A new user and former lurker

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Hail friends,

I am Dunedain (at least this is my alias here) and I have been interested in making an account for this forum for a while now. I am not particularly great at introducing myself but I suppose I will make a post anyways. This place seems comfy and I feel I could get along with you all. Often I feel alienated and nervous about posting online so I will attempt to get my thread-legs going all well and good. I was diagnosed when I was quite young (11 or so) and have always felt as if I was more of an "observer" on the outside of everything rather than feeling like I fit in anywhere, most of the time I feel as though I am making a fool of myself attempting to communicate with others. I don't really have many people to go to that I can relate to or go to for support and often feel very "alien", which I suppose is fitting for me coming here. Also, the internet these days feels a bit too large for me and a small reserved forum such as this is where I feel at home most in. Never enjoyed the popular mega-websites.

I hope you all are well, thank you for reading, and I apologized if my writing style doesn't make much sense, I often fear I come off as a bit all over the place.

Welcome to WP! I like your username.

Welcome to WP!

Pull up a chair and make yourself comfy.

You may never leave ...

Thank you both!

What things do you remember liking in your lurking?

I would often see threads regarding similar interests of mine and people who view things in a similar way (a really old LOTRO one I saw it in my search results reminded me actually, lol), and the way people socialize here reminds me a lot of myself from what I have seen. I also used to know someone who had posted here before and it seemed like a good place. I am usually quite bad at interacting on forums but I think I would be more at ease in a place with people similar to myself.

I also have trouble in online forums. I think it's easy for me to forget that the entity on the other end of that Wrong Comment™ is actually a person with feelings

That said, welcome! If there's anywhere we can feel free to be ourselves, I figure it's here!

By the way, I was just diagnosed at 54.

I've been wondering how my life would have been different if I was diagnosed younger. Do you sometimes wonder how your life would be different if you didn't know?

Welcome to WP! I hope you become a regular.

But I cannot help you contrast it to other social platforms. I have never used other social platforms, not even Facebook. But I like it here.

Hello!

For me, on forums, I always fear that I may accidentally upset a person or be the target of someone's ire unintentionally without knowing by saying something a bit silly.

Sometimes I feel that my life might be better if I didn't know, because I might not worry as much about it all, but at the same time I think it could have the potential for being worse because I'd feel like there wasn't an "answer" to lean on at times and I'd probably not be able to find as many resources for dealing with my issues and I'd feel a bit more lost. I suppose I still do feel that way sometimes and maybe ultimately it wouldn't make too much of a difference. I think there is something to be said for being diagnosed when you are younger can make you feel like a bit more of an "alien" at a young age and therefore overthink yourself out of everything and shut yourself out from talking to other people because you'll fear they know and think less of you for it. I did that quite a lot, and have sort of always felt like an "other".

Nowadays I enjoy being myself for the most part.

Trust me when I say that not having a diagnosis did not prevent me from knowing I was an alien. It just made me think I was broken. So knowing what was going on might have given me a chance to forgive myself for things I couldn't control.

But then you get to the idea that being diagnosed autistic in the 1970s (even though I was also "gifted") might have resulted in actual torture, so...

Ahoy-hoy.

Welcome to Wrong Planet.