new person

Hi

My name is Adrian. {edited by Heather - moderator to remove personal details}. I was diagnosed with autism (pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified) at the age of 3. part of my autism, i have lots of anxiety disorder, OCD, repetitive behaviour, social integration deficit and delay development. my special interest are Disney characters, costumed characters and anything in the 19th century especially the fairy tale or folklore culture part. I lives in Dublin, Ireland and was born in Dublin. My parent are originally from Hong Kong.In my spare time, I play with Disney figurines, draw picture and listening to classical music and sometime when it's sunny outside of my neighbourhood, i go out and play with friends. most of my friends are young children as i don't like getting on with my peers as my peers are very complicated. my peers world are completely boring to me. part of my autism, i loves playing figurine and imaginary games and most kids loves these things so that's why I can get on well with the children. Well I also can get on well with other who also has autism and their world are similar to my world or myself. My happiest time in my life is going to Disneyland and play with the costumed characters there as I love the feel of the costume characters, like petting a real teddy. So I go there every twice a year. 

I have joined here to be part of the membership and hope to have a pen pal who also has autism and is similar to my world.

  • So what do your friends love?

    And also what is your favourite disney characters

  • Yes, costumed character, puppet, fairy tale, things in the 19th century but more the culture and entertaintment part but it would depends on which countries like i loves 19th century scandinavia, german, dutch,japanese and russian etc. the reason I love culture in the 19th century because most of the disney/fairytale background are set in these countries in 19th century or historical time.

  • No - we're the only ones into Disney.    What else do you do or do you have any other interests apart from Disney?  

  • So does your close friends loves disney characters as well like you?

  • You see as I said in begining, part of my autism, I don't get on well with my peers and I don't want to get along with my peers as my peers world are very complicated. their world doesn't interest me and even make me boring as most of them they play sport and be popular.Just to tell you more that I'm still a teenager. so i either play with children or with other people who has special need of any age. part of my autisitc world, I enjoy playing with my figurines and dolls and most children loves these things so I get along well with them. for other autistic people, I usually get on well with them if their world are similar to my world e.g if those autistic people loves disney characters, costume characters like in disneyland or playing with toys like me, then i can get on well with them. so in my spare time, I go out and play with children around my neighbourhood, I sometimes visit the autistic day centre where I did my voluntary work there 2 years ago, I play with my disney toys and sometime I draw pictures.

  • Yes - I had a close group of friends - and I suspect they are all undiagnosed aspies.    I still see most of them at our annual Christmas event.     I have a couple of other long-term friends -  one is the guy I go flying with.

    Do you have friends or do any social things?

  • And also when you were young, did you have any friends?

  • Very good! So she must be a good lady then. You see autism back in your time were only described as someone with severe autism so those are High functioning like you won't even regconised so might think someone like other people except they were akward, strange or rude. It's not until today where people with high functioning autism are described as autism. So your wife as an 11 years old must be a good accepting difference then and have a good understanding as back then it would be hard to find someone like your wife. well I think it depends on where you are thought. 

  • I've known my wife since I was 11 - that's a long time ago!    I think she appreciates that I don't do football, beer & fags - I'm a super-nerd and can do anything.   I don't have any self-imposed limits so I'm game for anything - and I've done a lot of strange things in my life.

  • I also loves Disney since I was a child until now and it will go on forever. I loves disney charactersevry much especially the disneyland characters as they are so cute that made me want to cuddle them like a teddy bear. 

  • Okay! Working with the mainstream society can be very hard. And you said you've got married. So tell me how long did you got married for? And where did you first met your wife. I'm sure she must be good at accepting your different.

  • I'm a Disney child - my generation grew up with The Wonderful World of Disney and the cartoons on tv (all 3 channels)   and the parks in Florida were big news when they opened - lots of advertorial documentaries and adverts for DisneyWorld.    We first went about 25 years ago and found that it delivers what we want from a holiday - things to do whenever we want - so we've been back every year.   

    All through my life I've been one of those annoying people who just sees through any problem so can find better solutions than anyone else.    It got me through my career and to early retirement so now I choose what I want to do each day.

  • So tell me is disney is your special interest? When you were growing up what do you mean by you were a classic professor. were you good at something that other children back in your time wasn't good at ? and what do you mean by "So much easier to not have to bother with the rat race"?

  • I had just done my leaving cert and just out of secondary school. Leaving cert is like the GCSE but in ireland, we called it leaing cert. So i am still waiting for my exames result and I am hoping to go to the further education either doing applied psychology to understand more about the special need or doing animation courses. but I already got accepted in the animation course. So I am just enjoying my summer and just back from Hong Kong and Tokyo.

  • I was the classic little professor when growing up - went on to be a Chartered Engineer and retired at 49.   So much easier to not have to bother with the rat race.     What do you do?

  • And tell me are you out working? if yes what job are you doing at the moment? 

  • Alright! So what was growing up like for you when you were a child?

  • Hi - I was diagnosed a decade ago.

  • so plastic! just want to get to know you abit more, so how long were you diagnosed withautism?

  • so when you were there, you only line up for 10-15 mins for most characters?