what are you thankful for this year?

[Au Naturel]

View attachment 64948

I guess we are both Blake fans, eh?

 

[SusanLR]

A place I can afford to live with plenty of food.
And I haven't caught the virus yet either.

 

[Gracey]

So far, I'm thankful for, well...
most of 2020.

I've learned so many things about my own capacity for caring, helping others
and experienced finding some of my own limitations.
Non of which may have been possible under different circumstances.

I'm also thankful for all who played their part in preventing an elderly relative of mine;
underwent open surgery at the height of first wave,
contracting the virus during their hospital stay.
Huge respect to those involved

 

[Ursus Chainus]

I am thankful:
that a very specific real life nightmare is ending.
for the few people in my life that I feel love from.
for reconnecting with my aspie sisters and brothers here.
for birds and animals

Lots of other things I am sure. I generally don't celebrate Thanksgiving so I am thankful of these things every day.

 

[garnetflower13]

Thankful that I can still hope, after a year of living in "interesting times."
That hubby has an essential job.
That we moved into our new house and got two new kitties before all this chaos started!
That we have plenty to eat, a roof over our heads, and lots of movies to watch.
And, Aspie Central!

 

[sport]

I'am thankful to not have had the virus and to have a wife who really looks after me.

 

[gaffaglow]

I am thankful for my dogs so I don’t have to be alone.
I’m thankful that I don’t have to work during these times.
I’m thankful for my big yard and for nature.
I’m thankful that fire season is over.

 

[SchrodingersMeerkat]

Getting out of the dangerous neighborhood I was living in for a while. It was really nice when I moved in, but then after a while thugs started moving into the neighborhood and there was a murder on the street next to mine. There was an arson in my apartment building. Nothing was damaged, I lived on the top floor and just got soot and smoke smell. But the apartment people were coming in and out CONSTANTALY unannounced.

They also put these things called "air scrubbers" which were huge fans that sounded like jet engines and I was not allowed to turn them off (but sometimes I did just to get some peace). I had to evacuate for a few days and I was CONSTANTALLY worried I would have to again and the next time I wouldn't be able to get in to get my lizard out. I asked my mom to find a new home for him but she thought I was just being lazy and didn't want to take care of him anymore. No, I wanted him to be safe.

I also had several comfort items that were irreplaceable I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to save. They are critical for my mental health. It was honestly all putting me on the verge of a nervous breakdown. If it wasn't for my at the time boyfriend, I probably would have committed suicide. My parents eventually let me move back in and built me a mini house. That was all back in 2018, but I'm still thankful to be out of there.

 

[Sara3]

I'm thankful for all the people that I've got to meet and the fact that I learned so much from them

 

[christopher.k]

I think persifickly for the friend I've made this year who seems to genuinely care.

 

[Russkiebear502]

Well, 2019 was a very rough year for me. Some years it's up and down. Other times it is just down. That was 2019. A year so bad that I literally thought I was cursed. I was mad every day from the moment I woke up until the moment I went to bed, I cried my eyes out, at one point I was crying so loud and hysterically that it attracted my mom's attention who felt bad. I tore up the whole yard and put holes throughout the walls of my bedroom. I tried to voluntarily commit myself two times before getting involuntarily committed later. I was malnourished from Adderall usage, and a whole bunch of horrifying and embarrassing **** happened. The rage was mostly over my mom living off my disability money and using it on herself. In fact, when my friend came over, she made me spend my birthday money on him, herself and myself even though she had my money on her card but was just too cheap to use it. And not only that but she was being an obnoxious b-tch to me every day and so was the rest of my family. I even remember on Christmas eve when I got into a huge argument over her over throwing an ash tray during one of my countless fits I had that year. I screamed until my throat got sore, then screamed again. This lasted from March - December. The year started off rather pleasant for me in January - February as it was a break from the year prior when I had serious hypochondria and panic over exposure to a bat which they wouldn't take me to get vaccinated for just to help combat my severe anxiety disorders. It got so bad that I developed left ventricular hypertrophy and fingernail clubbing due to 24/7 constant panic attacks. Every day was a panic attack from the time I woke up until the time I went to bed and even my dreams were haunted with nightmares. This lasted from June - December 2018. 2019 however was a year of one failure after the next. My friend got to come over in March after my birthday and I smoked weed with him and got him drunk and he couldn't act right so much to the point that when he got home, his family noticed and it got him sent to rehab. I found my old phone and wanted to get some old pictures from it that I couldn't find anywhere else, but the battery wouldn't work, so I got a new one ordered, didn't know how to take the thing apart and accidentally ripped out the battery connector. So then I took out the SIM card in the hopes I could get something from it but that too was gone. I tried getting into college but that got called off somehow. I tried moving away from my abusive family but my grandmother went behind my back and told them about my anger problems so they rejected my application and lied saying I couldn't promise them I wouldn't act out at their place. The only two things I accomplished that year was getting into voc rehab (which I still have yet to fill out papers on this form they want me to do) and on Nov. 25th when I finally got a new counselor and started the process of wrestling away my disability money from my mom's greedy, selfish hands.

As for this year, it has been a major improvement in most regards, at least. My misophonia has turned down significantly, I just ignore all the noises in the neighborhood now, my fits of rage has considerably died down this year, I finally have my disability money, I temporarily moved out in a group home in March - April, my grandmother got into a bad workplace accident in August so she can no longer lie about me to other people in the Department of Mental Health anymore, in September I got into a fight with my mom who tried to kill me, so I called police on her and got taken to the hospital for a check-up but they said I couldn't press charges because I started it after they lied to them, but as I found out later my mom got sent to jail anyways because she had a preexisting family court bench warrant stretching back to 2017 and I saved her hideous mugshot and laughed when she called home crying complaining she can't breathe, had high blood pressure or whatever, plus while I was at the hospital before a medicaid uber picked me up I got to meet a really nice guy from Chicago there who I added on FaceBook. By late October / November my mom finally got a job. It's not one that she likes, it's laborious, but it's what she most certainly deserves for voluntarily leaving her job at the Country Club in 2015 just to live off her son's disability for the next 5 years. There's also been some rather minor improvements as well, but still improvements nonetheless. For example I look significantly better now than I did last year because I gained weight. Last year my cheeks were sunked in to where you could see my skull protruding through my skin. It did decline in one aspect, but I'd rather not address that.

So in short, 2020 was very similar to 2017 if I had to compare it to another year, in that it was neutral. Up and down. In the middle. Not mostly up like 2016 nor mostly down like every year from 2011 - 15, 18 and 19. Just neutral.

 

[Aeolienne]

I landed two job offers during the lockdown, as a result of which I'm in a more interesting, better paid job. And I lost weight. Amazing what a difference the absence of vending machines, colleagues' birthday cakes and samosa sales has made...

 

[sport]

That is great congrats.

 

[Aeolienne]

That is great congrats.

Thanks! I just wish I could share my good fortune with my brother (who has been unemployed since before lockdown). He is also on the spectrum but refuses to seek specialist help, saying that he'd rather get a job through his own efforts.

 

[Finder]

My ASD diagnosis--July 3.