I saw that NAS has an adult autism social group in my local area. But I'm too afraid to go. I don't know anyone there, so I don't know how to 'social' when I get there.
Would anyone like to share their experiences of going to such a group for the first time? (it seems first time should be hardest?)
Hi there, it’s on my ‘to do’ list. There’s an AS social group in my town on the 1st Wednesday of every month, rather annoyingly Wednesday evening is when I do Beaver Scouts in term time so I’m waiting until a 1st Wednesday of the month falls in school holidays to go. I too get very anxious about new social situations but I’ve done some basic social skills training in the past year so can probably ‘wing it’ for a couple of hours. I think my strategy would be to look for someone on their own or an ‘open’ group and introduce myself with an open ended question such as ‘hi my names @@@ it’s my first time here, what is this group like?’, bear in mind though that someone sitting on their own may want to be on their own so if you get zero eye contact, body turned away, minimal answers then maybe politely end the interaction and move on to someone else. Remember you’re all in the same boat in terms of having ASD so I’d like to think there’d be no judgement. Good luck 
