Optimism and Reality: Goldfish21 Response to me

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And that makes sense!



He has been going through a certain regimen. Maybe his regimen does work. If it will help me, maybe I will give it a try and see what happens.

I was raised Catholic (non-religious now), and one of my problems with the church was always the conflicting message between the New Testament and the church itself. Where Jesus preached love, acceptance, and building humanity from the bottom up (not top down), the actual church emphasizes a lot of the opposite: large churches, gold-lined stain glass, parochial dominance as opposed to a personal relationship with god, etc. As for the social aspects I also found after church events to be the most likely place to see the sins Jesus warned about: gossip, demeaning the poorer parishioners in subtle yet noticeable ways, and a general lack of acceptance if one was not part of the 'in' clique at said events. That's not to say there aren't good people involved, just that I can't reconcile the institution with it's underlying philosophy.

You are right about the after church social events. My family doesn't fit in at all. We were ostracized by everyone especially when my dad was out of a job and I was at a psych hospital. My parish has gossip queens and they spread crap about me around the parish. My priest has no illusions about people. Most of the people at my parish don't like him because he tells them what they don't want to hear when does his homilies. My brother and sister won't go to church because of the way people treat us. I try to focus on Jesus and the mass itself. I love receiving the Eucharist.

You priest sounds like one of the good ones. I'm assuming he's either very old and burned out on playing the game, or very young and idealistic. Those are generally the two stereotypes where you'll see unfettered truth. Also, the problem with the parishioners we've both noticed is that they degrade the institution as a whole since they're basically being hypocrites. I understand we're all human, make mistakes, sin, etc, but the people I'm talking about don't even put in effort, they view going to confession as their only real responsibility: sin all week and make them some good ones, God will forgive all come Sunday. As I said I'm a non-believer now, but when I was a believer I never got that message out of the bible, and those type of people were about 90% of the reason I left.

My priest is older and he grew up in a communist country. Why do these people even go to confession if they aren't truly sorry for their sins? I can't stand hypocrites.

I appear that way to most people most of the time. I go to great lengths with diet/supplements etc to minimize my ASD symptoms and keep my brain firing as close to NT as I can.

It's possible you are nearly NT to begin with. No shame in that.

Cubedemon, he could be so close to the NT line to begin with. That's my Gestalt feeling.

It depends on my state of health in terms of maintaining the balance that I do to keep my brain firing better. In general, I pass for NT. I make mistakes and people look at me like "wtf?" but they have No Concept that I'm on the autism spectrum & thus there is no leeway; I get to suffer the full brunt of my mistakes and if I were to apologize and disclose that I'm ASD they'd think I was nuts, lying, or using it as an excuse so it's best to just shut up and carry on.

When my brain is firing very well, functions operate naturally and intuitively and when I see others making ASD mistakes I sometimes catch myself rolling my eyes at the "obvious" social blunders & then I catch myself doing that and realize my own brain is functioning more a it's intended so I have this NT-ish reaction to others' mistakes when I'm not making them myself.

In poor health w/ my symptoms amplified, it's MUCH more believable that I'm on the spectrum - in fact, to any knowledgeable person about it, it's painfully obvious. I'm still quite intelligent in either state, but definitely much more "aspie" at times - annoyingly, frustratingly, so.

Life is SO much better keeping myself in check & symptoms minimal. Everything is just easier, more fun, comes more naturally, less frustrating etc and I'll continue doing what I do - and improving what I do as I have again this year - forever as it enables me to work, live, play, pursue other goals etc like never before. I've done so many things in the last 4-5 years that used to be impossible for me and I never want to stop that. That's why I have new long term 10-15 year goals to work towards that I never in a million years otherwise could have realistically considered. Now? Now I'm different, so different things are possible, and bit by bit I'll utilize this gift I've created for myself and make the most of my life as I see fit to do so.

FWIW If anyone gives a flying s**t in the least bit: I firmly believe that what I do to treat my symptoms can & will work for many others. People simply need to be willing to try them for themselves. In general, the response here has been "Not a MD, therefore not a reliable trustworthy source of information & advice. No empirical study evidence, just a personal anecdote," etc. Yep, all that, but it doesn't change one damn thing about what I've figured out & how well it works for me and the massive impact it's made on my life. Slowly some are coming around to the idea that I'm telling my God's honest truth, and that's cool, but I don't need the forum community here's approval to go ahead and continue living my life and working towards my goals. I'm gonna carry on and do things, anyways. If anyone else wants to do for themselves what I do for myself, ok cool, good for them - I'm an open book about it.

Same thing you'd do anywhere.. find out who's hiring, apply for jobs. The process varies depending on the industry where you live. If it's all very small contractors, you apply to them. If it's run by big unions, you go inquire about becoming a member and starting out as a labourer/apprentice. Or you go start your own contracting business if you have the skills and resources. Or maybe you put an ad on craigslist and await job offers. Or maybe everyone in your town gets their start in construction by hanging around the Hope Depot parking lot at 7am and getting selected by some contractor for a day's work. It totally depends on how things are done where you live, whether you want to work residential, commercial, renovation, restoration, custom homes etc. There are many different types of construction and even more trades, big companies, small ones, out of town camp work, downtown office building.. once you know what part of the industry you want to work in then you can better determine how to get started in it. But in general it's like any other job: apply for it, get hired, go to work.

You're happy so that is really all that matters. Like you said, it shouldn't matter what I think. Just keep on your path and may you have continued success.

Yep, doing it. It's not that I don't care at all what others think, it's just that it doesn't really matter as it doesn't matter if others don't believe me, I know what I know & how I am now and the opportunities treating my ASD affords me. I'm gonna carry on working & saving money and all that as well as return to University studies part time for the next ~decade or so if that's what it takes. If money allows, maybe full time sooner than that, but if not w/e I'll just plug away at it for as long as it takes to reach my goals. 7 years? 10 years? 15 years? Doesn't matter, I'll just keep carrying on until I get to where I want to be.

Like I said, it shouldn't matter whether or not I believe you have autism. You're doing well for yourself so that is the bottom line.

I'm going to look at it the same way. If his techniques work for him then awesome! Hey maybe they'll work for me. Maybe I could try his epson salt idea. I did take a bath i epson salt with eculyptus and it was relaxing. If nothing else it will help me relax, right?

I do have issues with gerd and post nasal drip. I wonder if some of Goldfish's ideas will help with that as well cause I've been to docs and I ended up using up my medical insurance and received no relief.

Epsom salts on your skin cannot harm you, so it's worth an inexpensive try to see what it might do for you if you do it daily for a few weeks.

I have no idea if the diet etc I've done would help with gerd or post nasal drip. Never know, though, it could. My plant allergy symtpoms are way down the past few years & my immune system, in general, is stronger. My digestive health is better, too. So, it could have an impact on gerd/nasal drip. Won't know unless you try it.

I totally like Epsom salt bath. Especially lavender.

Who wouldn't benefit from that? Especially with all the cold winter weather.