In Exile

...and this also.

I used to strut around my bedroom to this when I was 14.

Oops, I deleted my photos by accident. Here they are again, in case anyone's still following this thread. I forgot to say, I don't think seeing faces in objects is anything to do with ASD. I'm pretty sure it's universal.

So here are two pictures of the walls in my elevator. I've highlighted the areas where I see monkeys and baby owls, hoping you will see them too.

The elevator to my apartment has wall panels with a fake swirly wood pattern, maybe yew or something. I see monkeys and baby owls in the pattern. I'll take a picture of it and upload tomorrow, so you can see for yourself.

Hehe, that's funny. I see faces in inanimate objects all the time. I'm surprised the Hitler House wasn't included:

Depression doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with AS but it is certainly more prevalent so, even statistically, it is a distinct possibility. I'd certainly suggest talking to your son's doctor about it. You didn't mention why you and your boys are in Spain. Are you a Spanish national? I'm just wondering whether any practical possibility exists for you to relocate to the UK. If you want to find external help for your son, I'm pretty sure that a formal AS diagnosis will be a prerequisite. I'll leave it for others to outline what help might be possible, at least in the UK, bearing in mind that your son is now an adult. Best wishes to you.

I don't know for sure how long it takes here but in the US it typically takes 7 years (4 years as an undergrad, 3 years graduate law school, then bar exams). I imagine it's about the same here. Hope that helps your imaginings!

I won't deny that I'm in a good position relative to most people with AS but being over here is no bed of roses. If, like me, your life is governed by a desire for routine and certainty, you'll appreciate how stressful it must be to be sent to another country for a year without any real choice. I have with me a couple suitcases of stuff so not much in the way of personal comforts. The people I work with live out in the country so I have nobody to associate with on weekends. I'm way out of my comfort zone and I'm missing my home, friends and family. There's scarcely a waking moment when I don't feel stressed out by this.

The female type - you mentioned having a crush on a male lawyer in your head so I guessed you didn't want to know about female lawyers.

I don't suffer hallucinations normally but when I was in hospital a few years ago after falling from a horse, I was kept topped up with morphine intravenously and the morphine caused some nightmarish hallucinations. The specific hallucinations are not relevant but they make for good reading: I was convinced I had killed someone because I could hear lawyers talking outside my room, discussing whether they could make a charge of murder stick. They eventually decided that misdemeanor manslaughter would be the best they could hope for. The next night I saw two armed policemen outside my door, waiting to receive orders to arrest me. I waited for them to enter with my hands in the air. The next night, I heard hospital security staff down the corridor, restraining the family of the deceased who were shouting and trying to get into my room. I also heard an angry news reporter asking nurses about the injustice of my not being charged with murder. On other nights, I saw a weird-looking patient staring at me through the window in the door, heard a male nurse and a female nurse screwing in a store room next to my room, heard the same nurses plotting to kill me, heard my mom and dad asking nurses how I was then leaving without seeing me, and saw an intruder on the roof trying to get into my room through a skylight. Needless to say, I was a paranoid, terrified wreck throughout all of this. Anyway, the point I wanted to make is that all of these hallucinations were absolutely real in my mind. In my doped state, I was just about able to rationalize some of the visual hallucinations like the weird patient at the door but the auditory hallucinations were totally indistinguishable from reality. They were not voices in my head; they were real voices being projected from outside my head and outside my room. As a result, I have a much better understanding of why people with such realistic hallucinations will not be convinced that they are false.

Well, I'm one. But I'm guessing I'm not your type, Wordsmith.

Alexon, my advice would be to post a message on the forum at the website of the teacher's union, nasuwt.org.uk. You'll probably get a response if you ask people to respond to you privately.

It sounds like a great opportunity, ST, I hope it works out for you.

I'm just playing devil's advocate but maybe your dad just thinks you're an a**hole. Harsh of him to make it so plain, though.

I wonder whether the speculation is based on Keanu Reeves's professional work or his personal life. Actors don't necessarily behave like themselves when they're on stage or on camera. I think anyone would have to know the private Keanu Reeves pretty well to recognise autistic traits in him. Still, at least the speculators are looking at a live subject this time. It makes me laugh when I see lists of people from history who they think may have been autistic - Isaac Newton, Mozart, Michelangelo, Darwin, etc. Diagnosing people from 300 years ago seems like a futile study to me.

Since I'm a new member, I guess this is a good place to say a little more about me. I'm a New Yorker but the bank I work for has sent me on secondment to London for a year to get more experience in the UK side of my particular field (banking law). I spend three weeks out of four in London and the other week in NYC. I'm still finding my feet but I've already joined a gym and since I brought my camera gear with me to England, I spend some time on weekends taking pictures around London. London has some great, iconic sights and a real buzz to it but man, it's noisy - NYC is like a library in comparison! Traffic noise is the culprit. I'm living in a serviced company apartment which is very nice but I don't much like sitting there by myself so I try to get out as much as I can, mostly with work colleagues. London is very well served with good places to eat - better than NYC, I would say. Anyways, I'm probably going to spend the next few weekends visiting galleries and museums.

Hi Suze. I don't get time to ride in England, especially living in London. My sister is in upstate New York and she has horses so I ride when I go back there - just trekking, nothing fancy. Your daughter must be a real talent, dressage is insanely difficult!

20 minutes after posting my profile / photo, I get a friendly explanation and a full retraction. Sure, this guy's not phoney. Sheesh.

Don't do that, A-S warrior - don't make a critical remark and then hide behind a statement that it was said with a "a fun, cheeky and friendly tone of voice." Nobody buys that - it's exactly the kind of phoney remark I was referring to. Your message had integrity up to that point.

I have AS. Before I start posting, I thought it best to let you know what to expect from me. I have an acutely objective outlook on life and this will be reflected in my posts. I only offer my view when it is based on first-hand experience. Just like everyone else, I "reckon" many things but I don't believe a "reckon" merits being presented to others as either fact or informed opinion. I'm not one of those loud-mouthed bores who has an opinion on everything. I never troll and I'm never controversial for the sake of it. Equally, I'm not a shrinking violet and if something strikes me as plainly wrong or phoney or attention-seeking or with a hidden agenda, I'm more likely to say something than not. However, I never, ever descend into rudeness or hostility. Any difference of opinion I have will always be expressed in a level-headed manner. Have a nice day.

B52's - Give Me Back My Man

Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy