Hi, I'm new too

[ChrisM]

Hi, I'm 62 and I just found out that there are other people like me. By the way, did anybody else take that Profile question about being a paragraph literally? I did, and answered it as if I were a paragraph. Probably because I'm a writer. I thought that was an interesting question and an appropriate one for Aspies. Then I thought it was funny, when I read other people's answers to that and realized that nobody else took it the way I did :-D

Anyway, I just found out that there are other people like me, when I read an article about how "girl Aspies" are often overlooked. It didn't take long for the top of my head to blow off as I realized what they were describing was me to a "t" when I was a child. I then found some female Aspie bloggers and sites and most recently read Women from Another Planet, which is a collection of internet writing by women Aspies, and just got in deeper and deeper. For the first time in my life I found something that described me and how my mind works and so many things about me. It's all a bit overwhelming; I've dealt with a number of physical and mental traumas in my life (mostly when I was much younger) and I've spent a fortune on therapy for depression and PTSd and you-name-it in years past, as needed, and it helped teach me to deal pretty well using cognitive tools - - but it wasn't until I got into the descriptions of female Aspie life experiences and inner workings that I got the whole picture for the first time. It was like finding the last piece to a puzzle that explained to me who and what I was. I knew this stuff about myself, but somehow I guess I needed some validation from outside to know for sure I wasn't defective or crazy, but just different (even though I've functioned well enough to get by as an adult, for which I'm grateful).

So I'd like to say to anybody younger - celebrate the fact that you are aware of this, and what it means, at whatever stage you are in life! Learn to work it and live with it and find joy and comfort in knowing you're not alone - and that it's okay to be different in this special way. Live long and prosper! :-)

Now I think I'll step back and learn from the rest of you for a while. If I start talking too much again, give me a sign, okay?

[Danie]

Welcome Chris! Im Danie. Its good to see you around. I also like to write, but wouldnt dare call myself a writer. I have notebooks and notebooks filled with stories, thoughts, sentences and words. Been writing since I was 3. Writing to me is easier than verbalizing.

[ChrisM]

Hi Danie. Thanks for your welcome. I don't know when I started calling myself a writer but at some point I realized that I've been doing it all my life for much the same reason as you, so whatever else I am, I'm a writer too. A scientist I know said when he was in college, he asked his physics teacher what a physicist is. The answer was, "someone who does physics." By that measure, you and anyone else who writes is a writer! It's a whole new world out there for us - the old rules about "publishing" are all gone now and all you need is a blog -- or to write in a discussion like this. So there - you're a writer! :-) IMO.

[Rho]

It wasn't until I did some net research on my son's Aspie that I learned that he got it from me. There are these kooky theories that vaccination has caused the sudden boom in Autism, but why would affect more boys than girls? Looking back at all the "stories" I was wold about my loose/loser/gold-digging aunt from my mother's side of the family, the more I learned that she was Aspie, too. I was never given any therapy, and though my son did get speech therapy and occupational therapy thru school, and he's adjusted pretty well. He tends to be popular with the young ladies now, but the boys call him gay/queer because they are envious, I'm sure. Will has never had any inclinations towards homo or bisexuality (never confuse one with the other), and even rolls his eyes during some gay kissing scenes during "Torchwood", a British sci-fi series that has an all-bisexual character cast. I only wish I had learned earlier myself. Too many females have been lost in the dogma of what we were told to be, and trying to gain approval, tried to be.
I'll never have a daughter, as it was my choice to have only one child, but I'm glad that I know what I do now to guide any granddaughters Will might give me.

[ChrisM]

Hi Rho - sorry it took so long to reply to your comment. Thanks for turning me on to Torchwood - I've been watching that, and catching up on the new Doctor Who too ever since (Netflix). I do enjoy gender bending and science fiction and things like that. I'm straight but not girlie and have mostly gay friends. I think it's easier nowadays to get along if you're different, but probably youth is the hardest time to survive for anybody because all societies define people in limited ways, but your comments on your son encouraged me that things are getting better in ours... I never had any children myself; can't imagine how I could have managed it on my own and I never had partner who lasted long. I haven't watched network TV in years but happened upon Modern Family this fall and have been watching that on Hulu.com. It's a sitcom with an obviously calculated concept, etc., but I actually find myself laughing frequently - always therapeutic - and feel like it succeeds in its attempt at promoting tolerance (or at least it doesn't violate my own sensitivities there). I'm also watching FlashForward on Hulu; no decision on that yet but I'm still watching. And I'm actually looking forward to the new version of "V" which premiers tonight. I think it's a Kenneth Johnson production and I really like his series, which always have some satirical points to make about stuff going on in the "real" world. One thing leads to another and I've also started catching up on the last few Battlestar Galactica productions too. And re-reading the Vorkosigan Saga - are you familiar with that? Wonderful book and audiobook series by Lois McMaster BUjod whose hero, Miles Vorkosigan, is a brilliant but physically damaged (in utero) swashbuckler living in a very ant-"mutant" society. Much humor and amusement there and she pulls off the concept amazingly well.

[Chris mcmorris]

Hey peace and long life im no good at writing but i can read at a university level since grade 6
and im kill at math but suck at art and grammer and socials but good at law and sociology
im eighteen and all the vital stats are on my page im a jock nerd that does moter building
and etching circuit boards and i like deathmetal and horror movies make me laugh
well i post a blog daily so yeah....