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Hi all
I'm a 44 year old male in the south west UK. Not yet diagnosed as AS, currently considering getting diagnosed. I first heard of AS about 4 years ago. This shook me up as I was hit by the realisation that so much of the confusion of my life wasn't my life at all, but symptoms of this neurological condition.

I didn't really explore the implications then as, typically for many with AS, I have developed a small army of coping strategies, even though I hadn't seen them for what they were. After years of isolation, I had got married and had 2 wonderful children. And after never managing to hold a job for more than about 9 months in my 20s, I'd been employed for 8 years. BTW I'm a software developer - no surprises there!

The reality of the condition catches up and currently I'm having a real struggle keeping it all together. Looking back, it appears that the AS symptoms are like a wave, occasionally lessening to be almost tolerable (but never totally absent) then ramping up to the point when all social contact is just too painful. And this still happens despite trying to hide under the coping strategies.

My main current interests: software development, guitar playing (flamenco, latin, bollywood, rock etc etc), mysticism, computer games addict (mainly strategy, but some RPG), spanish language, the works of thomas pynchon and david lynch, music from prog rock to drum'n'bass and classical, but NOT jazz, stone circles - yes, I'm an ageing hippy!

I never know whether I've disclosed too much or too little. The paragraphs above are more than I've disclosed to anyone, except perhaps my wife, face-to-face, ever!

I'll finish by saying best wishes to all of you here....

Welcome! Can I ask how you met your wife?

Sure, we met through a mutual friend. We had similar taste in music, books and weird films - an excellent foundation for a serious relationship!

Hi!

Welcome to Wrongplanet!

I hope you enjoy posting here!

Hi Steve.

Hi Steve. Welcome to WrongPlanet. Hope you like our wee community.

What part of south-west England are you from if I may ask - Cornwall is it?

Thanks for the welcome!

I'm not as far south west as Cornwall (yet) - currently just south of Bristol.

BTW I'm not a Steve - whatever gave you that idea???

Hey, I had the opportunity to tour Cornwall *and* Bristol with my family on vacation last May -- my first trip overseas. You're really lucky. Even though the UK struck me as being very expensive, and Bristol struck me as a bit rough, you live in a pretty awesome area.

When I saw Bath (we toured the town, didn't just do the Roman baths thing) my mouth literally hit the floor for the first time ever. Such a beautiful town. I never knew such places existed outside of a postcard.

hiya,

i can understand how you feel, i just had a diagnosies from when i was younger confirmed today and i stil feel very funny about it.

I use to live in Taunton, i spent 11 years of my life living in Robarton near the train station there, i now live in Thame oxfordshire but i go back from time to time.

and just for reference i am 16

jammie

Cool. Never been to Bristol, though.



One of the posters above referred to someone as Steve, and I thought it was you - d'oh!