I can only take so much negativity

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I am getting an interesting dynamic from this site where (as I understand it) the moderators / those with posts' 'seniority' feel a pressure to be more helpful towards the less frequent users? I just find it interesting from a sociological point of view, looking at how people self regulate to cater to specific roles within the community. I think that the dynamic of having more experience in the site shouldn't have to translate with having more responsibility towards users' happiness unless you are a moderator obvs but I understand the more frequent users will feel a sense of kinship and responsibility which is kind of admirable.

also, I wonder, if the more frequent users feel they take on a persona eventually - maybe the helpfulness feels like second nature because that is their role in the site... all speculation. I hope it makes sense.

Yes, it makes a lot of sense, and I also find it interesting (I suspect that many of us are amateur sociologists/anthropologists thanks to a lifetime of finding human behaviour so perplexing). There have definitely been times when I've thought that my age and life experiences ought to enable me to contribute something useful to a thread, and have then felt down when I couldn't coherently explain myself and gave up on posting.

I have benefited enormously from the help that I've received here, and so I do feel somewhat obliged to reciprocate - to repay my debt, so to speak. I guess like many autistic people, I also feel that my social and employment difficulties can make me feel like a "slacker" who contributes little to society (I've been told so often enough!), so helping here goes some way to giving me a feeling of being more connected to people and doing something constructive with my life. Also, there is just the sense of empathy that I feel for people struggling with issues that I've struggled with myself, almost certainly felt more keenly because of living life surrounded mostly by neuro-typical people with whom I find such empathising difficult - so, as you say, a kind of kinship, and one not often felt out in the wider world. I'll leave it to philosophers to discuss whether any of this can truly be called altruism!

I don't particularly feel any pressure due to any kind of forum "seniority", though; in fact, I would say the opposite for me. When I first started here and had settled in a bit, I was often too eager to jump in and regularly overestimated my understanding of autism and my ability to help. I suppose you could say that I felt a certain pressure to prove that I belonged here or deserved to benefit from being here. I've had some amazing revelations come to me thanks to posts by people who only just joined or who are decades younger than me, and this has encouraged me to listen more and not to post just for the sake of feeling that I'm contributing something or to justify my presence.

I used to post more frequently, but then life took an upturn and I've been busy.

I like to pop in and involve myself sometimes. I have very little ambition to fix someone's life - after all, it is their life - but I look at it like throwing some positivity in and hope some of it sticks. You never know when someone is at the right time of their life to benefit from a bit of goodwill. People here helped me a lot, so I figure if we all keep helping each other a little bit, the mass of it benefits people.

A long time ago I made myself a rule that I would stay friends with people who bitched and complained and then went on to do something about their problems, but ditch people who just enjoyed complaining. At the time I knew nothing about autism, though. I know how exhausting I can be to people when I keep churning on the same problem, so I try to extend some patience to others on WP. That said, if you don't have the energy for it, you don't have it, and if you then involve yourself it can get ugly, with misunderstandings and the like.

One thing I find confusing though is the attitude some have that if you are not depressed then you can't be autistic. If that were so, the future would indeed look bleak. It's possible to have bad days and still be generally happy.

I thought about what cured my depression, and it's the following:

1) The understanding from others that came with diagnosis. I just have some nice people around me. This was really it.

the two following made my life happy

2) A bit of an income
3) An meaningful occupation

It's not bloody rocket science. Autistic people need a lot of the same things as other people. Love and understanding, financial security and work.

A lot of the problems people have are of a political nature, not personal. But PPR and L&D can break the strongest of us, I think. They really are bottomless pits.

Sorry, this was a lot about me, but at the time I was depressed I would have liked to hear how someone have gotten out of depression, because that would mean that it was possible, and that it not be the kind of "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" kind of advice that is so unhelpful.

Yeah...negativity is a pain in the tuchus…..

that's a very good point. i think the intent to improve oneself needs to be there. of course, no one can change their reactions from negative to positive overnight but acknowledging the problem and wanting to do something about it is step 1 and i feel that people will be more eager to help than if one just complains but isn't willing to work on themselves (talking from personal experience too).