How is living in the UK like?

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I've read on here once that country is a lot more accepting of autistic people than here in the US.

Depends where in UK you live.

Personally I do not recommend it. I am looking to emigrate as soon as I can afford it.

If like me you love warm weather and despise the cold that is.

It varies hugely by area of the UK, and you have to be willing to put up with pretty intense variations between hot/cold/wet/dry practically any time of the year.

Bristol is pretty nice for the most part, and generally people (excluding chavs) keep themselves to themselves, which is nice. Theres also plenty of special interest groups and martial arts calsses etc to keep yourself busy.

As for being accepting of autistic people.. I don't have much to compare it to, so I can't really say. Most people I've met seem to be fairly skeptical, but hardly say anything about it. So again, people keeping themselves to themselves.

I suppose in the UK people have traditionally been more accepting of those who are considered slightly 'eccentric' but as in every country I think there's a collective consciousness that
compels people to seek validation for being accepted as 'normal' at least on the surface.

As for the weather,it's unpredictable and this summer we had one day with pleasant sunshine
follwed by hailstones.

am have been at different ends of the UK and am accepted by most-am have obvious autism so have always been treated with extremes-eg,pitied and called brave or treated like a pyscho or severely MR,those who have been nasty are young people who have no experience of autism,but when am was down south [think norwich is south?] am found even those who are classed as chavs there treated am with respect.
am find it is a lot more accepting than what have heard other countries are like,especially in the area am live in now.
this area is great for being welcomed as it used to be home to the institution am lived in so had a lot of residents using the shops and being seen,it's also home to many ld/autie residential homes and some for CPers/physical disabilities to so if are autie,aspie,CPer,whatever-are actually the 'normie' here.

the uk is great for getting support as the main autism organisations here [NAS and autism initiatives] see support as the biggest need-not research and cure.
and the support is free providing the SS have said need it,and have funded it.

am would recommend it to autists,but definitely norwich.

Last edited by KingdomOfRats on 23 Jul 2008, 6:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The UK is big and you cannot compare the mentality in for example London, Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales.

I lived in Northern Ireland. I liked the huge artistic scene (but that is typical to most of the UK), good healthcare system, good transport networks, ...

On the other hand, for the fine weather and food you don't need to go to Britain and what I disliked personally is the decadence of the nightlife. I don't go out myself often, but I happened to live close to the main nightlife area of Belfast so I sometimes saw the party people when walking home during the evenings. The number of drunks is incredible, the girls tend to dress really cheap, and the whole mentality seems to make it a race to drink as much as you can... Maybe generalising here, but if you see things like that on frequent basis it is certain partially true.

More accepting of autism? Maybe... In Northern Ireland people tend to be a bit more conservative then in other UK areas so I don't dare to make a judgement on that. I never felt any serious discrimination, I should say. Healthcare and councelling are free if you don't mind a long waiting list.

Wherever I've lived in the UK (and I've done so for all 43 years of my life) I've found it very hard to fit in. Places with big-city mentality tend to be full of people who ignore anybody they don't work with whilst places with rural mentality tend to be full of people who reject anybody they're not related to! I hear how different areas of the country are friendlier than others but have yet to see it (and I was a long-distance lorry driver for 20 years!). Let's not forget that some of us simply don't know how to fit in and therefore, no matter where we are, we will not fit in.

Weather, irrelevant!

The weather's horrible. Days without rain are, as an honest estimate, one in 25. Since it's not usually worth going outside and for a myriad of other reasons, people tend to shut themselves up from each other, and as much as being respectably reserved is a virtue, the self-imposed social isolation is cold and overbearing for me. Here at least too, the antisocial nature and crime rate are horrid. I despise the consumerist nature of Britain, and how we're one of the most conservative countries in Europe, bar the complacently fascist nation of Italy. Basically there are a hell of a lot of lumpenproletariats failed by our system which, for forty years, has slipped lower and lower still.

Other than that, British scenery is in my heart, football is in my heart, and British humour is in my heart. I'm starting to pine to move over to CA where a few friends are and life seems potentially merrier for me, but there would obviously be nothing there that could quite replace those three things, among others.

I love living in the UK, by UK, I mean England . There is no place else I'd rather be

- We have seasons
- There is a minimal risk of natural disasters
- The people are lovely
- So many sights
- Yes we have knife crime, but at least we're nowhere as near as bad as Yank land with all the gun crime.

I live in Norwich, in East Anglia, and I find that this area is a lot more accepting of all kinds of abnormality than the US. While I lived in the US I was often afraid to say that I was bisexual or that I had a mental illness, but here both those things are considered, if not normal, then at least perfectly acceptable.

Does anyone on here live in Whitechapel the place where the legend Jack the Ripper did his dirty work?

I'd like to check that place out or anything of any historical importance!! !

Bollocks. Many people - maybe not the majority, but a hell of a lot - are rude, ignorant and intolerant. All they care about is themselves and they look down on anyone who isn't "their own kind".

That's why I always say that a place besides your own may look better because you don't live in it.

Kind of goes along the lines of the grass is greener on the other side. Which means no matter how happy or well off you are it always seems that other people are happier and better off than you which in many cases isn't true only in the state of one's mind.


I would like to see some castles or anything historical...none here.

The grass is always greener topic

My family has not lived in UK/Ireland for over one hundred years. I might like to visit the olden countries over there but Canada is home.

Oi! *stands up for the Celts* We get enough of that from those Yanks, thanks very much!




I love living here (north Scotland) - I like to travel, but there's nowhere else I'd rather come home to! I can't really speak for treatment of autistic people, as I haven't been long diagnosed AS, but I would agree that 'eccentricities' are generally more accepted than in many other countries. People seem to be pretty accepting of autism in general though, at least in my experience.