Would you move to be near other Aspies?

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I don't have to move to be near other aspies.. there are quite a few around here (although many are relatives lol) and probably a lot more I haven't met or noticed yet. I don't think I'd move to be around a random group of aspies, but I'd maybe move to live near an aspie friend or two I have if they relocated.

Everyone probably already has a local aspie/autie support group in their town if you look for it. So if meeting other aspies is a priority you can already do it better without moving.

Its not like aspies are a race/ethnic group who live is some locality more than others. There is no aspietopia to move to to meet aspies.So 'moving to meet aspies' doesnt make any sense.

Moving to meet a specific aspie, perhaps an attractive one of the opposite sex who might be one's soulmate, might make sense. But thats the ONLY way it makes sense. We are neither more nor less than the same less than two percent of the population whereever you go.

Actually this got me thinking. Maybe we should do what gays do- and turn some towns into Meccas. The Gays already staked out some cool places like Province Town and Key West.

Maybe we aspies can take - say Aspen Colorado- and turn it into an "Aspie Mecca" (actually Silicon Valley maybe already becoming something like that).

I have never met aonther autistic person in person, so it is a yes for me.

I think that's a good example of one of the issues. As an above poster noted, there are no aspie regions (save possible Silicon Valley, of which I have no personal information), but in some places, there are are no real places to go to meet other Aspies. It's not like you can drive down to the local Aspie Bar, or eat at the Aspie restruant (I'd like an order of Tesla fries with my stim cola). We may be 2 percent (or more/less), but we're not a visable 2 percent.

What we can do, if anyone is interested, is ask around if the circumstances should come up that we're making a transition. If you're moving to (insert region), ask if anyone knows what's good around the area. On the other side, if someone knows an aspie-friendly landlord/neighbor, try to arrange a meeting.

Moving is tough, and I can't imagine it would be easier for Aspies, not with the existing social anxiety and other issues often seen on this board. I'll appeal to emotion here and ask if anyone would want to make it a little better.

The more I notice autistic behaviours in others, whether they're actually on the spectrum or not I don't know, and whether they're aware of it or diagnosed or not I don't know.. but I see more & more AS types all over the place here. I really do think this place has a lot more of us than other cities, for a couple reasons:

1) We're fast becoming the Silicon Valley of Canada w/ a rapidly growing tech sector downtown with everything from programmers to animators, video games to web to movies to ERP software etc etc so we attract a lot of geeks to the general area and it's colleges/universities and so on - many of them aspies for sure.

2) The environment. It's green and lush and absolutely beautiful (that's why our licence plates say "Beautiful British Columbia") w/ the beaches, trees, forests, mountains, rivers etc this place attracts those w/ AS, ADD, ADHD & of course many other much more serious mental afflictions as the surroundings are very serene & calming. There's truly no place like home when you live in a place like this! It's so awesome to be able to get up on a Summer morning and take public transit to the base of a mountain and then go hiking allllll day in peaceful solitude, then back down to the city at night for fireworks at the beach.

3) A bit of a distant third as it's not nearly as AS related, but somewhat: being the most moderate climate in the entire country, we have most of Canada's homeless problem as people head West and stay here so they don't freeze to death in the winter. It's extremely rare for that to happen here. That may attract some lower function ASD people who live that life, but it definitely attracts people with much more severe mental diagnoses.

Sooooo, this whole place is sort of an aspie paradise.

Funny, in my post above, I had written "Otherwise, I'd move to Canada" but then deleted it.

Are there statistically more of us in Canada than elsewhere?

I just happen to love the life I could have in Canada, that's all. Isolated with my animals, working from a laptop in a cabin in a cold place in the north and at the same time in a civilized country where the signs are in English. Coming from the hot and crazy Middle East, it'd be heaven for me.

Not in my impression.

Actually, in my opinion, Canada is not very autistic-friendly. Have you seen the stuff the Autism Society of Canada puts out? 'Autism is worse than cancer in many ways, because the person with autism is with you 24/7 for the rest of your life.'

If I had my choice, I'd move to England. I love the National Autistic Society!

no i wouldn't because it wouldn't really benefit me from being taken out of my immediate environment as a whole.
plus people who even suggest things like, oh but what if i moved nearer to you so we could be closer to... what? really creeps me out and so i have no intention of going down that route.

People with whom you share a communication style. Individuals, social institutions, and places of employement that work on the same communication and processing style. The advantages of social economies of scale (friends of friends, referals, contacts, etc.).

Does that answer your question?

I have to agree with this. Where I live, there is an extreme lack of attention paid to adult/young adult Aspies. Support like counselling and other important things dry up at around 18 and you are all but shoved into the world of work, with the only other option being staying with your parents until you catch up maturity wise or living on the streets/in a shelter. Also, even undiagnosed Aspies have problems here because the doctors like to give people the run-around.

Also, maybe it's just Alberta (we are the oil province, everyone is here is transient and only looking to make a buck) but people are less likely to be friendly or stop to help if something goes wrong, even in public. This was one of the things that I noticed when I visited British Columbia for a short time. And if you are costing the person money, or preventing them from making money with your problems, God help you.

In all honesty, I would only move to be near other Aspies if I knew them well enough. I'm not so worried about the whole lack of empathy thing, really. Maybe that is because I've also never met another Aspie in my life.

I'd throw in a hypothetial situation:

Mr. A has some form of control over a job oppertunity. Mr. A is familar with Neurodiversity. Mr. A looks for someone to fill said oppertunity.

If Mr. A is near a "cluster" of other Aspies, the odds of filling that oppertunity go up dramatically, as do the odds of the job being filled by a member of the hypothetical "cluster".

[quote="AgentPalpatine"][quote="glow"]
plus people who even suggest things like, oh but what if i moved nearer to you so we could be closer to... [b]what?[/b] really creeps me out and so i have no intention of going down that route.[/quote]

People with whom you share a communication style. Individuals, social institutions, and places of employement that work on the same communication and processing style. The advantages of social economies of scale (friends of friends, referals, contacts, etc.).

Does that answer your question?[/quote]

A qst which poses a threat is no qst at all .

I wouldn't care one way or the other, so I'd be happy to live next to fellow Aspies, or next to NTs...

Charles

I'm suprised that with all of the social exclusion and resulting social anxiety, that this topic does'nt come up more, TBH.

Look at http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp5223817.html#5223817.

How many times have all of us read posts of this nature, where people are looking for social interaction, and are socially isolated? Even if you use the 1 in 88 amount, it's a lot easier to meet other Aspies on your schedule if you live near them. The population density/transportation costs in the US are such that unless you're fairly close geographically, meetings can become prohibitively expensive fairly quickly.