Deciding to engage? Me? Interesting. This is going to go one of several potential ways.

Hi. I’m 49 and was given an NHS diagnosis of autism (specifically Asperger’s Syndrome) 3 years ago in 2020. Prior to this, I had obsessively researched and read whatever I could find connected to autism and the more I read, the more I realised my wiring.

Until very recently, I worked in mainstream education. My career was at the centre of my focus and the purpose of my existence (along with my son) as I saw it then. I sought my diagnosis because I felt that some families (I only told a few) would be more able to hear advice I would give (as a SENCo) if it was also coming from a place of personal experience.

I write to process. I write to work out what I think. I write to understand my experiences and to fathom out what I believe. I write a lot. I have written even more since I have not been working. My always overly active brain is seeking purpose and enough stimulation to ensure it doesn’t spontaneously combust. I’ve written so much that with the help of someone who took pity on me because of the bottom falling out of my world (again), I’ve made a website. It is for people like us, recognising we are all individuals and will not respond or react in the same ways but may well share some traits and ways of being.

I don’t have definitive answers, but I do have some ways of managing me that work for some of the time and in some of the contexts. If I don’t have a sense of purpose wider than myself, I don’t know how to exist and that is why I’m letting you into my world.

If there is anything on the site that helps you in one tiny way for one situation you face on one day, it was worth braving this exposure. If there is one way where you feel less isolated because you can see it isn’t just you who thinks as you do, then it is worth doing it. You are welcome to explore if you want to. I’m going to keep writing things for it because I don’t know how I’ll cope if I stop. www.earlyinthemorning.co.uk

As an aside, I also don’t do social media. I don’t understand the rules. I don’t know how to engage. Even being on here with those who may have similarities to me is all too weird. I’ve tried this forum before but then have disappeared for months on end. I really am rubbish at the social media thing, but hey, even so, I’m trying again. Hi.