AsynchronousAxolotl
New Member
Greetings!
I was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, but was only informed about my diagnosis several years ago. I have been researching it kind of obsessively ever since but...well, clinical descriptions can only tell one so much. I have a lot of questions that can't be answered by a peer reviewed research paper or reference article. I really want to know about the variations within the autism diagnosis, and how it manifests in different people, as well as talk to others with similarly wired brains. For those reasons and more, I am really glad to have discovered this site.
A few arbitrary facts about me beyond my diagnosis:
1) I love both reading and writing fantasy. I spend a lot of my free time thinking about magic systems/ character/ plot. This actually contradicts some of what I've read about autism, which claims that those with the diagnosis are not very imaginative and generally avoid the fantasy genre. That's one thing I'd like to learn more about- is this supported by the experience of others with autism?
2)My other interests include neuroscience and herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians). I actually developed my interest in neuroscience through my research on autism, and they reinforce each other. The more I learn about autism, the better my appreciation for the complexity of the brain becomes, and the more I learn about the mechanisms of thought, the better I understand the biological underpinnings of autism. The herpetology, meanwhile, is an outgrowth of my childhood fixation on sea turtles and axolotls (hence my username).
3) When I write something, I have a propensity to make it excessively long, not to mention spend too much time tinkering with the sentence structure and word choice. I have been told this makes my writing sound stilted. I fear that is what I will do if I give any more time to this, so I will conclude my introduction here.
I was diagnosed with autism at the age of three, but was only informed about my diagnosis several years ago. I have been researching it kind of obsessively ever since but...well, clinical descriptions can only tell one so much. I have a lot of questions that can't be answered by a peer reviewed research paper or reference article. I really want to know about the variations within the autism diagnosis, and how it manifests in different people, as well as talk to others with similarly wired brains. For those reasons and more, I am really glad to have discovered this site.
A few arbitrary facts about me beyond my diagnosis:
1) I love both reading and writing fantasy. I spend a lot of my free time thinking about magic systems/ character/ plot. This actually contradicts some of what I've read about autism, which claims that those with the diagnosis are not very imaginative and generally avoid the fantasy genre. That's one thing I'd like to learn more about- is this supported by the experience of others with autism?
2)My other interests include neuroscience and herpetology (the study of reptiles and amphibians). I actually developed my interest in neuroscience through my research on autism, and they reinforce each other. The more I learn about autism, the better my appreciation for the complexity of the brain becomes, and the more I learn about the mechanisms of thought, the better I understand the biological underpinnings of autism. The herpetology, meanwhile, is an outgrowth of my childhood fixation on sea turtles and axolotls (hence my username).
3) When I write something, I have a propensity to make it excessively long, not to mention spend too much time tinkering with the sentence structure and word choice. I have been told this makes my writing sound stilted. I fear that is what I will do if I give any more time to this, so I will conclude my introduction here.
