How did you find university?

University was where it all started to go wrong for me, really. I did well at school - the combination of being able to hyperfocus and living in the most boring place imaginable meant that I was able to concentrate on school work and get into university.

Once there I struggled with the lack of routine - went completely off the rails in terms of managing time, even telling night from day, and wasn't able to do basic things for myself (apart from drink a lot). I had friends but found myself tending to copy what they did in order to try and fit in. I did, eventually, get a girlfriend but only after she basically decided that's what she was (because I was completely unable to read any signs from her).

After university most people went off to work in the usual graduate type jobs (law, accountancy etc) but I just went home and signed on the dole. A couple of years after leaving university I was put on a scheme to get long-term unemployed people into work and, strangely, I felt at home with some of the people with SEN and methodone prescriptions. I got lucky in the end by just persevering to the point where people just gave me things to do and then paid me to do them and I tried really hard not to mess it up. Looking back, though, it was pretty chaotic. Would I change things if I'd known age 20 that I was autistic? Maybe, I think I could have done with some help back then.

University was where it all started to go wrong for me, really. I did well at school - the combination of being able to hyperfocus and living in the most boring place imaginable meant that I was able to concentrate on school work and get into university.

Once there I struggled with the lack of routine - went completely off the rails in terms of managing time, even telling night from day, and wasn't able to do basic things for myself (apart from drink a lot). I had friends but found myself tending to copy what they did in order to try and fit in. I did, eventually, get a girlfriend but only after she basically decided that's what she was (because I was completely unable to read any signs from her).

After university most people went off to work in the usual graduate type jobs (law, accountancy etc) but I just went home and signed on the dole. A couple of years after leaving university I was put on a scheme to get long-term unemployed people into work and, strangely, I felt at home with some of the people with SEN and methodone prescriptions. I got lucky in the end by just persevering to the point where people just gave me things to do and then paid me to do them and I tried really hard not to mess it up. Looking back, though, it was pretty chaotic. Would I change things if I'd known age 20 that I was autistic? Maybe, I think I could have done with some help back then.

No, it doesn't help when you don't knoiw what you are up against. My childhood difficulties were brushed under the carpet. 

Much later in life I went back to the local university and did an MBA. I thought I was completely done with classrooms and exams but I had a go and found that I learned quite a lot of interesting things, virtually none of which I have subsequently put to any use!