Hi there!

I have set up this community for those seeking an alternative to Reddit.

I am not affiliated with any autism organisations or charities, however I was a member of the Autism UK subreddit and, although I was more of a lurker than a poster, I found the community helpful. I hope this community will become as useful in due course. (If the mods from the subreddit are reading these, please feel free to PM me. This is my first off-Facebook community, and I’d appreciate your help, if you can spare it.)

I’ve not set up rules or guidelines yet. I will do so in due course. For now, however, I ask that you all please:

  • try to be mindful of the impact that words can have
  • ask if you’re not sure about something
  • avoid using gendered language
  • try to be compassionate towards one another

Please note that:

  • discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated
  • self diagnosis is valid

Lastly, for all of us, please feel free to introduce yourself here, if you wish.

I’m El. I was diagnosed as autistic in my early 40s. I also have diagnoses of ADHD, depression, anxiety, and fatigue. I live in South Wales in the UK. I was working from home as a social media manager, but am currently signed off. I have many and varied special interests (yay ADHD!), but have been consistently obsessed with the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett (GNU pTerry), yarn crafts, writing, and drawing.

  • @sumfinels@sh.itjust.works
    English
    2•1 year ago

    Hi, this is my first lemmy post too. It’s sadly quite quiet here right now.

    I’m not actually diagnosed, but I have an “initial assessment” this coming Tuesday after being referred by a psychiatrist last year. I’m really quite nervous as I don’t know what to expect and I don’t want to be dismissed.

    I suspected I may be on the spectrum after reading about it in my late 20s, and asked my GP about it, but all it amounted to was speaking to a Nurse who had an young son with autism; “yeah you show some signs but we have no support for adults.”

    Long story short, I’m in early 40s now and the social repercussions of pandemic were not kind. Medication has taken the edge off the worst of it, but I’m hoping a diagnosis might open some doors for support I desperately need, since I completely fail at some really basic stuff like dealing with neighbours and workplace relationships.

    Also a big fan of Terry Pratchett, have fond memories of The Nome Trilogy in my childhood, and read everything Discworld up to Unseen Academicals in my 20s… man it’s been a while - maybe it’s time for a re-read… Youtube and reddit really destroyed my reading time, but I obliterated my reddit account yesterday.

    Was recently obsessed with Zelda TOTK, but after a couple of days unable to play I haven’t been able to pick it back up again. Again, fond memories of the original NES Zelda in my childhood and been playing them almost my whole life.

  • El (they/them)OPMEnglish
    1•1 year ago

    I’ve updated the sidebar to include relevant (and hopefully useful) links.

    I’ve also added rules and guidelines. I based these on the rules and guidelines for communities I moderate on a different social network.

    If any of you have any suggestions, questions, concerns, or general comments about the sidebar or about this community in general, then please feel free to either comment here or to send me a message.

    Edited to add: I’m not keen on the formatting of the sidebar. It does not feel as accessible to me as I would wish. I’ve used Markdown before, however it didn’t behave as I expected in the sidebar. This is likely a PEBCAK error and so, hopefully, will be resolved in due course. (PEBCAK = Problem exists between chair and keyboard.)