Hello Wrong Planet

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Hi,

I'm a 37 year old woman who was diagnosed with Asperger's when I was 30 (in 2011). Some of you may know me already from AsperClick but I thought I would pop over here and introduce myself

I knew I had some form of HF-ASD from around the age of 14 when someone gave a talk at my school discussing the importance of eye contact and I realised I had no idea what they were talking about but I never sought a formal diagnosis, I foolishly thought I had a handle on it and I was doing fine and it wasn't until after I got diagnosed when I started watching videos and reading forums about AS that I realised just how many of my 'quirks' and issues were down to my AS.

I was also diagnosed with ADHD last year and if anything I think that has had a bigger effect on just how dysfunctional my life is.

I'm pretty introverted (although I hide it well around people I don't know well) and I have quite severe social anxiety, I used to have full blown agoraphobia where I would be physically sick if I had to leave the house but I managed to overcome the worst of it and now I just have social anxiety, although that in itself can be bad enough. I should add that I don't have issues with being assertive or self-esteem, I know people often do when they have anxiety but I seem to have managed to avoid that particular pitfall. I do, however, have clinical depression and I have done for nearly two decades.

One of the best things in my life was my cat; Rivers. Sadly he died in 2016 but while he was with me, he was often the only reason I would get up and get on with things and he was sometimes the only creature on earth who could make me smile/laugh. He had a very mischievous/naughty streak which meant he was very amusing to be around and while I miss him terribly, I am lucky to have many wonderful memories of him and his antics

Due to just how badly I was coping with life I stopped working, planning on getting my mental health sorted out and then going back to work full time, however, getting my mental health sorted out is turning out to be rather a lot harder and taking a lot longer than I anticipated, so I've been out of work for a while now.

While I'm not working at the moment, I did have a part time job from the age of 13 and I've worked full time since I was 16. I've worked exclusively in IT since I was 19, most recently I was a Unix Admin but I've done pretty much everything including; working at an ISP, service desk, web design, managing forums, data entry, server admin and hardware support.

I am definitely a complete geek, I love tech/gadgets and everything from browsing the web and gaming to programming to building kit. As for gaming... I mainly play RPG's, adventure or puzzle type games but I do fall prey to the occasional fantasy based MMORPG; Rift was the most recent one I played, although Dark Age of Camelot will always be my first love from back in the early 2000's.

Aside from being a geek, I also love reading, fantasy and cyberpunk mostly with some sci-fi, although I do read other stuff if it's fast paced and well written, like; Ian Rankin, Kathy Reichs, James Patterson and Dean Koontz. I do like my books to be action packed/fast paced and dark with a bit of an emotional roller coaster... I'm a big fan of the sub-genre of fantasy called grimdark. I also find mythology fascinating (Greek, Norse, Celtic, anything really).

I've always had an obsession with photography and I take and edit a lot of photos (I'm pretty good with Photoshop, since I can hyper-focus and have a meticulous attention to detail which isn't always a good thing but works for image editing).

I love all things science and astronomy in particular... I have a telescope and I'm planning on combining my love of astronomy with my love of photography sometime this year.

I also love playing pool, I was very good when I was younger as I would play pretty much every day (it was a good way to be social but have time out), I don't play so much now as I don't tend to socialise so much.

I love music, mainly rock/metal, although I also like classical and blues and usually at least one band/song from most genres. I also play drums (well I used to haven't really bothered in years since I realised I have no interest in being in a band or on stage).

As you've probably worked out from most of the above I am a complete tom boy and most of my friends tend to be men, although I never know how much of that is because I'm me or just because I tend to be in male dominated environments and therefore mostly meet men.

I have a collection of dragons, and I'm very lucky as I'm Welsh there's a lot of them available, given dragons are strongly associated with Wales. Welsh was actually my first language, sadly though, I lost a lot of it due to moving to a city where it isn't spoken so much when I was 10 but I have been actively working on getting it back recently (it helps that I now live in a more rural area where Welsh is more widely spoken).

I also have a weird obsession with stationary and I like calligraphy, that is pretty much the only thing about me that is even remotely feminine .

Well I think that's a pretty extensive introduction so I'll shut up now

hail to the chief and welcome to our club

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Croeso i Wret Planet, rwy'n credu y byddwch yn ffitio yma yn rhyfeddol.
(hope Google translate didn't muck that up too badly!)

You sound perfectly normal to me.

Welcome Miss Chief!

@Trogluddite Diolch yn fawr

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome

I hope you find lots to entertain you here.

Welcome and let us know if we can be of any help.