Where to meet people with HFA/AS

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I just wrote in another thread about how I have been closest friends with people who are on the spectrum or have similar disorders. As I get older it gets harder for me to meet a close friend. I have two really good friends, one just moved away to live with his fiance that he met on the internet. It is hard for my other friend and I to get together due to work schedules.

I am in my early 30's and am finding it difficult to find people whom I can have a close friendship with. We have a large engineering and University community where I live, hence a possible decent sized population that may be on the spectrum.

What I am running into, is that people also do not advertise their AS like when I was younger.

Does anyone know where I can meet people on the spectrum, or where people on the spectrum generally hang out?

People used to advertise it? When and where was that?

Maybe if you started an AS support group?

One of my friends was very open about his "borderline autism" and another friend was very open about his HFA/AS. This probably had to do with the setting and the personality of my friends and myself than anything. One, I grew up with in the neighborhood and went to school with. We had a number of conversations when we were younger about autism. My other friend and I worked at a job which allowed for a lot of social interaction between co-workers. We hit it off while working on a project and could talk to each other very intimately. He was ostinatious about his AS.

Part of the problem may have to do with the fact is that I work in a job which you do your work individually, there is very little time for social interaction. People as they get older also seem to not talk about their "problems" as much.

As for an AS group, there is one that meets in Iowa City (about 20 miles away from me). I have been thinking about attending, but they meet on a night that I work and I don't know whom to contact about the time and place that they meet (their website has not been updated in a couple of years).

I have been thinking about starting a group in the Cedar Rapids area. I am not sure whom to contact or how to start something like that up. I do know a number of people who are players in the local autism community though (mostly teachers and professionals). We do have a group for LFA that does meet at the local AEA a time or two a month. Maybe something to discuss with these people and with my mental health professional the next time that I see her.

Check on meetup.com for your area. Found a local ASAN group that way.

kind of hard to put an ad in the paper or something, if one runs the risk of losing their job if let it out that they have ASD.

On another note, it would be cool if there was actually other people from Red Deer, AB on WP..or if there could be a WP gathering at the Rotary Park near downtown in Red Deer this summer.Red Deer is right in the middle between Edmonton and Calgary on the QE2 (Queen Elizabeth 2 Highway or just Highway 2).Maybe WPrs from Edmonton and Calgary can meet halfways in Red Deer so its equal travelling distance and more could come.Im hoping I can get a job at a lawfirm this summer in Red Deer whien I finish school.