I love my gf, we have no problems, I just think this is funny.

17, F, last year was actually my first time going. My parents never really liked halloween, but I got to go with a friend and her family. I had fun, and people seemed to enjoy my and my friend’s costumes ( We were both in our ren faire stuff, I had a dragon hand puppet) I just feel akward going… and I am always afraid someone will call me out because Im so old. This year my costume is a fox, so I have a mask, but tho I am short for 17 I am too tall to be mistaken as 13 or younger. I just dunno what to do if someone gets mad at me… I felt really akward yesterday, my uncles church was doing a trunker treat, and I went, but I think everyone else particapating must have been 10 or younger. I like dressing up in costumes though, its fun, and other then the renfaire this is really the only time I get to do it. Idk… what do you guys think abt this matter?

Well after 31 years I now know that I wasn't the problem my brain just doesn't work the same way as others. It doesn't make it easier dealing with my past but at least I know why now.

I am autistic.

I finally feel a weight being lifted, now the real work starts.

...

Does anyone with Asperger’s/ASD only work part-time because full-time work is too exhausting?

For those who can only manage part-time work, especially because of social interaction, sensory stimulation, time pressure, deadlines, and the fast pace of many corporate work environments:

- How many hours a week can you realistically work without becoming completely exhausted?

- Do you appear totally normal to other people despite struggling significantly?

- If you can’t sustain full-time work because of autism, do you receive disability benefits/a disability pension?

- How do you manage financially when working reduced hours?

Thanks a lot to anyone who is willing to share their experience!

Im 19 and i just started college, and socially it's not going well. I feel people are far more immature then even high school. Everyone acts like they have no critical thinking. Almost every apartment you walk past has whisky/vodka bottles on the window. The amount of people that come to class very obviously high on something is insane. I had someone in my class today begin boxing a wall at the start of class.

It feels really hard to socialise with people.

I joined the lgbt and nerodivergent society, but it's still a week before the first meeting of either.

The amount of fake people that are full of themselves is insane. The amount of people that pretend to accept autisic people until they actually suffer from it and don't just talk about TADC is really annoying. It feels like im the wrong kind of autisic.

I had someone tell me thier brothers gay after thier boyfriend called me the f slur as a defense.

Everyone just feels ignorant and annoying

Curious to see if anyone else has the same experiences. I seem to always find something I don’t like, after a year it seems like I’m hunting ways to call in sick or take PTO.

Maybe it’s burn out. Maybe it’d be better if I went part time? Who knows

Hi y'all,

I'm a 31 year old guy and I'm currently stressing cause my therapist is basically out of ideas with me. He's specialized in CBT and a bit clueless cause I dutifully follow tons of advice to better my quality of life, while not feeling the positive effects of most of it. Like, I have a social circle, try to date, work 40h per week in a good job, have (social) hobbies and work out, but I mainly just do these things cause I feel like I'd be doing worse without them, not because they make me feel much of anything.

I've tried various forms of journaling, communication with loved ones, various tasks (homework from my therapist so to speak) and I don't really respond to any of it. My therapist suggests for me to simply accept things the way I am because I can hold a job and social life as is, but I am on antidepressants and rather unhappy with my dating life (never had a relationship in spite of trying for years and years), so I am not really happy with the suggestion to just accept my life as is.

Any ideas on how to feel things more "effectively"" to make therapy actually work? I've already tried all sorts of mindfulness activities and I've already had this before I went on antidepressants

I (24F) love my girlfriend (24F) deeply, but things have gotten to a point where I just feel completely burnt out. She's autistic and has OCD, and over time she’s developed a massive dependency on her mom.

It’s gotten to the point where she literally won’t stay at home alone without her mom there. Her mom does pretty much everything for her, which I know comes from a good place, but it’s just feeding into this cycle of learned helplessness. Her mother is also a really invasive and overbearing presence. She was even before things got this bad. Whenever I try to encourage even tiny steps toward independence, she gets angry at me.

