Anonymoose45
Active Member
Hello,
This is my first post here. To give you some of the basics, I'm a guy in my early 30's that completed my PhD about two years ago. When it comes to intellectual pursuits, I tend to do well in most areas if I put in effort, and I'm usually a quick learner and able to correct my mistakes. I can usually develop and learn artistic skills without much difficulty either. I love generating ideas, try to use the scientific method to guide my decisions, and my ideal career has always involved developing important research studies that would make the world a better place. Although I believe the world is a far better place than it used to be, I believe we could be doing so much more to reduce suffering for humanity and other living things.
For many years, I've been uncertain about my official diagnosis. I am confident that I'm different than most people I know, and I could spend a LONG time going into detail about it, but I don't want to bore anyone reading this. To summarize, I believe I meet all the criteria of Autism Spectrum Disorder in terms of the social difficulties, but I'm pretty sure I don't meet criteria for the restricted/repetitive behaviors. That said, I may be attempting to deceive myself because I fear being labelled with the diagnosis. I've always felt more comfortable labeling myself with depression or social anxiety, but I know my difficulties go beyond those two things.
Through hard work, I think I've improved my social skills over the years, but I believe they're still below average. My anxiety also results in word finding difficulties, unintended circumlocutions, and other qualities that are considered "eccentric" or "odd" by most people. I've become extremely quiet because I so often put my foot in my mouth when I talk, and I fear saying something that would make another person feel bad. While these traits, along with lack of interest, result in difficulties making or seeking out friends, I am especially impaired in dating and relationships. My impairments have led me to spend many years making no effort whatsoever to date, but this only compounded the problem as I fell further and further behind peers. I likely have less relationship experience than most high school students.
I thought joining this group may give me an opportunity to meet more people similar to myself, and that may be able to provide me some guidance in terms of what I can do to make up for my impairments. Any resources on dating or improving social skills would be a huge help, as would potential guidance on career paths that don't rely as much on these skills. I still haven't been able to decide if I would be far better off accepting my limitations and instead focus on my strengths rather than spend so much time only to be average or slightly above average at best.
Anyway, I already probably wrote too much, so I'll stop there. I look forward to meeting members and engaging in discussions here. I also hope I might meet others that share some of my goals, and that I can also provide help to members here given my own skill set.
This is my first post here. To give you some of the basics, I'm a guy in my early 30's that completed my PhD about two years ago. When it comes to intellectual pursuits, I tend to do well in most areas if I put in effort, and I'm usually a quick learner and able to correct my mistakes. I can usually develop and learn artistic skills without much difficulty either. I love generating ideas, try to use the scientific method to guide my decisions, and my ideal career has always involved developing important research studies that would make the world a better place. Although I believe the world is a far better place than it used to be, I believe we could be doing so much more to reduce suffering for humanity and other living things.
For many years, I've been uncertain about my official diagnosis. I am confident that I'm different than most people I know, and I could spend a LONG time going into detail about it, but I don't want to bore anyone reading this. To summarize, I believe I meet all the criteria of Autism Spectrum Disorder in terms of the social difficulties, but I'm pretty sure I don't meet criteria for the restricted/repetitive behaviors. That said, I may be attempting to deceive myself because I fear being labelled with the diagnosis. I've always felt more comfortable labeling myself with depression or social anxiety, but I know my difficulties go beyond those two things.
Through hard work, I think I've improved my social skills over the years, but I believe they're still below average. My anxiety also results in word finding difficulties, unintended circumlocutions, and other qualities that are considered "eccentric" or "odd" by most people. I've become extremely quiet because I so often put my foot in my mouth when I talk, and I fear saying something that would make another person feel bad. While these traits, along with lack of interest, result in difficulties making or seeking out friends, I am especially impaired in dating and relationships. My impairments have led me to spend many years making no effort whatsoever to date, but this only compounded the problem as I fell further and further behind peers. I likely have less relationship experience than most high school students.
I thought joining this group may give me an opportunity to meet more people similar to myself, and that may be able to provide me some guidance in terms of what I can do to make up for my impairments. Any resources on dating or improving social skills would be a huge help, as would potential guidance on career paths that don't rely as much on these skills. I still haven't been able to decide if I would be far better off accepting my limitations and instead focus on my strengths rather than spend so much time only to be average or slightly above average at best.
Anyway, I already probably wrote too much, so I'll stop there. I look forward to meeting members and engaging in discussions here. I also hope I might meet others that share some of my goals, and that I can also provide help to members here given my own skill set.
