Martin Howe Report post Posted October 24, 2009 Hi everybody I have been looking for a UK-centric online forum for a while now and it's great to find this; guess you could say I was looking for "others like me" since secondary school but didn't know exactly what that meant. I thought things would change at University, but even at postgrad level, most of the gang were clever NTs rather than Aspies and was quite surprised that nobody else wanted to sit quietly over tea and discuss philosophy and logic.* Boozing oneself silly gets kinda repetitive after a while I was diagnosed last year with AS by two GPs and a MH nurse. Now aged 44 and having left school long before mainstream British psychiatrists became aware of the condition, it explains several problems that occurred during my life so far and ultimately cost me my intended career and also my most recent job, which I had held for about ten years, ending in December 2003. I am in receipt of work-focused ESA, and while the government rehabilitation scheme is supposed to function in conjunction with medical treatment, where I live there are no adult NHS services for this; indeed, I have finally exhausted all official avenues for getting help over and above general practice. The government scheme people are sympathetic but don't seem to know what to do next and some haven't even heard of AS! The local charity seem nice, but are funded mostly by the neighboring county rather than the one I live in and have to focus most of their efforts there. Without access to a psychiatrist my diagnosis cannot be confirmed further, although I am sticking with it for now in the absence of hard evidence to the contrary. Referring to "Austistic Me" I recognised myself a lot more in Oli, a fair bit in Tom and somewhat less in Alex than I had expected. Some of "me now" is probably learned by experience and pattern recognition to avoid the most obvious mistakes; the rest, who knows? It's nice that today's kids at least seem to have statutory protection and assistance; people of my generation were just tagged as weird** or worse - sometimes by ourselves So here's wishing you all well in your struggles and I look forward to reaching out to "my own kind" at last. Cheers! * I did sort of start a mini campaign that year to replace some droll electrical engineering module on our course with "formal methods pt 2"; guess that's a small victory ** FWIW, at http://www.martinhowe.net/autism/ you can find my story of life with AS; it's not finished yet, but writing it has helped me understand myself better. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mygifts1306 Report post Posted October 24, 2009 hi, The support on this websity is amazing. My oldest son who is nearly 7 was diagnosed just before christmas last year. I wish you well and hope you find a lot of meaning to things. Kind regards Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bid Report post Posted October 30, 2009 Welcome to the forum I'm another adult, who was diagnosed with AS in 2007 at the age of 40 Bid Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mandapanda Report post Posted October 31, 2009 Hi Martin Welcome. I don't know where Waveney is, but the Royal Marsden in London has a unit which can assess for AS. You could look into how you can get a referral there, or they might be able to advise of a nearer similar service to you. I know what you mean about university, when I joined Mensa I thought the other members would all think like me, if they were equally 'intelligent' surely they would come to the same conclusions as me about life, the universe and everything - but of course they didn't. It was a big shock!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pearl Report post Posted October 31, 2009 Welcome Martin Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kathryn Report post Posted November 1, 2009 Welcome to the forum Martin. I love your avatar - is the beautiful cat yours? K x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Martin Howe Report post Posted November 2, 2009 Welcome. I don't know where Waveney is, but the Royal Marsden in London has a unit which can assess for AS. You could look into how you can get a referral there, or they might be able to advise of a nearer similar service to you. Thanks! People are very welcoming here, so I've noticed. Waveney is in North Suffolk just on the other side of the river to the Norfolk Broads - very confusing for newbs here who actually do live near them Welcome to the forum Martin. I love your avatar - is the beautiful cat yours? Thanks, Kathryn; sadly Johnson the beautiful cat passed away last year. We still have his son Felix though: who loves eating paper, plastic, dustbin sacks, etc.; Felix is one cat who does not "have Asperger Syndrome" - he's just plain NUTS!! Nice to see that there are a few cat avatars on this forum Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kismet Report post Posted November 2, 2009 Hiya, I'm new too. I have a 12 year old son with aspergers. Look forward to talking to you. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kathryn Report post Posted November 2, 2009 Johnson reminds me of a much loved black cat I used to have as a child - mine had a less distinguished pedigree though! Felix looks lovely too. I occasionally use our crazy tabby as my avatar but the photos don't come out that well - she tends to blend into the background! K x Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
