would cost lots of money to fix. I was somewhat better than average at that I would say. It was only successful career I had. I also spent almost 10 years on social security SSI & welfare combined until I got DVR to help me to get trained as a truck driver. If I had not pushed them in this direction they were content to keep me working in sheltered work shops in which I struggled due to both coordination issues & the feeling that I was so much more capable than that as long as I could find something that I could do that didn't require huge degree of fine coordination.
Truck driving filled that nitch area, I had sufficient coordination for that & had very fine throttle control which I used for shifting instead of the clutch. It was one less thing I had to coordinate & I was much smoother this way. I was very easy on the equipment & very rarely broke down even when given trucks that had poor reliability with other drivers I did well in them.
In terms of relationships I am currently in one. I have a girl friend but I still spend a lot of time to myself as I have grave difficulty handling when she starts going off on me for little or no reason. It's been slowly getting better but I still struggle. I am largely a loner as I have never been comfortable in a crowd. I tend to have a very few good friends which have helped me & who I like spending some time with but even there my comfort level is limited not due to them but just my desire for alone time.
Other things I have struggled with are depression, anxiety, myoclonus, Dysthymia, being a slow learner & in special ed classes 3rd through 6th grade & special classes for slow learners in 7th & 8th grade. I suffered a stroke just over 3 years ago which thankfully didn't affect my mental functioning thought wise but did affect my motor functioning as well as sensory issues over entire left side of my body. It was at that time I found that I had a missing A1 artery in my brain which reduced blood flow to front part of my brain likely since birth. This likely is why I couldn't perform well beyond a certain time limit as for example my hands when learning to type would after 1 short paragraph at reasonable but still low pace would ball up & refuse to cooperate & my performance would fall from 35 WPM to less than 10 WPM with lots of mistakes. I get overloaded very easily & do my best work when allowed to work at my own pace.
I am 65 years old now & retired from truck driving 4 years ago due to pain from piched spinal cord caused by 3 ruptured cervical disks. I drove truck for 20+ years. Last 10 years with same company. I was reasonably good driver not making any really bad mistakes that would cost lots of money to fix. I was somewhat better than average at that I would say. It was only successful career I had. I also spent almost 10 years on social security SSI & welfare combined until I got DVR to help me to get trained as a truck driver. If I had not pushed them in this direction they were content to keep me working in sheltered work shops in which I struggled due to both coordination issues & the feeling that I was so much more capable than that as long as I could find something that I could do that didn't require huge degree of fine coordination.
Truck driving filled that nitch area, I had sufficient coordination for that & had very fine throttle control which I used for shifting instead of the clutch. It was one less thing I had to coordinate & I was much smoother this way. I was very easy on the equipment & very rarely broke down even when given trucks that had poor reliability with other drivers I did well in them.
In terms of relationships I am currently in one. I have a girl friend but I still spend a lot of time to myself as I have grave difficulty handling when she starts going off on me for little or no reason. It's been slowly getting better but I still struggle. I am largely a loner as I have never been comfortable in a crowd. I tend to have a very few good friends which have helped me & who I like spending some time with but even there my comfort level is limited not due to them but just my desire for alone time.