Aeolienne

It's something that people have said to me on more than one occasion, presumably to make me feel better about my freaky status.

I voted yes to both the poll questions, but I'm still a bit unsure as to whether I'm really affected. I was assessed for tinted glasses at Specsavers after my then job coach had commented on me frequently "occluding" my eyes under the office strip lighting. In the testing room I could see that printed words looked easier to read with the pink lenses, so I got those and wore them at work. At the same time I'm puzzled as to why I haven't experienced the same revelation other Aspies have, as in "For the first time the carpet isn't moving!!"

Saw this piece in what was then my local paper: Treatment helps break down autism barriers Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 23:00 PARENT carers without the financial backing to send an autistic child to the United States for pioneering treatment have been told they can access funding from a community-minded mother in Mid Devon. Gretchen Oldland, who lives near Sandford on the outskirts of Crediton, has raised funds so a youngster living in the county can access a course that helped her eight-year-old son Victor. The Son-Rise Program, provided by the Autism Treatment Center of America, strives to help children with autistic spectrum disorder to develop language, attention span, eye contact and flexibility exercises, while providing parents the skills needed for their upbringing. View the full article and make comments here.

So much for relationships being no big deal!

What's your secret? Aeolienne, 36 and never had a relationship

I went on the Friday. As always, IMVHO too much emphasis on services for parents of autistic children and not enough for adults. I would like to have spoken more to the people on London Autism Rights Movement's stall, specifically to find out what the various autism groups in London are like - how do they differ from one another*? - and also to hear of people's experience of Prospects and/or other supported employment schemes. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get much of a word in. I suppose the stall was too busy. Either that or the people on it had no appreciation of how difficult some people find it to get relevant information, or maybe I'm in a minority of one. * People's Front of Judea anyone??

Unfortunately the waiting list for Prospects Transition remains long because of staff shortages. I've been told to expect to be contacted about a month before I get to the top of the list - and until then, nada.

Did anyone take you up on that?

I was diagnosed aged 26 in 2001, too late to claim any perks at university. At the time I felt some relief, but it was only temporary. I genuinely (naïvely) hoped that at last my problems with socialising would be taken seriously, and not just fobbed off with the same old same old "just join a club". No such luck. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. My parents, for their part, insist I'm borderline, notwithstanding that I *still* haven't had a relationship at the age of 36 and have been fired from three jobs.

There are even fewer areas where Prospects is active following the closure of their Manchester office.

Disappointing. The same old same old emphasis on children. The only adults featured were in a photograph of a social group in a capsule of the London Eye. In other words, all adult Aspies need is jolly jaunts. Yeah right.

Disclosing AS in a CV is a different kettle of fish. Personally I only disclose my AS at the application stage if explicitly asked (which by definition would be on an application form).

Not only that, he claimed Hebden Bridge is the Hampstead of the North. Surely Totnes is the most appropriate comparison?!

If NASA sent cows into orbit, they'd be the herd shot around the world. I'm currently reading: The Art of the Story: An international anthology of contemporary short stories edited by Daniel Halpern Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering your right livelihood by Marsha Sinetar

I disclosed my AS at the last job interview I had (in May 2010). The good news is I got offered the job. The bad news is that I got fired after less than five months.

WOW You missing out if you haven't read weathering heights did it for literature in my final year at school, it's lovely, sure you will find it better than the ITV programme I will watch it too though. I am studying at the moment so no chance to read anything other than my course books. I read Wuthering Heights when I was 30 and I must confess that I didn't particularly enjoy it. It just seemed to be about a bunch of unpleasant, often violent, people arguing a lot and marrying their cousins. I found myself wishing that some brash New York therapist or self-help author like Ellen Fein or Sherrie Schneider would just breeze in and say: "You need to get out more! Get away from Yorkshire and DON'T CALL HIM!" Incidentally, "Weathering Heights" was once suggested as a name for the Met Office's new HQ in Exeter. ;-) I'm currently reading Frugal Food by Delia Smith.

I declared my Asperger's at the last job interview I had. The good news is that I was offered the job. The bad news is that I was fired after five months.

Congratulations! It's Asperger syndrome by Jen Birch Managing with Asperger Syndrome by Malcolm Johnson Women from Another Planet (anthology)

This is the text of an email I sent in March 2008 to Emily Holmes at Oxford University's Department of Psychiatry: I was interested to read the article 'Imagining how to tackle trauma' in the latest Oxford Today, in which you were featured. Specifically the bold claim that "CBT works", a point hammered home even more forcefully in a recent episode of 'Imagine' about self-help books, in which Alan Yentob said that CBT is known to produce positive results in just three sessions. All of which make me wonder why CBT has proved so ineffective on me. Are there different versions of the therapy? Are some versions more equal than others? My motivation for seeking CBT was my having Asperger's syndrome. I was officially diagnosed with AS in 2001, nearly two years after finishing an MSc at Somerville and just days after taking up a full-time post at the Met Office, but did not seek CBT until late 2003. Rightly or wrongly, I thought it best to wait until after the Met Office relocation from Bracknell to Exeter. I asked the National Autistic Society to recommend a CBT specialist, but the person they put me in touch with was a complete waste of time. He didn't give me therapy so much as chit-chat with the odd bit of advice thrown in. Worse, he was often patronising or belittled my worries. For instance, I tried to talk about the apprehensions I had about getting onto the property ladder and he said "Just go round the estate agents" as if it were the easiest thing in the world! After four sessions I asked him if he was really giving me CBT and he said no, just practical advice and why did I want CBT anyway? I said I'd heard great things about it, that it had really turned people's lives around. He told me to forget it, that Asperger's lives can't be turned around. I then resorted to the official CBT practitioners register to find one, but all the ones in Devon, bar one, turned me down because they weren't qualified to treat someone with Asperger's. The only one who was qualified initially gave me several sessions at a venue near my office over a six-month period, but then for some reason the venue became unavailable and I had to travel to his usual office in Barnstaple (some 40 miles north of Exeter) once a month. On top of that I was expected to keep a diary of noteworthy emotional experiences, which made huge inroads into my time and meant that most of the session time would be taken up by the therapist reading my notes. Eventually our meetings dwindled to once every 2-3 months, so the therapist suggested we call it quits. This was after over two years of this supposedly miraculous treatment. It was pleasant enough having someone to talk to while it lasted, but it hasn't really altered my fundamental problems of loneliness and not fitting in etc. Did I expect too much?

Ee-oh-lee-en, roughly. Yes, but unfortunately they no longer cover the north of England - their Manchester presence ended yesterday. I only discovered this after I'd waited nearly three months to see the disability employment advisor at Skipton jobcentre. So there's been a change of plan: I'm moving in with my parents in London in two weeks' time. I have put my name forward for Prospects Transition in London, but there's a long waiting list (and in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not a recent graduate!). I can't help feeling that if I'd been properly managed continuously and coherently - as in given clear, direct, honest, timely feedback, SMART targets regularly updated and a career development plan, if more use had been made of the skills I brought to the employer from my university studies rather than allowing them to rust over through lack of use - all this would have never happened. But then I would say that, wouldn't I? Indirectly. I originally got it from a Quebecois news article about renewable energy - it's the feminine form of the adjective for wind energy, as in energie aeolienne, parc aolien. French French drops the initial A.

I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome in 2001, aged 26 - too late to claim perks at university such as a free laptop etc. I'd been moved to seek a diagnosis after being fired from my first proper job after just five weeks for "not fitting in". By the time the diagnosis was official, I had got another job within the scientific civil service. I'm from London originally, but worked in Bracknell, Berkshire, for a couple of years and then relocated with my employer to Exeter. In May 2009 I was dismissed on the grounds of underperformance. After a year on the dole I got offered a job with an environmental consultancy in Skipton, North Yorkshire. Not my preferred choice of location by a long chalk - I'd much rather have moved to Bristol - but it was the only offer I'd received so I moved up north. Then a week before Christmas 2010 I was fired for not having "delivered the right level of technical input". It's anyone's guess how differently things might have turned out if I'd had the right support in place from day one, but my efforts to tap into local sources of support were frustratingly slow to bring results, and being without broadband for the first two months of my job didn't help. God only knows where I'll end up next. My hobbies and interests include reading, environmental issues, Baroque music, recorder playing, hillwalking, cycling, outdoor swimming and visiting art exhibitions.