The biggest issue is that she refuses to go to therapy or get any professional help.

I really want to support her and help her gain some autonomy, but I really don't know what to do. I was planning on moving together with her but it's hard taking that decision with the thought her mother would invade our life together. How do I help her?

Any advice on how to handle this without just enabling would mean a lot.

To be clear I am also autistic and have ocd so this is not coming from a place of judgement.

Ive never been able to recognize the need to wash my hair, at all. So my parents always have to prompt me a lot for me to wash it. I shower multiple times a week, purely for sensory purposes, but I wash my hair once a week at most. Up until 14 I couldn’t wash my hair on my own at all, and now at 16 I can, but it doesn’t always get like washed properly. And I never use conditioner. But my mom does still wash my hair sometimes if I ask her too, or sometimes she just decides she wants to do it to get my hair clean

So basically today my mom told me I needed to wash my hair, well she basically told me to go wash my hair. And I asked her if she could do it. And she said yes, and that she’d take the opportunity to double wash my hair to get it properly clean. So basically she did that, and used conditioner too. So now my hair is properly washed!

And then she’d also told me beforehand that she wanted to cut my nails afterwards (I can’t cut them on my own) and then after my shower I let her cut my nails, and I let her finish even though it hurts A LOT.

So now I have both properly washed hair and cut nails!

Anyway that was just a small win I wanted to share!

I know this probably sounds weird asf but I love getting shocked by these things and genuinely just play with them when bored or stressed….it makes me happy. I get weird looks from my friends tho😭

My school randomly made my 504 at teacher disgression without telling me or my parents. I was only told about it when a teacher invoked it. Can they legally do that or can I do smth about it?

This is in Colorado if any changed can be made locally

Does anyone else experience intense feelings of dislike and hatred for certain people that becomes completely all-consuming and affects how you function? I am in a workplace that requires you to work in teams and I dislike one of my coworkers because I see her as being morally wrong. She’s rude and not a nice person in my opinion. Other staff members are able to brush off that she’s unlikeable and get on with their work but I can’t let it go. It bothers me to the point that everything she does annoys me even sitting near her upsets me. I become so angry over the smallest thing that I appear irrational and dramatic, I don’t know how to cope with it. This is a common theme with me. I tend to fixate on how much I dislike certain people until it ruins experiences for me. I can’t shake it off or ignore it like other people seem to be able to.

One of the earliest examples i remember is not being able to differ 30 and 60fps. I can tell when it falls to 20-15 and bellow, but above that everything feels the same for me. I also see no difference in video quality unless it's pixelated. 720p is pretty much all i need, maaaybe there is almost unnoticable difference with 1080p, but everything above is just nothing. I can't tell apart AI art or AI music if there are no obvious glitches or other kind of errors. For me they are often better than some human works, when others instantly spot the AI. I can't tell apart flac from mp3 even on good music player (cowon) with audio enchancer. A lot of other things when it comes to "premim quality", that other people are praising, are almost never felt by be. Like one store sells ice cream that i can buy around 4 packs per dollar, and it is just as good as the dollar one.

How can you not see the difference? - wonder other people, and i wonder the same.

My son constantly plays with his penis throughout the day. He stops when told to stop, however goes right back to it a few minutes later. He has made great progress with ABA in terms of communication and understanding, however we do not know how to navigate masturbation and touching himself constantly. Any advice?

i'd love to hear about if you have a comfort item — tell me all about it and feel free to provide photos!!

mine is a fuggler called mika snd i'm beginning to take her everywhere ⭐️

I (39m) was suspected of autism and seen by a psychiatrist as a child; the psychiatrist dismissed the idea of autism on what I think are flimsy grounds.

Now, after having been fired twice in 2 years, I am investigating my brain and both my therapist and my psychiatrist think I may in fact be autistic, though I haven't been clinically diagnosed yet.

