How have you changed since joining this forum?

Post Reply New Topic

mee too.

I have not been on this forum for long. I came on to ask a few questions and have become carried away on various tangents as I do...
I hope I am not being a pain. I never intend to upset anyone so please don't be upset if I write something without thinking.
I do think this forum is great and you all have such blessed tallents in explaining things that on the model railway sites I am on (I very rarely try other sites... To tell you the truth, even though I am slightly above average intelligence, I find I am very narrow minded in that it is like I ave blinkers on, yet at the same time I sit back and observe everything around me when I am in real life (As in not online). I am instantly aware of other cars when driving, or other people if out and about walking. Yet online I am very narrow minded as in just a few sites I am on. Yet these sites I will look and look and look at. Strange eh? (Is only that I really want answers to my questions that gave me the urge to join this site.. and I am glad I did as you lot are so patient and kind).

Not all that much to be perfectly honest. I am rarely here as I am busy with pottery and gardening, but I have changed a little because now that I use the internet my children, grand children and great grandchildren all think I am really hip, or "cool" as they put it.

Very nice. Is that you in the photograph by your username?

It's only been a couple months so I dint think I've changed much In that time.

There is one thing about my mentality I've been trying to open more because of this forum. I have felt that I've seen many people be rather linear, rigid, or kind of anal. It's made me want to be much more tolerant and accepting.

I think I should retract the statement I made in my post in this thread. I have had quite a few positive changes this week happen to me. I'm a bit more optimistic than I have been in the last few months.

I'm much more educated with Asperger's and autism than I was before I came here. I used to think everyone who can write an internet post about their thoughts and feelings are as high-functioning as me. I never knew the autism spectrum was as diverse as it is, and I learnt that the hard way but at least now I know.

Even though I was diagnosed with AS at 8, I still wasn't given that much information about it. It was described to me as "AS means don't talk to people properly", and that you get anxious, and you don't like loud noises, and that was it. And I thought it was extremely rare, being so I was the only one diagnosed with it in my immediate family and in my class, and I read somewhere that children are diagnosed with AS when they are around 8 years old, so I thought that meant anybody who isn't diagnosed at 8 years old it means they don't have it.

The only other person I met in childhood who was on the spectrum was a friend's brother, and he was severely autistic, as in low-functioning, non-verbal, locked inside his own world, and I think he had intellectual disability too. So that just made me believe that you're either high-functioning and quite 'normal' in some ways like me, or you're severely autistic with no knowledge about the world at all. But that was years ago. I'm a lot more educated about it now, thanks to WP.

There’s an avatar here that’s a picture of Marilyn Monroe. She passed away in 1962. Imagine if she actually didn’t die, and is now posting on WP as a ninety-something?

^^^you're saying she was on the spectrum?

I don't think Marilyn Monroe was autistic, but she was painfully shy as a young girl and had a severe stutter. I think she also suffered from depression.

Since joining Wrong Planet in 2006, I have accepted the fact that being on the spectrum is just a part of my "human essence" and that I have managed to keep my insecurities at bay given that since joining WP, I now believe that eventually I will find my place in the world.

Despite a growing sense of optimism, I often feel that when I find myself proper employment and/or my own place to live, I also believe that some people who want to hold me back will find me and break down everything.

As a closure for this post, I also have had a strong desire to meet fellow members of WP in-person, so if you are familiar with Portland, send me a PM and maybe we can do something fun.