haven't been to the cinema for 14 years

Thank-you! I do feel pretty pleased this morning! Crashed last night,due to the worry and stress,I had before with it. But,have woken up pretty pleased with myself. Thank-u everybody for you support with it.

Well done! One small step for Yellow Sunflower! It's really good to overcome your fears and actually do something that you wanted to do and even better that you enjoyed it. :-)

Thank-You. Glad to hear you take your own in, i was worried to do that,but now i know you can... was suprised to see drinks(small) are £3.10!! And can't believe how loud it is.

Anyway, i did it! it worked because there were few people in and i really enjoyed it. Being an Aardman animation, all the characters facial expressions are really exagerated, so was good to read more expressions. It was such a humerous,cheerful film and would rate it. can't believe i finally did it. And allowed myself time to navigate around e.t.c. Horrah!

Thank-you everybody.

NAS23179 said:

Don't worry about 'normal' people - what's 'normal' anyway?

Agree with this. I wouldn't go just because I felt that society somehow expected me to go. Perhaps I'm too self centred to go along with that!

I would go if my partner wanted to go and I used to go when the kids were still at home.

I would go if there was a film that I was interested in.

Another reason for going might be that I wanted to prove to myself that I could go and that I didn't want my ASD to control my life too much. I think it is good to challenge yourself and to overcome obstacles. The sense of achievement can make the effort really worthwhile and you can then take a more considered view about going when it suited you rather than feeling pressured into trying to be "normal".

When we went to the cinema the other week I was surprised to find that people were drinking wine, from a bar in the cinema, during the film. The cinema is a really old and small independent local cinema and the audience were very relaxed and able to enjoy the film without all of the commotion and busy-ness of a multiplex. There are a few of these dotted around the country - I would certainly recommend a smaller, single theatre cinema rather than one of the big multiplexes.

There were 157,499,641 visits to the cinema in the uk last year

www.cinemauk.org.uk/.../

I don't recall any bombs in cinemas last year so the odds are very very heavily in your favour

I saw the Stephen Hawking film last month and enjoyed that as, among other intersting parts of the film, he is quite clearly well down the autistic spectrum and also terribly disabled by his motor neuron disease and yet has been very successful in his life. Quite inspirational but probably a bit much for a trial excursion like yours. That was my first trip in probably 10 years but my non attendance is more about not being excited by a lot of what is on.

Hi,

Just a little update....was thinking of finally going to the cinema today, though as i'm writting now, am a little aprehensive, to say the least.... i was awake in the night, mildly panicking about the cinema being blown up.... am trying to calm myself down and using lavender spray and trying to tell myself, they aren't interested in cinema's!

I had decided to not go when i got up, but then got very dissapointed, because i feel i should try.... and i may not go all the time,because it's so expensive for me, at least it'll be a bit like 'normal' people.

Thank-you, It's lovely to hear other people. i'm thinking of starting with Shaun The Sheep- Though worrying what people may think, as i'm an adult and on my own... but, i want to watch something easy, and not scary.

I enjoy the cinema, but have similar issues to RS with face recognition. War films are the worst, I quickly lose track of who is doing what to who. Was half way through one Hollywood blockbuster before I realised the main character was actually two people. And have learned that if something is described as "noir" it is probably going to be a confusing bum-number!

Hi,

I had been to the cinema twice in 30 years, until recently.  Now I've been another two times recently.

At our Odeon they do an autistic friendly showing once a month.  This Sunday, at 11.30, is Shaun the Sheep, that is coming out on Saturday.  It should be good.  Although it is aimed at children I know a few adults who want to see it too.  And I'm going on Sunday to watch it.

I'm going.  The lights are left on, so you can leave at any time.  You can also go back in , if you decide to.  If you get a CEA card ,cost £6, your carer/ partner can get in for free. The sound is also turned down and there are no trailers before the film so you know when it starts and when it will finish.

I have recently watched Paddington and The film about Stephen Hawking.  You might find that your local cinema does an autistic adult evening on a Monday.

I say well done to Odeon for thinking of us, or the charity that asked Odeon to do it.

MArgaret

Thank-you

I eventually worked out why going to the cinema doesn't do much for me. I struggle with lots of films where I basically can't distinguish one character from another. It seems there is a recognised thing called prosopagnosia which is an inability to recognise faces. I enjoy films where there is a small number of characters but get bored and fall asleep in things like lord of the rings where there are loads of similar looking people doing rather similar things.

If you pick a seat by the aisle where you can get up and leave without disturbing anyone then no-one will object to you leaving halfway through.

I don't think you are more likely to get bombed in a cinema than anywhere else. You are more likely to win a million on the lottery than getting bombed anywhere in Britain. The lottery is so unlikely that I don't bother with it anymore. Getting bombed is a thing that is much less likely than that so it doesn't enter my mind when deciding what to to do. This is a situation where it helps to talk to people and see what normal people do and worry about. We tend to get isolated with ASD and we often seem to lose the sense of what is ordinary and normal because it is harder to make comparisons with people around us. Ask yourself whether anyone you know has ever been affected by a bombing and you will have to go through a fair number of connections before you get anywhere near a victim of 7/7 or the Brighton bombing (1970's). It is so rare that it is not worth worrying about.