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I've found being trans and ASD really hard. I've heard from enough trans people to know transitioning can be hard at the best of times. But when you really struggle to communicate with people and cope with society, it adds a whole extra layer of hard. I'm not out to anyone IRL, only online, and I can't see this changing any time soon, which really sucks. I haven't really used this forum much since I joined five months back, but I saw this thread and that it was a little under used, so I thought I'd poke my head up and say hi. No idea if there any other trans people around here, or if its just me, but here I am.

I'm from Stoke-on-Trent.

I'm now 35 and I haven't really communicated with people face to face other than my parents since I was a kid. Over the past few years I've been trying to fix this. So far, I can say "morning" or something equivalent to strangers if they say morning to me first. And with a bit of preparation, I can manage simple, brief conversations in shops to get what I need, most of the time. I can speak to doctors if I'm prepared. Talk to bus drivers so I can get where I want to go, etc... None of this happened over night, and took small steps, but I'm mostly there. Unprepared I can handle < 20 second talks before things start getting difficult. Prepared and on a good day, I can handle up to a few minutes. It's more than I could handle two years ago before I started trying to fix my life. I'm trying to improve this, but I can't really see any way to go further, no obvious small next step to take. Any suggestions, tips or anything that may help?

I'm new to this website, so thought I'd introduce myself. I'm 35 years old, and was diagnosed with Asperger's in the mid 90s. My life is a wreck and has been since the age of twelve. I'm not independent, and have virtually no ability to interact with people face to face or cope situations most people would find easy. I'm attempting lots of things to fix all that, including joining this site. So hi