Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi
My name is Barry and I have difficulties with social situations and a couple of other issues but there is no help that I am aware of in my locality.
I am 67, married for 45 years, and retired after working in finance in the civil service. As a child I only had a maximum of one friend at a time, while my siblings were gregarious and had no difficulties. After getting married at 20 yrs, my wife has been my sole friend and soul mate. We have two adult sons. At work I was able to satisfy all my socialising needs but was not able to take work relationships outside of the workplace and I avoided work socials where the easily understood rules of the workplace were relaxed. Since retiring I have been isolated apart from with my wife. It is not that I don't like people, quite the opposite, but I don't seem to be able to connect beyond pleasantries.
I tend to focus on interests, spending a lot of time researching in the area of my current favourite, looking around at other things but coming back to a favoured few.
I have had a reasonably successful career and happy life in most ways and do not consider myself to be strange or unusual. I completed an OU degree last year, graduating with first class honours.
Sorry for this download but at times I get quite desparate to figure out why my life experience is as it is. Does my situation make any sense to anyone?
Barry
Take some online autism tests. AQ10 and AQ50 (sometimes called just 'AQ') are the most commonly used by clinicians in this country, but the RAADS-R is the most definitive. They can be found here: embrace-autism.com/.../If you score in the autism range it will give you more certainty about your autistic status.
Being autistic does not necessarily preclude a person from functioning in society, it may just make it difficult. I'm a diagnosed autistic, married, two kids, three degrees, and worked for 34 years in academic research.