Published on 12, July, 2020
Morning everyone
I wanted to introduce myself - my names Paul and a few days ago my partner shared an article with me that shed a whole new light on my life up to this point. It was an article about relationships and people with Asperger's. Everything in it, down to the smallest detail resonated with me. It was my lived experience of with friends, family and partners written down by someone else. It was genuinely mind-blowing.
I'm not sure where to go from here, but I wanted to reach out to a community and hopefully get some guidance from the materials online and peoples lived experiences. I'm happy, this is slightly scary but also incredibly liberating. It's like a light has been switched on.
Hope everyone has a good Sunday
Welcome! I had an adult diagnosis at 30 and the things that have helped me the most are: noise-cancelling earplugs / headphones, tinted glasses for indoors, scheduling quiet time into the diary for at least a full day at the weekends (usually Sunday), journalling, having a ring or chewing gum to spin or chew, stopping putting pressure on myself to speak, and admitting when I don't understand. Having family members and colleagues who understand the condition and don't put any pressure on me to speak more has also helped more than I can say. In the last few months I've been looking into hearing technology and there have been some significant advances being made. My brain has trouble with sounds and hearing speech, although my ears themselves are ok. I tried hearing tech that has SINC (Speech In Noise Control) which quietens background noise and amplifies speech, and couldn't believe the improvement. My family told me right away that I was speaking more clearly, and I could follow conversations better. Recent technology advances are really exciting, I think, and there's a lot of innovation happening! Happy to share some more info if you're interested. Wishing you all the best
Down time has always been important to me, I take days off annual leave every now and then just to have a quiet day on my own.... people have always found it weird and I've always said I need it as part of my mental health care