When a couple of decades ago, my daughter got herself diagnosed as having ADHD, and the finger of blame swung in my direction, I suddenly ended casting about for information.
I came across the website "wayseers.org" and came across the concept of "Finding your tribe". But for me there was still something missing.
Now of course, I find myself here with my own people. Unlike Garret's group when I was last there, this tribe seems quite badly "disheartened" in places, and I'd quite like to help fix that. Of course I am quite ineffective and useless unaided, and mostly quite unable to work as part of a team, (except when I do work very well as part of a team..)
But maybe none of that matters. What does matter is that there is a huge group of people here, who have faced and in many cases overcome the unique challenges we face, and some of them (us? I'm not quite sure yet) have done rather well indeed.
BUT.
I found I rose meteorically through the poster rankings, and a quick check of other peoples profiles showed that a remarkably small amount of activity is required to be a major poster on this site!
THIS MEANS that the majority out there join the forum and do not post.
Are they not curious? are they afraid to expose themselves after a lifetime of being persecuted for who they are? Are they simply disinterested in connecting with others who are in the same boat?? Why is the Autistic majority so silent? If the forum fails to engage the silent majority, is it being operated in the optimum manner to serve their needs?
So for those quiet ones out there, if you get to read this, why not participate? Simply being able to read about other peoples Autism experiences makes all of is less isolated and closer perhaps to finding your tribe.