Autism support groups

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Do you participate in any?
There is one which is held virtually that I have participated in occasionally. Once per month they hold meetings.
However, I've been reluctant to participate for a while and there are a few reasons.

For one, I find the feeling of the meetings to be somewhat of a sob story. I know that may sound harsh but that's kind of how I view them. It doesn't do a lot for my sense of well being to listen to a bunch of grievances. I don't feel I am making progress in my life necessarily by participating. In fact, I tend to have a more negative view of participating in the meetings. I can view my participation as a sign I'm not where I want to be.

Second, the group organizer who coordinates and hosts the meetings once made a very stupid and childish remark about
something which I take seriously. I mentioned the Ukraine war during a meeting as a story that I follow closely.
I said that Putin was evil which is a commonly held view. The group host made a remark that perhaps there was some genius about him. It really made me angry and I thought to myself 'Why am I associating with this group when the host makes such outlandish remarks'? It was really an off putting thing to hear.

Finally, at the last meeting I participated in one person made a remark about their pronouns.
When introducing themselves to the group, this person was vocal about how they needed to be referred to with the correct pronouns. Not only that, but if this request wasn't adhered to, they suggested there would be 'problems'. LOL!

It made be cringe and question why I was associating with this group. I generally find the pronouns subject to be distasteful and don't want to be around someone who makes an issue of this.

I found support groups very similar; I attended a few thinking I might make new friends or do social networking. Instead I felt they were mostly a whine session. I called them "Debbie downer" meetings.

Yes true. A debbie downer meeting never raises your spirits.
Further to this, I attended these same support meetings in the pre-covid era when they were held in person.
With the best of intentions, I proposed some changes to the structure of the meeting. I felt the meetings should focus more on goals of individual members and self improvement.

The very fact I had offered a different perspective was deemed as a threat to the structure of the group by the then-group organizer. They were not happy to see me return to one meeting and tried to have me banned from the group
simply for sharing my views.

Just ridiculous and not worth it when you deal with this.

This forum is my only support group. There really isn’t any resource for adults on the autism spectrum in my local community.

I've not sought any out, but I avoid stuff like that, as anything to do with groups usually doesn't go well. You have cliques and the people who have been there forever. People get elitist and snobby, which is why when I did Facebook, I ended up leaving all the hobby groups I was in, because of this attitude.

I better stop or a rant will start.

I haven't been in any particular support groups, I have been here and I was attending a weekly meet up, but over time it went from being an opportunity to socialize to a bunch of whining and support group stuff.

Last November, I stopped going because there were a bunch of rule and certain opinions weren't welcome. Just the amount of energy that I was having to put into using the right language, and not hurting anybody's feelings and the like, which would have been fine if I was there for a support group, far less so if it was more about socializing.

I think autism support groups can be fine, however, it's going to depend a great deal on how they're organized and run. Expecting group members to use "I statements" and "person first language" and that sort of nonsense makes little sense when the people who are attending have language related communication challenges.

No I have little faith in face-to-face autism support groups, and I'd have to travel far out of my way to even find one. It would have to be a remarkably well-organised group oriented strongly towards finding good practical ways of making life with ASD better. It would have to be going somewhere that was worth my time.

I'm only on WP because it's easy and costs nothing.

Never been to one myself. Someone did try and get me to go to an autism youth club when I was 20 which I objected to. I politely declined stating that I was far too old for a youth club... But of course that doesn't matter because if you have special needs it turns out you don't grow up until you are at least 21!

Given how widely the label "autism" is applied, it may be of use to some who are so identified, but "autistic support group" seems like an oxymoron!