• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Hello, recently retired and somewhat bored.

RotanotNino

RotanotNino

Active Member
I quit Facebook and Intensity Squared a few years ago because I was frequently engaging in pissing contests after having learned to more or less get along with others IRL.

In 2007 paid out of pocket for an informal DX from a shrink who at that time was working with autistic children @ UCSF Hospital clinic. I paid out of pocket because my union local is a hen party and I didn't feel like my business being anyone else's business.
The Dr. said I was "definitely on the spectrum, but too high functioning to be Asperger's." Please don't ask for elaboration on that, as it would just be conjecture on my part. She also said a one visit DX would NOT be one she could make official, but I had told her at the outset that I didn't want any paperwork attached to our discussions.

So, hi everyone.
 
Hi, and welcome. I was diagnosed at 60 and it made so much sense about my isolation as a teen and young adult. The worst part of that was having an intelligence so that people thought me normal and my social dysfunction was a choice. At that time, if somebody handed me a flamethrower I could have happily torched my high school with the student body inside.
 
welcome to af.png
 
I had to chuckle about the "too high functioning to be Asperger's". Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, perhaps Einstein, and a long, long list of other "high functioning" people known or suspected of "being on the spectrum". The number 1 and 2 professions for people with Asperger's,...medicine and engineering,...you know, jobs for "low functioning" people.:D

I have an almost obsessive compulsion for learning,...anything I can get my hands on. Not to mention, a long list of special interests. I cannot wait for my retirement to immerse myself in all the things I haven't been able to put enough of my time into, so far.
 
Last edited:
I hate arguing and find it often as useless an occupation as you can find, except if you are working towards your heart disease merit badge.

So I avoid it completely except in RL cases where it trully matters, such as an incorrect bill etc. But even then I try not to argue per se and simply stand up for myself as reasonably as I can without anger.
 
Neonatal RRT said:
I had to chuckle about the "too high functioning to be Asperger's". Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, perhaps Einstein, and a long, long list of other "high functioning" people known or suspected of "being on the spectrum". The number 1 and 2 professions for people with Asperger's,...medicine and engineering,...you know, jobs for "low functioning" people.:D

I have an almost obsessive compulsion for learning,...anything I can get my hands on. Not to mention, a long list of special interests. I cannot wait for my retirement to immerse myself in all the things I haven't been able to put enough of my time into, so far.
Click to expand...
welcome to the club we sound similar, I am retired spending most of my time following up on my interests, lots of Utube videos, magazines American scientific , and discovery while I am on my stationary bike in the morning. collected for a while as I watched lectures. One magazine is good for three days of reading.
 
Last edited:
Hi and welcome. My thinking is that it's fine and even important sometimes, to disagree, but not necessarily to argue. There are always a range of views and opinions, ideas vary, live and let live I guess. Respectfully.

It's probably fair to say some of us can get an idea firmly fixed at times and can't easily get out of a direction of thought. But that doesn't mean we have the only view that can be taken. Why argue, would be my thought. The other person has a right to their view. Although if it sounded mean or inappropriate towards others I probably would disagree and explain why.
 
So nobody like to argue.... Then I win! :D:p:rolleyes::eek:

Welcome! :)

That functioning thing is like "you dont seem like needing state money" so you dont need a diagnose, just keep doing your stuff, thanks-bye.

They just dont (yet) get that the diagnose for most adults its for self discovery, self understanding and relief. All the tradicional diagnose and the DSM 5 is like defining what children need gov aid, so their criteria is problem-focused. Most adults are way more functional than they were as childs, and there are many (probably the mayority) people out there who just have some autism traits and still could benefit a lot from some understanding and guiadance...

Anybody disagree? I have a flamethrower here...:D:eek::rolleyes::confused::p
 
Atrapa Almas said:
That functioning thing is like "you dont seem like needing state money" so you dont need a diagnose, just keep doing your stuff, thanks-bye.

They just dont (yet) get that the diagnose for most adults its for self discovery, self understanding and relief. and there are many (probably the mayority) people out there who just have some autism traits and still could benefit a lot from some understanding and guiadance...
Click to expand...

Exactly! I have learned SO much about autism,...and myself over the few years since I received my diagnosis. Of course, part of this is the actual functional testing that is part of this diagnosis,...which helped me tremendously.

It's one thing to THINK you know yourself. It's one thing to THINK you are of a certain intelligence and have certain aptitudes. It's quite another to be tested via multiple professionals and standardized tests,...comparing your scores with the population,...and obtaining some real perspective of where you actually stand. It's this perspective that creates a sense of enhanced self-awareness that can actually be used in one's daily life,...knowing your strengths and weaknesses is certainly some handy information. In my case, it had nothing to do with seeking "assistance" of any kind.
 
Every one is entitled to there opinion, right or wrong that's why I keep the plaque on my computer during my career. my professional opinion, I was usually correct. fixed a lot of issues over the years, changed the industry. how could I explain what they could not see, which was so clear to me.
 
Gerald Wilgus said:
Hi, and welcome. I was diagnosed at 60 and it made so much sense about my isolation as a teen and young adult. The worst part of that was having an intelligence so that people thought me normal and my social dysfunction was a choice. At that time, if somebody handed me a flamethrower I could have happily torched my high school with the student body inside.
Click to expand...
Howdy. I recall a member @ Intensity or ZOMG years ago referring to uneven abilities and the articles mentioning autism in the 1970s were not very clear in defining so called Kanner's back then. Reading an article about Nikki Bacharach's suicide is what brought my attention to the online autism community.
 
Neonatal RRT said:
I had to chuckle about the "too high functioning to be Asperger's". Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, perhaps Einstein, and a long, long list of other "high functioning" people known or suspected of "being on the spectrum". The number 1 and 2 professions for people with Asperger's,...medicine and engineering,...you know, jobs for "low functioning" people.:D
Click to expand...
Yeah, I believe that phrase was possibly a case of me being the oldest person that she had ever tried to diagnose at the time.
I have an almost obsessive compulsion for learning,...anything I can get my hands on. Not to mention, a long list of special interests. I cannot wait for my retirement to immerse myself in all the things I haven't been able to put enough of my time into, so far.
Click to expand...
I am trying to get away from hours of watching Korean and other foreign shows on Netflix to get back into reading and studying things of interest. My last 23 years of work was at various construction sites - frequently in petroleum refineries - and darned near every time I would attempt to read in the break room some other electrician would saunter over saying 'Whatcha doing? Reading a book? I did that once.' or words to that effect and I just gave up reading anything other than prints, tech manuals or inventory sheets at work.
Reading The Heart Of Everything That Is by Drury and Clavin, about Red Cloud's War, took me 5 months in 2018 as a result whereas I'd read Gone With The Wind in 3 days circa 1987. After my layoff in April 2020 I watched a show called Deadwind on Netflix and I did spend several months studying Finnish on Duolingo but when I watched part of DeadWind again I realized that except for kiitos, anteeksi and a couple other words I still couldn't hear Finnish as spoken so I dropped it for the time being.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom