My name is Joshua. I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome in 2003. I am today 38 years old. I am starting to realize more and more that I need to understand my autism/Aspergers diagnosis and how it applies to me. When I was diagnosed in 2003, almost two decades ago, I was insanely resistant to the diagnosis. It was kind of a mess back then, like the Wild West of a diagnosis, and I resented having certain traits assumed about me when I told someone my diagnosis. I think the subject is much more understood today, in part because of groups like yours. I walked away from the subject for a long time, and ended up having severe mental illness symptoms develop because I didn't want anything to do with any diagnosis, or any assistance or treatment of any kind. Now, I want to return to the subject, and get more involved in the community, and get myself better, and help others with similar experiences and struggles. I just signed up for your website community. Hopefully I can get more involved. I just sent an email to my therapist and another mental health person I work with, saying I want to do all this. I also have an interest in writing stories, particularly with main characters who have Asperger's/autism. I like to read novels and stories, but sometimes I just don't relate to the characters. I very rarely read a story where there is a character that I say "I think and feel like this character". So I want to write some of my own. I was wondering if you or anyone in the community could recommend good novels or stories with well written autistic characters all over the spectrum. I think that was one of the issues I had with my diagnosis, is that people assumed you had all the qualities or traits. It wasn't yet considered a spectrum with various expressions. It was just assumed "You have Aspergers. You must not have empathy. You must not be able to read facial expressions or vocal inflections." I had all this stuff slapped on me by people, because they assume everyone is all the same. I would like to write about the variety of differences people with autism or Aspegers experience, while getting at the commonalities that underlie the disorder. But thank you for all your organization does. I kind of avoided the subject for a long time, and I need to get into it again, because I need to get my life in order, and I can't without the assistance of the diagnosis and the community involved in it.

Posted by joshuarp at 2022-11-23 00:31:44 UTC