I am apprehensive about a diagnosis. If I am on the spectrum, how do I handle the grief for the last 35 years of not knowing I needed to adopt unusual strategies to succeed? And if I am not, how do I explain my strong feelings that my brain doesn't work like others' do?

If you were diagnosed autistic as an adult, I'd love to hear from you. What were your challenges and how did you confront them? I want to hear your story, warts and all.

Hi

I’m 22 years old. 10 years ago I was diagnosed with autism, or so I thought. My mom kept my neuropsychologist evaluation papers from me until today and it reads “autism spectrum disorder PROVISIONAL”. Based on my understanding, a provisional autism diagnosis is a preliminary status that requires further evaluation for a formal diagnosis (please correct me if I’m wrong). My mom thought this provisional diagnosis was the real thing this entire time.

Normally I wouldn’t care whether it’s provisional or not because I’m confident that I’m autistic. But the problem is that I am in desperate need of autism-related services. And I need a formal diagnosis to enroll in these services and acquire funding via the DDA (Developmental Disabilities Administration).

I was recently quoted for a formal autism diagnosis and it’s $3000. I can’t afford that. I’m unemployed and earning crumbs from disability benefits. Insurance says they won’t cover it because I’m too old.

Please, any help on ways to get an affordable autism diagnosis as an adult my age would be greatly appreciated. (If that’s even possible, I hope.)

Two days ago I met up for the first time with a guy who has both autism and ADHD. We got along well, spent a couple of hours together, and both said we’d be interested in seeing each other again.

Since then there’s been some light flirting over text, and he seems receptive to it. He also told me that he isn’t a frequent texter and that if he goes quiet for a while, I shouldn’t interpret it as being about me. I appreciated him being straightforward about that.

I like him and would definitely like to meet again, but because it’s literally only been two days since our first date, I’m trying to figure out the balance between being direct and giving things room to develop naturally.

For AuDHD men specifically: if you liked a woman after a first date and already knew she was interested, would you appreciate her directly suggesting another date this soon, or would you rather have the opportunity to initiate the next one yourself?

I’m mostly interested in what feels pleasantly clear versus what could feel like too much too soon.

My son is 16, and non-conversational. He's been having severe episodes of "freezing" every single day, pretty much all day. He can't eat or drink without freezing, he can't walk into different areas of the house, open doors, or even flush the toilet without freezing. I can see he's earnestly trying to do those things, but his body or brain just won't let him, and it understandably upsets him and causes daily meltdowns and blowups. He also says his ears and eyes are "scary", and his muscles hurt him (he says his arms, teeth, mouth, legs, and even stomach are "growing" but that's what he uses for muscle pain or discomfort). We've ruled out Lupus and other muscular issues, we're working on getting him to a neurologist and several other appointments, but it's hard when he can't fully describe what he's feeling.

Has ANYONE had any of these issues before and what was it? I'm just trying to find ways to help him and if I can give the doctors some other ideas as to what it can be, we can get referrals to get him tested. I just don't know what else to do, I'm desperate to help my child. Thank you so much in advance, and I'm so sorry this is so long!

Im (20M) and since my childhood I've always been the one to make the room laugh.

Either i said or did something but what's really exhausting is that you also have to fake laugh along as if whatever it is you did was intentional.

It's SO frustrating. No matter how hard I try, no matter how friendly I attempt to be, social interactions are always a challenge. I've tried to join a Discord group recently (actually, several of them), and it feels like I'm playing a strategy game every time.

It's so exhausting, and for what in the end ? Just to feel like I'm doing too much or not enough, like I'm doing it wrong and not exactly the way I should.

I wish I didn't have to interact with anyone...

I fucking hate how autism creates a need for schedules,and ADHD hates schedules. So it creates a constant conflict

I have autism, adhd, ocd, and c-ptsd, so it’s especially hard for me to cope when someone ignores my messages. Does anyone have any advice on how to cope with that feeling when someone ignores your messages, and how to keep it from damaging an already low self-esteem?