What advice would you give to your younger self?

Advice for my younger self- you will soon find your autistic tribe, even if you don’t know you are autistic yet!

Just because you don’t have friends yet, doesn’t mean making friends is difficult, you just have not found your people (neurokin)!

Great idea for a discussion!

Thank you everyone for all the responses.

'Hindsight is a wonderful thing'.

Ask for an ASD assessmet. Find someone to talk to about how you feel and love yourself 

Can't agree more.  I'm still learning to say 'no' and stick to it.  People pleasing and being manipulated has got me into some very difficult situations

i’d probably warn  myself that my friends are less loyal than I thought they were. That I can’t trust that things will work out in time just because they ought to. That I can’t trust the adults in my life to do the right thing by me not cause theyre  mean people but because they have different priorities and my best interest, to the extent that they even understood them properly, were not at the top of the list of priorities.

I would remind myself that going on idealistic crusades is very good and noble, but that being young now is the opportunity to try new experiences and to take risks particularly since life will cut me more slack if taking risks ends up with me doing something considered delinquent and in appropriate. 

I’d try to persuade myself to become financially independent from my parents earlier on. A part-time job maybe. that  University is an excellent opportunity and I should seriously aim for it. Aim to publish eaRly.

id tell myself to be bolder with women, and less caught up in chasing ‘the one.’

You can talk to your parents because they will understand and help support you. 

Be yourself, don't waste your time trying be like everyone else. 

It does get better. 

So many things I wish I could have told my younger self.

I thought of another piece of advice I could have made good use of as a young person.

Know what is valuable in your life and be prepared to let go of what is not, especially if it's detrimental.

Ha. Well said :) 

Mine would be to be myself instead of pretending to be someone I'm not, 

just to please others 

Thank you everyone.

There is a lot of wisdom contained within this thread.

I've been pondering this one since yesterday and it has stirred up a fair bit of disquiet in me. I think I'm still very angry at my younger self.

I think the best piece of advice I could give myself is not to take other peoples attitudes, actions and reactions personally because all of these things are not about you, they are about them and what they are going through and what's going on in their heads. Don't do what you think other people want or expect you to do, do what you want because you want to do it for yourself. This is advice that I'm currently trying to follow 

"Hang on in there, it's going to be okay".

"Your preferences are not the result of mental illness and you cannot cure them. Start listening to them instead."

I like the "Never give up, never give in" bit you missed.

Karl Pilkington's favourite song. Why does my brain hold onto facts like that and nothing useful?

That is such a sad song.

I remember very well listening to it - @ 14, that scorching hot summer ....

Just been listening to this Debbie, very true.

He said "never wait or hesitate
Get in kid, before it's too late
You may never get another chance
'Cause youth a mask but it don't last
Live it long and live it fast"
Georgie was a friend of mine

That can be a good thing. Stubbornness can be adherence to the authentic self. I remember thinking walking home from school one day that I'd make an internal promise there and then that I'd never give up my Doctor Who fandom no matter how out of fashion and how much of a joke it became - the Nineties was a lonely time on that front! - because that adult me must never betray something that got his younger self through every day, no matter what that brought. 

And still does. 

I'd say "Accept you're not perfect and don't beat yourself up about everything. Also, accept you're autistic and be realistic in your personal goals." But I still need to make myself understand those things as my current self, so I'm not sure what my younger self would make of them.

'Always to thine own self be true,

And not to fools like me

Who'd change their minds for the sake of rhyming schemes'