this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2023
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Autism
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A community for respectful discussion and memes related to autism acceptance. All neurotypes are welcome.
We have created our own instance! Visit Autism Place the following community for more info.
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I found out I was autistic! That led to much insight, revelations, and was validating as hell. With this new info, I'm better prepared to adjust my life so that I can be happier and healthier. It's also pretty fun to start unmasking and engaging in my true-self. Additionally, it gave me a special interest to focus on, and I became a layperson-expert on autism.
I broke up and went no contact with my ex! While difficult at first, that turned out to be a major relief and pretty liberating. With this, I also started cutting out other people that were not good for me.
This community was established and flourished! This has helped me connect to a lot of other people just like me. While I still feel a bit lonely in my in-person life, I feel much less alone in an existential way. It's like thinking I was a weird alien all along, then finding out that there are a bunch of other people that are the same way. I'm not a weird alien. I just hadn't met my people yet. It also seems like it's creating opportunities to advocate for autistics, and I'm excited about that. Bonus: I left Reddit for good, which once I engaged here, I realize that place had stopped being a good fit for me.
I made an online friend that I occasionally play chess with! Sometimes they let me win, so I get to feel like I'm not terrible at chess ๐
I went to Brazil! I had never been to South America, though I had seen it from the coast of Trinidad. I learned that I really like Brazilian people and culture. I also tasted the best bananas I've ever had in my life. The trip has kind of made me want to move to Latin America since I feel great around Latinos. However, being American and autistic, I have some reservations because I'm used to things being more precise and accountable than is generally seen in Latin America. I'm kind of hoping I can find a place that is a good mix of the two. I'm seriously considering moving to Puerto Rico at the moment, and have been having conversations with Puertos Rican I know to get a better idea on how that move would affect me. Bonus: I met a super attractive girl while I was in Brazil ๐, which helped me move on from my ex.
I also became aware that I'm more than likely autistic this year as well thanks to, of all things, the YouTube algorithm. I had a few ADHD folks I would watch, but then I got some AuDHD stuff popup and I really found myself suddenly going "Holy shit! I'm not just weird!" and really checking boxes. I took a bunch of the tests (I know not official, but they are also free NOT $$$$) and I tested in the "probably" category on all of them.
The best was I think the first video about Autism I watched was by a guy that has both ADHD and Autism and had a female guest to talk about signs of Autism in females. Anyway I was like "yep" to so many of the signs (even though I'm male) that it started me actually diving into my journey of self discovery, and suddenly making sense of so much of my childhood, and now adulthood. It's kinda a wild ride.
Congrats! Welcome to the club ๐
I also went down the path of taking online tests, and they pretty much all said I was probably autistic. One in particular used terms that expressed certainty lol. Still, I had been misdiagnosed in the past with another mental health condition, so I shopped around and found an autism assessment that I could afford and felt confident in. Even though the assessment by a psychologist that is an expert on autism, 2 psychologist friends, and a separate therapist confirmed it, I still had some doubts that slowly went away. I still have the doubts here and there, but I feel comfortable with the identity. Being "non-autistic" my whole life, to then suddenly find out I'm autistic, has been a hard process to accept. It's not that I don't want to be autistic. It's more that I'm learning I'm something new that I never considered in the past. Basically, it's a major identity change that I guess takes its time to settle.
Yes, the adjustment is ... bumpy. I have crazy imposter syndrome, along with reflection of "what if" instances about my past had I known. Congrats on your diagnosis though!
Pretty much what happened with me this year but with some small changes (cut contact with my sister for example)
Also, I'm from Brazil and you might like either living in Sรฃo Paulo ou a city in the south of Brazil. And yeah, girls here love gringos lol