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Hello. I'm a new member. I live in Pennsylvania and work in higher education. I have three mental health diagnoses but am increasingly considering that they are, more accurately, secondary issues to my ASD.

I experience monolithic social struggles in the workplace because I honestly do not understand the point of gossip or chit-chat, which seems to be the singular focus for most people at work. The sensory input is also a factor (i.e. fluorescent overhead lights, open office floor plan, colleagues misinterpreting my use of noise-canceling earbuds and labeling me a taciturn a-hole, being seated next to the printer). I thought that working in higher education would be a more understanding, enlightened work culture for someone with ASD. I don't have other fields to compare it to, experience-wise, but I haven't found my workplace culture to be tolerant of ASD at all. There is one other person with ASD in my department, but he and I don't interact. I wonder if he has had similar experiences to mine.

My interests include foreign languages, books (i.e LOTR), and flora/fauna identification. I have one 16-year-old cat.

I am here because I am exhausted by attempting to pass every day then coming home and crumbling, so to speak, from the weight of the effort. It is a relief to find others who understand.

Welcome to wrong planet.
Pennysylvania? (Not sure if it is spelt correctly). Isn't that where Count Dracula lived?

Welcome to Wrong Planet.

I think you're right that many of our mental health problems stem from the clash between our autistic traits and being surrounded by a world which isn't sympathetic to them. Burning out, in particular, is often mistaken for depression, I think (though it can certainly also lead to depression). I have worked in quite a variety of different jobs, including in hi-tech industries which are stereo-typically thought more "autism friendly". I have found that it certainly helps if the work itself fits my traits, but that the dominant social norms have been just as much of a problem wherever I've been employed.

You're thinking of Transylvania (in Romania). In the stories, he was later a resident of Whitby in Yorkshire, too - they have a big Dracula festival there for Halloween.

That would be Transylvania, in Romania (unless that was a joke?)... ah, I see Trogluddite covered that already...

Welcome milkweed_pod, hope you have a long and happy stay. You sound like a very interesting person. JRR would have liked you and discussed languages with you until all your colleagues fell asleep! I much prefer the books to the movies.

Say hi to your feline senior citizen from us.

Ah. Same difference... (In my mind anyway ). Oops!

They've had An American Werewolf in Paris etc so why not A Pennsylvania Dracula?

He could even be Amish!

^ Who needs Dracula when you have the Squonk? (what an awesome name)...
From the Monsters of Pennsylvania website...

[With apologies to milkweed_pod - your welcome thread seems to be getting a little off topic!]

Welcome milkweed_pod to Wrong Planet. I can relate to much of what you are saying. I spent a decade or so in academia and can say it is not aspie-friendly. Lots of competition and head games.

Originally, I studied botany and love identifying plants and mushrooms. Hope you find some help and connection here.

Hello, and welcome. Hope you find comfort here with people who understand.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Thank you all for the warm and funny welcome!

I hope you didn't mind me getting mixed up about where Dracula came from.

Mountain Goat, I did not mind. I like the book Dracula, and the suffix -sylvania is easily confused with other place names that share it.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Hi and welcome ! All too often, the places that you'd expect to be more understanding, tolerant, and friendly toward those with "differences", can wind up being the most hostile of workplaces. I knew someone who worked in the Special Education field, and he was treated horrifically in the workplace, so much so, that he left and set up his own business(became a very successful behavioural consultant in schools specialising in ASD). He was only diagnosed in his 50s with classic autism. Things like work politics, not partaking in the gossip/water cooler chit chat, "out of work "socials", can reveal who is tolerant, and who doesn't see beyond the NT bubble. Even things like humorous posters that you place in your cubicle or personal space at work, as many used to do, can be seen as a source of animosity. If they perceive you as "different", a loner etc, you can be so open to attack. My best to you, (and your cat ).

Welcome, glad you found your way here. I hope your Wrong Planet journey will be rewarding, interesting, comforting and enlightening. And you will no longer be alone with this.