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I just I feel lucky to have one at all these days, but yeh I do think it is a good job most of the time! Obviously as I'm on here you can already guess that I find the extremely social side of the job (usually working with around 10 blokes with hardly any time alone) very VERY hard work & on days where we don't have much work on I actually come home much more exhausted than if we had been rushed off our feet with emergencies because of all the extra time & effort I have to spend trying to fit in with the group, I much prefer it when we are busy!lol But apart from that side of things its all good. I can imagine some of the people I know/work with arguing the case with me also if I was diagnosed (not that I'd tell most of them), it never ceases to amaze me when people feel the need to argue the toss over subjects & people that they know little about. But you can't let em get to you I would say I'm slightly leaning towards maybe trying a diagnosis, just don't like the idea of going to the GP more than anything else. Never go there unless I have to!lol

Agree with everything you say there darkshine . I've only very recently the research on ASD & that in its self has made me feel like a load of the questions I've always asked about my self has finally been explained to me. It's very early days for me yet so I'm just going to see how it goes in regards to whether I feel I need to try the diagnosis route or not. One of the things that dose push me toward a diagnosis is the people who I know would just say you can't be on the spectrum (even though most don't have a clue what it is) & so are kinda saying that my brain is wired up exactly the same way as theirs but I'm just choosing to be awkward & different.lol I don't have a particularly good job, I'm just a Fireman but people do seem to have a stereotypical view that a Fireman simply could not be on the spectrum. I disagree, but as I say most people haven't even done the research so I really shouldn't let it bother me.

Cheers for the replies guys & hi to fellow newbie Rosie, I can relate to some of what you said. I was with someone who was all about popping out the kids my self, but I think unless you are 100% sure you want them (I'm pretty sure I don't) then you should not be coerce into it. After I split up with her I was happily planning to remain single my self, which like you say is just unthinkable for the people around you! But then very luckily I found someone who seems to think the same way as I do in most ways, although she did find my poor communication skills extremely hard to accept for the first few years & took it very personally. She thought I didn't bother communicating with her the way she wanted me to because I just wasn't that interested in her, which badly affected her self esteem & our relationship. I tried to explain that I had always been this way but she never really believed me until recently when I showed her the research I had done into ASD & she could see all my oddities laid out & explained, which has seemed to help things a lot.

Yeh that's what I've been thinking, I really can't see what difference it will make but for some reason I do want to know for sure. My mother has just found out that I have been thinking about this via my partner (the blabber mouth) & she spoke to her friend about who apparently diagnoses people with Autism. They said that because of the job I do it is not likely that I have ASD & probably just have a social phobia. I'm sure it was just a throw away comment by the person, but I found it rather annoying that people including the so called professionals will assume things about me like that without knowing anything about me apart from the job I do. Sure I'm being rather over sensitive about it though!

I thought diagnosis was free on the NHS? Never looked into it properly yet but have been thinking about it over the last few weeks. I'm 35 & just not sure if it would be worth doing. The logical part of me says it won't change anything as I have managed without a diagnosis my whole life, but the other part of me want's a definitive answer for some strange reason.

Hi everyone thought I'd give this site a go, I'm 35 years old & have not been diagnosed. I have always known I'm not "normal" but never known why & just thought I was an odd ball. It wasn't until quite recently that I thought about researching ASD online on info sites & forums like this one & was amazed to find pretty much all of my "odd" traits talked about! I don't really know what to do next or if I should bother seeking out a diagnosis etc so I thought it might be a good idea just to have a bit of a chat with similar people for now and hopefully learn a bit more :-)

I did laugh when I read this thread, but only because I'm relieved to finally know I'm not the only one to do this! If I see someone I know unexpectedly, it sometimes feels like my body's natural "fight or flight" panic adrenaline kicks in as though I'm in a life or death situation, I have always known this is not normal but couldn't seem to change it. If I see someone in the street that I just consider an acquaintance from a long time ago, I will more than likely dodge them. If it's someone who I consider a proper friend then I'll usually try & get a grip of my self to say hello as it would be rude not to, but I must admit I have still dodged the odd one then felt really guilty about it! If I do acknowledge them I always hope that I will not get caught up in a conversation as I know I'll quickly run out of things to say & one way or another it will get awkward. I can never seem to just have a bit chit chat & then know how to end things at the correct time, I always leave feeling so awkward & think that the other person can see this. I even had a bit of a panic the other month when I bumped into a very good mate of mine that I hadn't seen for a while at the shops, but he was with his partner, which also seems to affect my reaction even more. They didn't see me so it was me that had to say hello, there was a very stressful few seconds where I just didn't know what to do then all of a sudden I blurted out hello. As usual I was rather awkward in conversation & I acted as though I was in a rush & needed to be moving on. Then after we said goodbye I beat my self up a bit wondering why I had to react to the situation like that. It wasn't until quite recently that I started reading up on ASD etc & finally realised that other people do actually have similar traits to my self & now I don't beat my self up about these things, it's just the way I've always reacted to these situations so theres no point in getting down about it. I can even have a chuckle about my self now.