Hello

Hi, I'm Karen [I prefer Kaz] I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome back in October 2003 at the age of 8; I didn't really fully understand my Aspergers until my late Teens.

I have difficulties with Social Communication; Understanding Things [Questions; Emotions; Words; Routines; Financial etc.] Sudden Changes or Changing my Routine. My biggest difficulty in particular is Group Work; I find it very hard to meet new people, make friends and especially keep friends. A lot of times I've gotten to know people, gain friendships and then once they gotten to know me or see me during a 'Sensory Overload' or whether there's an issue or argument they would then see me as a 'BAD' person (which I'm not 99% of the time) and would either then avoid me, bully me, gossip about me or most cases hurt me emotionally. I do have a small bunch of friends whom I'm close to who understand, respect/accept me, who I am; they've seen me at my worst times and have stuck by.

Unfortunately since leaving college back in 2012, I decided not to go to University and focus on getting a job; I am now currently a University Student and unemployed. I haven't had a job yet, I've been rejected by so many job applications, I've even had replies say "I'm sorry but we can't hire you with your condition". I want to try and do something career wise, so I've decided to go to University, unfortunately I've only been here 2 months and I've already had issues with group work (which I'm currently sorting out atm) and I currently have some students in my course either avoiding me or gossiping about me. Truthfully, I work better independently. It's a shame really, cos I'm a very caring, supportive and funny person once people get to know me, it's just hard when they look at me differently cos of a small issue or if I get anxious about something. 

I am very creative & imaginative, one of my positives is Photographic Memory which is useful for my Self Taught Video Editing; I'm a Youtuber and spend at least 6/7 hours a day editing videos/creating videos which is my biggest skill. I'm also a massive Doctor Who fan [so hello to any Whovians who read this] And I also want to help inspire & support people with Autism, Aspergers, Autistic Spectrum in the Future, so I can share my stories and experiences to others for inspiration. 

But yeah, that's only a bit about me, there's so much more to that, but hello, nervous hello really, cos I'm not 100% socially comfortable/confident with chatting online/forums etc.