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Hi!

Abi

Abi

New Member
Hello people! I'm just starting to do more research on autism and finding communities with people who might be similar to me after just realising I may be on the spectrum a few months ago. I'm hoping I can start to understand myself better here and maybe talk to people about my worries and doubts with trying to get diagnosed and how to cope with the world in general.

The only other community I've found so far was on reddit and I definitely learned some useful coping skills there, as well as realising that a lot of things I do that I just thought were "normal" may actually be down to my autism (if I have it? I'm not totally sure yet, I doubt myself a lot), but I tried making a post there and getting involved in the community and it got removed by moderators with no explanation so that kinda upset me and made me anxious about trying to speak there so I'm hoping I can talk to people here instead!

Sorry for kinda rambling but yes, this is an introduction post, so hi!
 
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Welcome to the Forums! I hope you make new friends and enjoy your stay in the process! :)

Yeah, Reddit can be a bit of a crap show a times, but it's not all bad.
 
Isadoorian said:
Welcome to the Forums! I hope you make new friends and enjoy your stay in the process! :)

Yeah, Reddit can be a bit of a crap show a times, but it's not all bad.
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I enjoy Reddit mostly, it's one of my only sources of social interaction at the moment because the anonymity makes me a lot less anxious when I say something wrong (even though i still feel really embarrassed and worry about it a lot). I've had to deactivate my facebook recently because the pressure to interact with people there when I wasn't in the right state of mind to as well as everything I say being linked to my real identity and visible to everyone in my life was just too overwhelming.
 
Welcome to the Forums! Here, as long as you follow the rules, you won't get posts taken down, especially without warning. It's a good place to be.
 
Major Tom said:
Welcome to the Forums! Here, as long as you follow the rules, you won't get posts taken down, especially without warning. It's a good place to be.
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Good good! I'm pretty certain I didn't break rules there but I don't know. I think it just got autoremoved somehow but idk it really upset me because it was a post looking for support after a bad experience I had seeing a doctor to try and get diagnosed.
 
You'll certainly find plenty of people here who can relate to the stress of trying to get diagnosed. I wondered about it for 13 years before I finally found a good way to get diagnosed, although part of that was that I assumed diagnosis was impossible for an adult woman who was doing ok in life and I had heard terrible stories on the internet so I just avoided trying.

I'd probably rate this as one of the safest communities on the internet for sharing autism-related experiences. At least that has been my experience of it. If you say something people object to, they'll go ahead and explain why and engage in a dialog or ignore it instead of taking down a well-intentioned thread or throwing a fit in the comments section, as seems common in some places.
 
MeghanWithAnH said:
You'll certainly find plenty of people here who can relate to the stress of trying to get diagnosed. I wondered about it for 13 years before I finally found a good way to get diagnosed, although part of that was that I assumed diagnosis was impossible for an adult woman who was doing ok in life and I had heard terrible stories on the internet so I just avoided trying.

I'd probably rate this as one of the safest communities on the internet for sharing autism-related experiences. At least that has been my experience of it. If you say something people object to, they'll go ahead and explain why and engage in a dialog or ignore it instead of taking down a well-intentioned thread or throwing a fit in the comments section, as seems common in some places.
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Yeah I worry about it trying to do it now as an adult and a woman too, since autism in women seems to be so misunderstood and I worry that no one will take me seriously because I'm just now saying I think I might be autistic at almost 22... even though I've had various undiagnosed mental health issues for 10+ years now. It frustrates me because as soon as I mentioned it to my mum she said she was always sure I was on the spectrum when I was a kid... And I just want to go "well why the hell didn't you take me to a doctor then?" But I know she probably just tried to do what she thought was right at the time.

That's good to hear though, I really do hope I can find some nice people to talk to here.
 
I'm nice and also a people. :D

Welcome! I'm new as well, self-diagnosed. Everyone has been kind and supportive here.
 
Anarkitty said:
I'm nice and also a people. :D

Welcome! I'm new as well, self-diagnosed. Everyone has been kind and supportive here.
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Yay! I try to be a people but I'm bad at it! :D

I wish I was confident enough in trusting my own feelings and experiences to self-diagnose or outright say I'm autistic without feeling sort of guilty and weird. Looking at it logically, I feel like it all makes so much sense, but there's part of me that's just telling myself that I'm making it up because I'm so desperate for an answer for why I can't just be "normal".
 
I like Cynthia Kim's I Think I Might Be Autistic as a starting place, then lots of reading. The thing is, at a certain point, the evidence should become overwhelming. Or you may find that you're an "autistic cousin," someone with many of the traits but not quite autistic. Either way, you'll find understanding here.

My own intro is linked in my signature. I explained why I haven't sought a formal diagnosis there, and there's also a book list near the bottom of the thread if you're looking for book recommendations.
 
Hi and Welcome!
This is the only forum I am on. It has been very helpful in finding common traits and
understanding myself.
The moderators do a good job and will usually explain when something is not right with the rules.
Helps you learn instead of just wondering what happened. ;)
 
Warm welkome to the forums Abi im shore you will feel just as comfortable & at home as i did when i came in here not to long ago :p
 
I was always pretty happy with who I was. Once in a while a person might call it 'different' or 'weird' which sometimes hurt. I did expend a lot of effort hiding it to fit in socially, but never wanted to change it, even if that were possible. I like the differences for the most part. Once I realized it later in life (it wasn't well known back then) a diagnosis wasn't a good idea as my career was military and it might have lead to a medical discharge. My son is also undiagnosed HFA and we did not discuss it with him or seek a diagnosis as he did OK and chose himself to also go into the military and has done very well. If at some point he had (or does) really struggle with things we would breech the subject. Sometimes its a hard call to bring it up or not.
 
I've tried a lot of forums in the past (not specifically for Autistic people or stuff related to autism) but they were always too boring or had too many jerks, or they were all about politeness and stuff, or didn't keep the spaces safe enough. That just doesn't work for me. I am about respect, learning things from others, but calling people out when it needs to be done, and doing it with a little restraint and not turn it into an all-out mud slinging fest. This place strikes a balance where I feel safe, but also challenged, that I can't find in most other online communities. As in all online communities, you may butt heads with others, but most of us don't really dwell on it and we move on. We're definitely an interesting group of people.

Welcome, from a fellow newbie(ish).
 
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