Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi, I'm Sam and a 42-year old male. I was diagnosed at age 37 with 'mild-moderate Aspergers', after spending most of my life wondering why I seemed different and apart from most other people. This came about after having problems at work (Ironically I'm a psychiatric nurse!) and when put in a capability process there I had it suggested that I could be on the Autistic spectrum. One diagnosis later I had the above result, which was a life changer! Things started to make sense, and it explained so much about my behaviour and problems I've had since I could remember.
Joined here after looking to see if there is any kind of support local to me in the Midlands (Apparently there isn't really much!) as having a lot of trouble with low mood and anxiety - which seemed to have worsened recently, especially around coping with work and all the noise and stimuli there. Not to mention all the stress! Tiny things can make me really anxious and I tend to catastrophise things which lead me to a lot of negative conclusions. I'm married, though again there are problems there - mainly worsening problems around touch and anything intimate, but that's probably for another thread!
I have a bit of a tech/gadget obsession, I currently have about 6 mobile phones, an iPad, couple of tablets and my Surface Pro 4. Oh, and an iPod Touch! I have a bit of a spending problem there actually, tends to be my go-to coping mechanism when feeling down. I've also recently gotten into tabletop gaming with one of my few friends, and also Anime - specifically Studio Ghibli and that particular genre of it.
Anyway I'll shut up before I start to ramble, good to be here!
Welcome, Sam.
Another middle-ager here from up in Yorkshire, though a Midlander originally (if Northants counts as Midlands - I don't think any of the regions really want to admit it's theirs!) I was diagnosed a few years ago with ASD, but basically Asperger's, along with a few sundry hangers-on. Problems at work (when I was still working) - check! Anxiety and mood problems - check! Relationship problems - erm, well, if only having one for two months out of fifty years counts - check! Catastophising - check! Struggling to find support - check! Rambling posts - check!
I used to think it was some crazy coincidence how similar the previous histories of many of us late diagnosed folks are, but as I've got to know my autism better (a totally unexpected surprise when I was diagnosed), and all these lovely, generous people here, the jigsaw is all fitting into place slowly but surely. I'm sure you'll find the same; joining online communities like this one is the best "therapy" I've ever found!
And tech obsessions? Sort of, but a little different to yours; it's their guts that fascinate me, as I've been a coder since I was spotty teen who was too shy to talk to girls.
Best wishes, and apologies in advance for any appalling puns you might stumble across in my posts!
Sounds like we are fairly similar! This was suggested to me as there was little in the way of support for Autistic adults where I live, (Which is Staffordshire btw).
I did do phone repairing for a while a few years back, but lost my mojo a bit when manufacturers started making phones increasingly hard to open up, and now they're all but glued and soldered together which makes replacing screen and batteries very hard!