Hello from Michigan and Middle Age

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Hi, I'm a middle-aged woman diagnosed with high-functioning autism/Aspergers about seven years ago. I have known about Wrong Planet for years and I've read a few discussions here. I hadn't looked at WP for several years but recently found a discussion thread when I was looking up information about the phenomenon of parents looking to "launch" their teens or young adult children with Aspergers instead of just kicking them out to homelessness.

So I decided to look at the forum again and discovered the sub-forum for people not diagnosed with Aspergers until mature adulthood. This made me decide to join because there are few resources or places for adults who grew up with Aspergers before it even began to be diagnosed and treated in a compassionate and logical manner. Everything else on the web seems to be directed at caregivers of children with Aspergers or deals with young adults making their way.

Anyway, I'm eager to look at a sub-forum that allows that I exist and to meet other adults with Aspergers who can relate to experiences similar to mine.

Welcome.
I was diagnosed in 2006 after a lifetime of wondering if I were crazy or just plain weird.

Ah, don't be fooled - its only treated with compassion if you're a child.

Don't you know Autistic adults don't exist? Grownups who claim to have Autism are just slackers who can't keep a job, making excuses for their inabilities to work within the system. At least that's what I'm told by everyone but my Therapist and the Psychologist who diagnosed me.


Welcome aboard!

Hello, pi_woman. I can't help noticing your pi. I used to be called pi girl when I was growing up because I used to recite pi to myself in times of stress and when I needed to be "in my bubble" in crowded places like the hallway between classes. That was the nicest nickname my schoolmates had for me.

Oh, I'm familiar with that. I assume that's why there are so very, very few fora and etc. for adults on the spectrum. People think it magically disappears upon the eighteenth birthday.

I should have been more specific. Older people got to have those attitudes directed at us right from the start rather than getting a decade or more of reprieve before having to deal with it.

Welcome.

Welcome aboard!

<<< (Expat Michigander)

Hello to my fellow Michigander!! I'm from Motown, and I'm an adult on the Spectrum. Looky that...we already have 4 things in common!

Welcome to WP!

Thanks for the welcomes, everyone. I'm excited by all of the opportunities to talk about things where I won't get looked at as if I'm a weirdo if I go on and on. However, I have no real idea where to start. My feelings about Asperger's are kind of a disorganized mess. I think it's because in the world of "normals" all I think about Asperger's is how to hide it, except with my partner and my roommie.

I was wondering when you'd post again.

Living in Michigan (if I remember correctly) is not exactly conducive to personal growth to begin with, and even less so for autistics. Unless you live near Ann Arbor (especially the U of M), you may not be around the resources you need to help you learn to deal with your Autism.

I grew up in a dirty little Michigan town that was full of union members, hunters, drunks and sports fans - none of whom gave a rodent's rectum for anyone who seemed even the slightest bit bookish, intellectual, or just plain "weird". Seeking out academics was my only recourse, and even they were too few and far between to help much. I left that town one week after graduating high school, and rarely went back, even for family visits.

Welcome to WP. Hope you find a home here