Published on 12, July, 2020
Dear folks,
I have requested that my account be deleted, and this was confirmed to me - but it appears to be still active for the time being.
I just wanted to explain to you all - as I should have done before - that I need to take time out from the community. Autism defines my life, of course, but I was beginning to feel that I was letting it take over my life. I have autism, I work with autistic people, I talk about autism all the time, I write about autism all the time. I think I've allowed my life to get out of balance with it, and I feel the need to restore some of that balance.
I have recently rejoined a writers' website that I used to use many years ago. I did this as a way of trying to encourage myself to get back to doing some writing - something that's been missing from my life for a while (aside from the autism-related blog!) Even on there, though, my first few posts were about Asperger's. This was actually useful, because a lot of people seemed interested - but either knew very little about the subject, or had some of the usual misconceptions. So, I've been able to offer some insights and elucidation. But I want to focus more on other things, and need to give this a rest - as we all do from time to time.
I wish you all well and thank you all for your support. It has meant a lot to me, and has kept me going. I'm very grateful to you all.
I'll re-register once I feel more able to contribute usefully to the forums.
Best wishes,
Tom x
Glad to hear that you're OK, Tom, and also glad to hear that your sabbatical is the result of of a positive choice to rebalance your life and improve your well-being.
Going too far down the rabbit hole can be very easy to do, and it can sneak up on us very stealthily. Even discussions which help us by improving our self-awareness and understanding of autism can take their toll mentally, and talking about traumatic experiences even more so, even those that we found peace with long ago. It can be demoralising too, sometimes, to see so many other people having difficulties and receiving so little sympathy from society all the time. It is good that we talk about those things, but still something which can lower our mood and become oppressive if overdone.
I take breaks from the forums pretty regularly, sometimes for a few days, sometimes for months, and have done ever since I started using them. It's just necessary sometimes, and I'm not helping anyone by sitting staring at a thread unable to put a simple sentence together because I'm too burned out.
I look forward to hearing from you again when you're ready to return. Enjoy your writing.