Social Groups for Autistic Adults

Yes : http://alag.org.uk/

Yes, there are a couple of autistic groups in London where men seen to outnumber women 10:1

I just started a women's group in London - [link removed by moderator due to identifying details]

Thank you Kitsun.

It's sad that it seems that autism is not widely accepted or talked about where you live. This must make it extremely difficult to meet other autistic adults or access any services? It shows that there is still a very great need to raise the profile of autism and increase awareness about it and, dare I say, increase even tolerance and acceptance of it, at a world wide level. 

It appears that even medical professionals in the country where you live do not even wish to diagnose autism. It's good though that you've been able to find and adapt your own coping mechanisms. Where there's a will there's a way!

I'm glad that you've joined this forum and I hope that chatting with fellow autistic adults on here can offer you the support and friendship that is lacking in your own country.

Actually I'm aware of a meetup group 'Informal meetups for autistic adults' that meets in London, once a month I think, at different locations/venues. I believe that it's mainly men who attend although it is open to both genders. If you look on the meetup website then you should be able to find it. 

I have seen some such groups on the meetup app. None near me unfortunately. But for those that have one in their area then I'm sure that they are well worth a try.

I think what works well tends to vary from person to person and also from group to group. Some people may be more suited to a group for people with a particular interest. Some people may prefer to go to a group with fellow Aspie/Autistic people. Some groups are as you describe, people sitting around playing cards with very little interaction. Some groups have people attending with a very varied range of functioning, from all over the spectrum and they also have an activity at the group for attendees to join in if they so wish. I have been to both and I have based the model for my own group on the latter. My group is open to women anywhere on the spectrum and we have an activity at our monthly group meet ups. Last month we did sketching and this month we have a lady coming in to run a meditation and mindfulness workshop. I find that having an activity takes the focus off of interaction and actually people tend to interact more as a result. 

Meetup have some groups for ‘mild autism’ or similar. I have gone to a meet up in London and found it good for discussing things and just meeting. No pressure. I talked to others one to one. 

What are your interests?   You're more likely to find kindred spirits within your range of hobbies.

I live abroad. I'm interested in a support group for expats and some English speaking locals. It would be difficult to create an adult support group here, unless I can find someone locally in one of the 'caring' professions, to act as a legal front. And as one local doctor said to me, many adults on the spectrum here are probably doctors; and they do not want to either talk about it or be 'out'. And they may not even self-identify, let alone have a diagnosis.

Now I have quite a few acquaintances in the medical profession. One such acquaintance suggested his own preference for meditation. (Well, I have adapted that idea, with some success,  to self-hypnosis.) He also referred me to a hospital psychiatrist, who was only prepared to diagnose me as GAD with reactive depression. He also said there was no way I could be on the spectrum, because I had demonstrated too much empathy talking to his admin staff (this was before I traveled to the UK for an assessment). I had already indicated that I did not favor anti-depressives, but that's what I got anyway. I tried them for a few weeks and dropped them gradually to zero. I found my own ways to deal with the depression, thru reading. One person I will probably never bother to contact again. I'm pretty sure he was just making an excuse to keep the whole subject under wraps.

A childhood ASD specialist (900 kms away) talked about cooperating with me on awareness projects, but obviously has too may things to do with her own family and education projects. She also referred me to someone who might be prepared to do an adult assessment, but that came to nothing

A GP was quite helpful in referring me to a neurologist, but again he did very little other that refer me to a local psychologist; whose receptionist basically told me he wasn't interested in talking. A big pity, since his specialty is sleep issues, and I've had a few of those in this noisy place.

A large and reputed mental health establishment told me they were not even yet up to speed on childhood assessments.

Expat therapists have told me it is on their menu, but I formed the impression that they just wanted to conduct multiple sessions at a cost I could not afford. I was later told by someone in the UK that therapies should really begin to work from Day 1, and that less than 5 sessions was quite often sufficient. in any case, I doubt that they could really help me half as much as I can help myself; particularly as therapy can only ever really address comorbidities.

The above search was always mainly with a notion to find other people locally with the same difficulties. I already had a notion that the medical profession wasn't going to help me very much at all. And the one expat I know here who knows my label (but apparently disagrees) is also keen to avoid the subject; despite having previously worked in the NHS.

So I kind of figure that until I can find someone locally who is just prepared to talk about it, any hope of having a support role locally is highly impractical. But there are obviously quite a few young people on the spectrum here, and they're daily getting older and even further from support.

No support, or even recognition, at home here either! Sure, I know where I could find some excellent support in the UK, but I'm rarely there. (Some online support is also possible.) And even there, there is frequently similar resistance. The NAS say they don't want volunteers or reps abroad, for instance. The search goes on! :-) Actually, just some F2F friendship would be enough. Big plans aren't at all necessary.

I suspect most of the regular posters on here are very high functioning.    I have experience of normal Asperger meetups and I really don't fit.    I suspect that the other people attending cover a much wider spectrum so are more typical of autistic behaviour.  

There's very little interaction and no real friendship.  Playing card games is as far as it gets.

The extra-curricular events are really difficult - like a bunch of strangers forced to be in the same place.

I think we are looking for something that doesn't exist as an autisitc meetup - it's really as @Original Prankster says - it exists as a D&D group or a model engineering club or as volunteers at an aircraft museum.

Yeah I'm sure that they do, the 'informal' meet ups! 

It is amazing spending time with fellow autistic people. Since being diagnosed myself I've come to realise that most of my close friends from pre-diagnosis are un-diagnosed autistic, some are pursuing diagnosis and some aren't and I've made friends with some more autistic people since diagnosis too which is great. It's a very relaxing way for me to spend my time, talking with other autistic people :-) maybe give the group in your town a go?

Does anyone know of any social groups in North London?

Is there a Social Group in the North London area I could try out?

(I am male).

Fair enough.

I have a horrible suspicion that predominately male ASD groups already exist... but they probably don't identify as such, instead they are 'Tabletop gaming' or 'PC building' or relate to other activities that seem to attract men who appear to display a higher than average incidence of autistic traits!

I would like to try spending time with people who just 'got it'... maybe I'll have to break my routine and give track night a miss for one week next month...

My group works better as a single gender group for a number of reasons. It would be great if some guys started up some groups too :-)

'informal' Aspie meetups :-)

North Essex

Only for women?

There's a group in my town but the night they meet clashes with track night for my triathlon club so...