Still around- in lurk mode

As A said, we're all "outliers" here. We all have different experiences, and to me it's interesting to hear the different views and experiences of others.

I've read through this thread and it seems that part of the reason you feel different is because you didn't go to university and have been long term unemployed. But lots of autistic people are in that situation. I didn't go to university either, and although I did work for many years I'm glad to be retired now and not working - it wasn't much fun.

it can get a bit "samey" on here sometimes, but that's because new people discover the forum and have the same or similar questions about diagnosis, support, how to unmask, etc. But sometimes we start threads for fun, like the music quiz that Debbie started, or the cat one with the slightly rude sounding title, or the "3 good things". You can start a conversation about anything - it doesn't have to be autism related.

What are your interests? I looked at your profile and to be honest I didn't understand some of the things you put on there. I have no idea what SMI, DCD, 2e, FBPE, WGD and Calne are. There are also some things on there related to politics - if you feel strongly these are things that you identify with that's fine, but in my experience it's better to keep ones political views to oneself on the internet. I hope you don't mind me saying that - I'm honestly trying to be supportive and helpful.

You mention that your life is a bit "groundhog day". So what do you spend your time doing? Is there anything you'd like to do, or find out more about? I love reading and can do a lot more of it now I've retired, and I'm interested in lots of different subjects and have done some free online courses.

I think that sometimes people feel that what they have to say will not be interesting to others, but if you try to start a thread about something you are interested in or have been thinking about I'm sure others will.join in, and hopefully you'll find things in common and feel more of a connection.

Never give up!

I don't get all the acronyms either, thanks for the explaination fm, but to be honest I won't remember them from thread to thread and will skip over thread and posts that are full of them as I can't understand them and get a bit irritated.

It's not masking, but do I need to be less than the person I truly am in order not to alienate/irritate people here?

You can? Not to me you haven't. But I suspect that most people have the 'clod hopping twat' part of themselves as well as the 'people pleaser' part. I guess it's part of being a mostly social species, we want to get through life with the minimum amount of hassle by pleasing others, but also suffer from foot in mouth disease, often quite unintentionally.

I can be a total, clod hopping, twat at times which  runs contrary to  the  bullying related trauma fuelled 'people pleaser' part of me.

I can be a total, clod hopping, twat at times which  runs contrary to  the  bullying related trauma fuelled 'people pleaser' part of me.

You can? Not to me you haven't. But I suspect that most people have the 'clod hopping twat' part of themselves as well as the 'people pleaser' part. I guess it's part of being a mostly social species, we want to get through life with the minimum amount of hassle by pleasing others, but also suffer from foot in mouth disease, often quite unintentionally.