• Replies 4 replies
  • Subscribers 79 subscribers
  • Views 1229 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Need for women only Asperger groups

Hope

All the groups that I attend, as a young woman with Asperger's, are made up of middle aged men. The young women who did attend have since left, probably because the groups were, and are, so male dominated. It would not even be so bad if some of the men were in their teens or 20s, but they are mostly 30 years and older. In any event, it puts me off attending these groups without any of my peers being there, i.e. women; even if they were somewhat older than me, it would be better than no women!

There has got to be more women out there with Asperger's, but they don't seem to attend many of the groups. There was just one group I attended that started off with, believe it or not, more women than men, but this did not last, and there is now two women to 8 men!

I cannot relate to these men with Asperger's. They are not young like me, they don't share my interests, they are too serious, and they leave me feeling even more isolated.

So I think it would be good if an all female Asperger group were set up, with a particular emphasis on women age 18-30. But where are they?

  • After years of always having a feeling like I was different and never fitting in with my peers at school, I was finally diagnosed with having Aspergers Syndrome last year. I don't know any other girls or women with the condition and would be more inclined to go to a group if I wasn't so scared that it'd be full of men. I think a lot of it has got something to do with the fact that less women are diagnosed and I've already found that a lot of people seem to think it's a 'boy thing'.

    I think that AS is slightly different in how it exhibitsn itself in males and females and I'd be a lot more comfortable going to a support group where I was with people who might have more understanding of what I was going through.

  • Yeah, perhaps it would be wise not to be too restrictive with age, but it is only natural for me to want to spend more time with my peers. I certainly struggled with my peers at school, but they were 'neurotypical', and also my age peers now should be more mature than they were when I was at school. I think it would be healthy for me to be more among my age group because it can feel lonely to lose a connection with one's peers. But the most important thing of all is to meet more women with Asperger's. Currently I only know three in person, two of whom are a lot older than me and do not operate on my wavelength, and the third hardly leaves the house; this is a shame because she is a similar age to me, and she is a very interesting and intelligent person - I think we would get along.

    Maybe more girls are  now getting diagnosed as teens and children but there is a backlog among adults, who fell fell through the net as children. Maybe more women end up with severe mental health issues, and so can't access the groups in the first place. I just don't know, but it needs to change.

  • The problem is that there are so many undiagnosed females out there, because of the diagnostic criteria being written about males and so many females struggle to get their condition recognised and perhaps don't even know themselves they have it, just that something is "wrong".  Therefore they are like an invisible army out there who aren't accessing support opportunities such as social groups.

  • Their are plenty of people out there, but I don't think you can be so selective on the age perameters. Also some reagions/areaa may have more than others. Perhaps you could set up your own forum/chat initially, that would certainly eliminate any distance difficulties.

    Food for thought.

    Coogy. xx