New to the forum and to the diagnosis!

Hi!

I teach too, but am in a reverse situation, as I left the UK to work. 

Same!  I always knew I was different.  Apparently, my friends knew.  Looking back, I could tell a few acquaintances knew as well.  I even had one specific GI provider that somehow got me so well.  Now that I think about it, she probably had personal experience with autistic people, likely in her family. 

I hope the processing goes well.  I'm going through it too since I was diagnosed under 3 weeks ago.  Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or just want to run something by someone else.

Hi I’m new here too I got diagnosed yesterday I’m 36 years old. At the moment just trying to process everything I’ve always known that there was something else other than general learning difficulties. 

Hi! Ah yes, it's so great to find your tribe! Looking back I can think of people I really liked who were probably autistic, and I just wish I'd had the language to connect with them, but I found it so hard to form friendships. The art classes sound brilliant! And how great to find out you're one of the cool kids after all! Because agreed, us neurodivergent types are pretty great, haha! So glad to hear things are falling into place for you too! :) 

Thanks! That's great! I'm hoping to be able to do the same!

Hi! I'm 41m and recently found out I'm autistic and ADHD.  My friend that's a psychologist told me under 2 months ago, and I was formally diagnosed just over 2 weeks ago.  I'm going through an identity crisis also.  What part is the real me and what part is the mask that I wear because people told me I needed to act like that?  While it is a heavy matter to navigate, I find it appealing and pleasing to learn about autism.  All the puzzle pieces are falling into place.  It is also helping me adjust my environment to best suit my well-being rather than insisting I tolerate bothersome or hurtful stressors because neurotypicals find it normal and even insist I do so.

While I also have difficulty making friends, all my long-term friends are autistic.  I used to think that autistic people were just cool and interesting.  In fact, I went to a farmer's market one day, and there was a lady selling fidget toys.  I asked someone what they were because I didn't recognize them.  The lady said that they are for autistic kids.  I seriously said out loud, "Man, those autistic kids know what's up."  I still think autistic people are cool, but it turns out that I am one of them.

I live in the US, so services are likely different than in the UK.  However, my local university has a support program for autistic people and families of autistic people.  They require a formal diagnosis, which I just got recently, so I haven't attended any social gatherings, but I'm looking forward to meeting other autistic people now that I'm enrolled.  Another thing I've been doing is attending monthly art classes at the local art museum and gravitate to the "weirdos" and away from the clique loud people.  It's been nice to find us out there.  Perhaps you can find some ways of finding us where you live.

Hi There welcome. I have started meeting Autistic people both online and in person. I have found it really good in a connective way.

Ah, haha, I think maybe I voted it down, hahaha,  that is pretty funny - sign of my low self esteem! I'm totally new to forums as I say! Oops

weird, because I just up-voted your post, and it now shows -1, rather than +1.

edit .. no i was wrong, i click it on and it went to 0 and then again (to un-up-vote it) and i went back to -1. ... I think maybe you down-voted your post....

I just pressed something and seem to have voted on my reply or something weird, haha, sorry if I did anything weird!

No not at all, that all makes sense. It is really hard, no getting around that! But as you say, hopefully things will get easier to deal with as you understand yourself more. I describe it like this - it's as if I've spent my whole life seeing the sky as pink, but kept getting told that it was blue, and so eventually stopped trusting myself and assumed my eyes must be the problem, and now with the diagnosis it's like being told that I have pink lenses in my eyes, so to me, the sky is actually pink, I was never wrong,  just had a different experience. If that makes any sense! I tend to think in that sort of way but I guess it might sound a bit strange! So I had this epiphany where I suddenly realised I can actually trust myself and I'm not broken, even though I thought I was for so many years. But it's a massive journey !

I suspect autistic people have a particular problem in the UK because we are very reserved and couch our language in ways, as you suggest, that make it difficult to understand.  Someone I work with is italian (i think) and very expressive and I find it sooo much easier to pick up on her expressions.

I was told the wait is 2 to 3 years, about 6 months ago.  Being late 40's I guess I am not a priority.  I long ago gave up on socializing outside of work or having relationships as I thought I was just too broken - I never understood why I had such difficulties.  Now that we have the wondrous internet and I can watch to stories of autistic people on youtube, i can see the root of my issues and hopefully a path to getting better ways to deal with it besides isolation.

I should say though that I consider that I am very fortunate to be gifted with a moderately high IQ. I can't help but think that if I were not so fortunate in that regard, i would be truly f'ed.

ok ... sorry if that was a downer ... As I say, i am trying to sort through my new reality and it is not easy.

Hi! Thanks for replying :) Sounds like we're having some similar experiences! Sorry to hear you're struggling with it all too! I emigrated from South Africa, so not too hectic a move as my home language is English and I have some family here and have visited quite a bit , but still an adjustment! Things are done quite differently here, sometimes for the better and sometimes not! One thing I've noticed is that, especially in a work context, people are often incredibly polite and reserved, which means that I am sometimes left wondering what is actually being said - like being told 'it would be great if you could attend the meeting if it's not too inconvenient' whereas in SA it would be 'be at the meeting or there's trouble', haha! I mean, it's not that dramatic, but that sort of idea! So I find myself analysing what people say all the time! I mean, I've always done that, but even more than usual!

It's so weird looking back over the past 30 odd years and seeing things in a totally new light. My husband keeps going, 'oh, that explains why you did/said that' etc! So it's hectic, but it has also really helped me understand myself more and my husband to understand me more too, so that's positive. Do you have an idea of the wait time for your assessment? The wait is super stressful I know! 

Hi. Welcome.  I am also new to this.  I have recently become convinced I am autistic (an on th wait list for an assessment) and it has unraveled much of how I saw myself and how I interpret past events. TBH, not having a fun time of it at the moment with trying to sort my head out, but the people here seem nice enough (i first posted a couple of days ago).

If you don't mind me asking,where did you emigrate from? (please feel free to not answer if yo do not want to).