I hope it's OK to start a thread as a safe space for me to be. I don't always understand the social things fast enough on here to be good at them, so sometimes need a quiet space I cope with better and am less likely to go into a shutdown/flat panic.
In case you don't know me, I'm Amber. I have Asperger syndrome, which is part of the autism spectrum, and mine is not the mild kind. I also have arthritis and a spinal scoliosis and I'm a bit dyspraxic.
Because mine is the visual sort of ASD, I see life in pictures, not words, and my brain hasn't got a lot of common sense or ways to find the information on different people. I have big sensory difficulties or differences: Some good, some bad. I can say things that are very undiplomatic from time to time , but feel awful if I get the social things wrong, so please do always ask me if I really understood something before thinking I'm or .
I'm not an expert or professional. I'm a mum who's asked by people or organisations to help with advice on what it's like to be someone like me. But I have had the honour of knowing and working and indeed living with with many, many lovely people with an ASD over the years, and many Experts who know far more about some aspects ASDs than I do. We try to learn from each other. I love learning from others here too.
Sometimes people want to know a bit about my life, and some of it helps some families and children (they tell me). It might not. There's no guarantees.
I don't think my own ASD is a disaster, or a brilliant thing to have. It's like a bag of those Every Flavour Beans in the Harry Potter books: Some good bits of life, some bad bits. Some things I can do, other things I can't, and some that go really horribly wrong. The things I can't do are many and varied and mean that I have to pace and balance every part of my life so very, very carefully and with a lot of help from friends, family and specialists. But there are blessings to it for me.
Someone once said,
"The secret of true happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have"
That sums up how I find joy and meaning in the little things, and how I've kept going through the worst bits.
So do ask if you'd like to. Or just have a cuppa here. .