Hi

Hi and welcome to the community - I like your name.

I'm a woman in my sixties and retired. I didn't discover that I was on the spectrum until I was in my fifties, so for most of my life I was masking and struggling with dealing with people.

I enjoy reading and playing video games, and interacting with others here. I hope you enjoy chatting with us.

Thanks, it’s partial because my mum’s mum was named August and because of the time of year I was born.

When I was born my mum said it was a perfect august evening, warm, sunny and one of those days that feels never ending but nice. She said it felt fitting and right that I should be called that.

Nice to meet you Lotus and congrats on your own diagnosis. Masking for over 50 years must have been difficult. I’ve found the last 20 or so years difficult, can’t imagine how 50 must have been for you. I’m glad you got there though and have found this site too.

What books and games do you like?

I like gaming. I play The Sims a lot and have been enjoying GTA as well lately.

Thanks, it’s partial because my mum’s mum was named August and because of the time of year I was born.

When I was born my mum said it was a perfect august evening, warm, sunny and one of those days that feels never ending but nice. She said it felt fitting and right that I should be called that.

Nice to meet you Lotus and congrats on your own diagnosis. Masking for over 50 years must have been difficult. I’ve found the last 20 or so years difficult, can’t imagine how 50 must have been for you. I’m glad you got there though and have found this site too.

What books and games do you like?

I like gaming. I play The Sims a lot and have been enjoying GTA as well lately.

I have a Kindle Unlimited subscription because I read so much, it makes it cheaper than buying all the books I read. I don't have one particular favourite book. The ones I have particularly enjoyed over the last year were the Middle Falls time travel series by Shawn Inmon, The Undead series by RR Haywood, most of the thrillers by Frieda McFadden, and The Berlin Sisters and The Pianist's wife by Soraya M Lane (those last two are set in WW2)

I'm currently reading The Golden Cage by Kate L Mary - it's set on a fictional isolated island where girls are trained, ranked and judged according to their looks, not who they are. The most beautiful become tier 1 women, famous and admired but lonely as they are forbidden from seeing family or mixing with those from other tiers. The tier 2 women are trained to be dutiful wives who are "bought" from their fathers by a rich husband. Tier 3 women are allowed to marry but their fathers get no payment for them, and they are workers - the more intelligent can become teachers but many work as domestic staff. It follows the lives of 4 girls the same age who join the institute together at the age of 6. I've just got to the part where they are coming up to graduation and for various reasons they are all destined to follow different paths as adults. It's very interesting.

My favourite occult in Sims 4 are vampires - I haven't bought the werewolf pack as it didn't really appeal to me.

Hi again. I don’t see a problem in that, so many people find self validation and comfort with a self diagnosis or they choose to get diagnosed like I did. It really depends on the individual and whatever works for them. I highly suspect my brother is autistic but if he wanted to I know he would be fine with self diagnosing rather than going the professional route.
So long as it brings you that comfort and self knowledge I think that’s all you really need. For me I Had to know. I don’t know why, I just had to and that’s brought me so much peace of mind and self validation.

Good job on sustaining working… this is something I really struggle with. Retirement must be nice, lots of time to play Sims 4

I love reading! Yeah they shouldn’t ageist like that. I think books can be enjoyed by all ages. I have some from my early childhood that I still read, and enjoy now. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
Do you have a fave book you like reading?

My fave book is The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern and I love the Skulduggery Pleasant book series.

Oooh your Sims 4 project sounds huge and a lot of fun!!!! Cool!!! I think the creating and building in Sims 4 is my fave part, I spend more time in CAS and build mode than actual gameplay, that said I do have a few Sims generations and legacy games that I’ve been doing ooh 3-6 years depending. I haven’t done my own worlds before though, that sounds fun and clearly is an amazing project to do. You’ll have to let me know how you get on with it, though clearly you have done amazingly already!
I would love to do more building in my actual game saves but I’m terrible at building!!

I love the premade households, the Goths are my fave followed closely by the Pancakes.

Did you see burglars are now part of Sims 4? I’ve enjoyed having them in the game again. I like how the burglar alarm can be upgraded, mine shocks the burglars in my latest save.

What’s your fave occult to play as? I like the werewolves and ghosts. The werewolves get so much hate but I actually really like them lol.

I used to play a lot of Fallout 4. I need to get back to that at some point, it’s been a while!

Hi again August

I'm not officially diagnosed. I did the AQ50 test (result: 42) and another one my doctor asked me to do and when he reviewed the results he agreed they indicated autism, but said there was not much point getting a diagnosis as I wouldn't get any support because I'm self sufficient and was working at the time. Having read the stories from other diagnosed adults on here it seems most of them were just told they were autistic and left to get on with it. I know it benefits some people to have a professional diagnosis, but I have trust issues and because I masked so well I didn't trust anyone to diagnose me. I know who I am and I feel I belong here, where I was welcomed from the first day I posted.

I like lots of different types of books, including sci-fi, fantasy, time travel, historical fiction, thrillers, satire and post apocalyptic stories. I have enjoyed quite a lot of books that are classed as young adult fiction, although I think it's a bit ageist to class books as such! 

I'm currently playing Sims 4, which is one of my favourite games. I say playing, but I'm actually working on a big project creating my own worlds - making lots of houses, community lots, households, etc. I kept a few of the original households - I like the Goth, Landgraab, Pancakes, Zest, Jang & Lynx households and the vampire ones Vatore & Straud so I kept those. I have the dine out pack so I've made a restaurant for most worlds, including a Chinese restaurant in San Myshuno called The Golden Moon, a Japanese one in Mt Korembi called Cherry Blossom Diner, an Indian one in Newcrest called the Taj Mahal (built to look like the Taj Mahal!), a gothic style one in Forgotten Hollow called Twighlight Bite, and a burger bar in the shopping area of Magnolia Promenade (shaped like a burger) I've also built some museums, and I'm particularly proud of my natural history museum which is shaped like an elephant. I have used lots of different architectural styles in my houses, including Art Deco style, a boat house, Greek villa, 1960s style bungalow, a lighthouse home, and one that looks like a space shuttle (some aliens live in that one)

My other favourite games are Fallout 4, assassins creed odyssey, BioShock & Hogwarts Legacy.

My experience is similar to Lotus  and yours. My birthday is the last day of August which meant I was always the youngest in my year at school. I've been enjoying GTA5 since 2013 offline mostly (I just got to experience it online for a few weeks on my PS3 before it was shutdown for PS3s online in December 2021). Lately I'm also enjoying watching this YouTuber playing through it for the first time ever as I'm very familiar with the story and so on    www.youtube.com/.../tyT9bhfyqqA