In what ways have you benefitted from the WP forums?

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How have the WP forums influenced your life? Do you notice changes in your life as a result of frequenting these forums? How would you be different if you hadn't come across these forums?

(I'm not interested in opinions on the forums themselves. If you wish to evaluate the forums, please don't off-topic here, start a separate thread.)

I can drop the act here, I worry less about wanting to be perceived as normal because I don't expect to be revealed as the outcast of the crowd.

I have noticed no changes in my life

I have found this forum to be immensely helpful and about the only place on the internet where I don't feel like an outcast. While I take no pleasure in hearing the struggles of others, it was reassuring that I am far from alone in the world. In the year I've been here I have found immense improvement in my life, mostly knowing I wasn't crazy and the horrific bullying I endured was not my fault.

Think I've learnt more about Autism and related or similar conditions in the last few weeks from here, than anywhere else. Most internet searches for aspergers will have a thread from WP somewhere near the top. And a search direct on here for something specific will find a myriad of posts including personal experiences and links to other places on the internet.

I forgot to answer the question myself.

These forums changed my life completely. Mainly by changing my outlook about not feeling ashamed having special interests instead of people. Knowing I can survive and even be happy although I have no friends. And so much more...

I have become more arrogant, self-righteous, condescending, obnoxious and Machiavellian than I thought humanly possible.

I can interact with other human beings without being treated disrespectfully

The day that happens to me as a result of using these forums, I'll donate all my possessions to WP. How did it happen, do tell?

Lol no I meant on WP not IRL

I avoid RL more than ever!

Now that you mention it, one other good thing for me is that I became a lot more independent from RL people and their opinions of me. I don't avoid them, but I don't seek them either.

I get people judging me whatever I do

just walking along will get me judged

hence i prefer not to go out

I certainly feel I'm not alone. I feel I belong to a group (though loosely). I realize my life experience is shared by many people.

I also get some practical useful ideas.

It's fun to read about other people's experiences or about some non-autism related things.

I don't have to pretend here.

Regarding WP's influence on my real life, it could be positive and negative. Since I started to frequent WP I feel I don't have to feel guilty any longer about some things that I used to feel guilty about. I started to be confrontational (stand up for myself) at work because now I don't feel guilty and I don't care about what people think. I have to admit that I'm still extremely stressed at work.

Ditto. Huge amounts of guilt I lived under lifted. I feel as if I'd lived the first 40 years of my life in prison and was suddenly out. As a consequence, the pendulum swang to the other extreme and nowadays I don't take any sh*t from anyone. Work is another story, because of my age and the recession.

Things have learned here over the years:

People on the spectrum are not saints, they are capable of being just as judgmental and ignorant like everyone else

Autistic people get annoyed at your interests too

Autistic people also single you out rather you are on the spectrum or not

Just because someone has autism, does not mean they will understand you too and give you the benefit of the doubt just because you are also autistic. They will still make the wrong assumptions about you and jump to conclusions and form a same opinion other people would form about you

And I have felt better about myself when I read stuff here because it would mean I wasn't crazy and it may be because of my AS, not because I was having Alzheimer's or being I was acting like I fried my brain out with drugs, and I learned to be less harder on myself because I would think "if I could do this, I should be able to do X" 'I have done this before, I should be able to do it again" "If I have such a good memory, then why can't I remember how to do X my office clerk taught me a week ago."

It hasn't been just this place where I learned these things, I learned it from other forums too and in my local autism group about the last one I had listed.

It has been helpful to learn of others' experiences, and comforting to me to be able to share my own with people who might understand them.