Would you consider attending an aspie gathering?

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This is a common problem in small autistic gatherings, where one unpleasant person may dominate the conversation. This problem is solved at larger autistic gatherings, where there tend to be several groups. At such gatherings, if an unpleasant person starts dominating the group you are in, feel free to move to a nicer group.

No. I don't do groups. Aspies may be different than NT's but Aspies are not all carbon copies of each other either. I would still be a group of strangers. My social anxiety is much too severe for that.

I do attend 2 or 3 support group meetings a month. But I would be open to something overnight or a weekend that is within reasonable public transportation range and reasonable price.

I would if it were local (within a few hundred miles) or cheap to get to. (vegas lol)

I would attend if those there were interested in discussing in person what I've shared on the forums about how I've managed to successfully treat and reduce my ASD symptoms.

Otherwise I'm not really that interested, to be honest. Unless, of course, there happened to be a cute gay guy there that was my type and had the type of ASD symptoms I adore vs. detest. Other than that.. meh, I have local friends with mutual special interests to get my fill of talking about them.. and I'd imagine besides wanting to discuss mutual interests, the rest of such gathering might be the same sort of pity party this forum is a lot of the time & I'm really not very interested in discussing problems in circles vs. sharing dialogue about solutions.

If it were within 30-35 miles of home I would be there in a New York minute.

New York is a lot more than 35 miles from where I live; actually that stricture would preclude anywhere east of the Cascade Mountains.

I wish there were still Aspie Women's meetings in Tacoma. I found a flyer online once but all the contact information is out of date.

you live in Tacoma? I live on the opposite side of the Oly square pegs aspie meetup from you! had you thought about attending the oly meetup? it is held on the first and third Saturdays of each month @ 12:30PM @ evergreen college in the staff lounge across from the egg plant cafeteria, in the main building opposite the quad/bell tower. you know you're in the right building if you hear a radio station broadcasting.

OMG yes, this is such a problem with smaller meetings, and one of the reasons I much prefer larger groups with multiple conversations going on. In the early years of Squarepegs, the Seattle meet-up I co-founded, we used a round table format that was really prone to getting hijacked by monologuers who would eat up all the allotted time with minutiae delivered in excruciating detail and a willful immunity to interjections, so we switched to a cocktail party format and never looked back. I've learned to always have a beverage in my hand at the meetings, so that I can down it and excuse myself to get a refill and discretely change conversations if I find myself getting button-hooked, useful trick.

I would totally be willing to consider this if it didn't involve other people.

Unfortunately it does, and fellow Aspies or not, I can't handle it. When I have to deal with people my stress levels get unbearable, I struggle with a facade of casualness while silently panicking, and my vocabulary shrinks by more than half. Even making small talk is a struggle. If there are five or more people in the group, I would disappear quickly without attempting to speak at all.

Besides, in every group I seem to have "that guy" who makes it a difficult experience for everyone else if it isn't already--much like the person Syd describes above. No matter what kind of group it is, it seems there is always a "Frank" (or a Francine, but it's usually a guy) who downed half a gallon of gin before he arrived, or has registered as a conscientious objector to bathing, or just has to tell everyone that his next-door neighbor is seal-coating his driveway with mind-controlling chemicals. I've run into enough Franks to last me a lifetime, and I've probably got at least 40 years left to go.

If you guys choose to attend a meetup, though, I sincerely hope there is no Frank and that you all have a wonderful time.

Compared to most NTs, I am an introvert. Compared to most other aspies, I'm kind of an extrovert. This would make things kind of interesting if I were to attend an aspie gathering...

I assume that an "aspie" gathering would involve some structured activities, rather than simply letting everyone loose to stand around and socialize, as most aspies would have trouble with that. I would certainly prefer a semi-structured event, to one where you just have huge crowds of people. I wouldn't want too much structure though, because it would be too restricting, and it would make it harder to actually meet other aspies and interact with them.

I've been to a couple of conventions before, and to be honest, I don't handle them very well. I like the idea of them better than what they're actually like. It's hard to come out of your shell when you're surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands of people.

I think I'd like conventions better if they were organized more like a museum tour or a school field trip. A small group of people guided from one exhibit to another, possibly with occasional breaks where I can explore a bit by myself, before returning to the group.

I would assume that most who attend such gatherings are on the extroverted side of the aspie spectrum. While most in the groups I have attended have been on the introverted part of human spectrum I have seen true extroverts at these meetings.

For me, an ideal social event involves sitting around in someone's living room with a few people, having some drinks, and just shooting the s**t, watching movies, playing video games, etc. Nothing really loud or exciting or involving more than about 4 people, including myself.

I am an introverted, hermit type of person. I don't join clubs that I would have to attend in person. Joining online groups is my limit. I rarely even visit relatives. I do run occasional errands, but I mostly stay at home, so no, I won't be attending any Aspie functions in person.

Same. It's not to be rude, but I just don't want to be around people the majority of the time, and when I do, it's a very select few people.

I didn't know there was a regularly scheduled Aspie meetup in Olympia.

I am interested--don't know how the sig.oth. would feel about the regular transportation expense, and he's already predicted that I wouldn't gain anything from going to such things. Knowing how introverted I am, he might have a point. But then again, it might help me to feel a little less out of place in this NT-normative world!

Are there private messages on this board? I've never used them, but I want a map and an address and a flyer or something. Would have to show the s.o. to gain a foothold on trust...

Hm. That would include this Saturday, yah? Would there be other dweebs there saying "To The Professor" and knowing we were talking about Tolkien?

I've actually been to an aspie meet-up. It had to do with college, education, and independent living, and a lot of us just attended a conference to ask legitimate questions.

Pretty damn interesting experience, actually. A lot of variety of people, as well. I got to see perhaps the most severe of those with autism, and I also saw people who you would probably think were NTs. Overall, I liked the vibe it gave, mostly because we had similar traits. Plus, there was some awesome food.

I'd definitely go to one. Probably a lot more friendlier than say, a typical party. Of course, I'm sort of the introvert hermit type myself, but social anxiety has crippled me.

The Oly Square Pegs meeting--looks like it is almost a 35 mile trip for me and googlemaps says it would take nearly an hour in that dreaded thing known as traffic. I hate traffic.

Of course it never stopped me from going to the races in Rochester when I was dating a certain racecar engine mechanic...

I do miss those days. Happily I don't have to miss him because my racecar guy is still my s.o.

So I will "put a pin in it" as the annoying agent in the movie Bolt always said.