I work as a crossing guard for an elementary school, I worry about getting hit by a car.

I started parking at an abandoned church because there is no parking for the school.

I went back to my car Thursday, and my boyfriend managed to be behind me while we were leaving work and he called me. Asked me if I was ok. I was confused and when we got to his apartment, I pulled into an area and looked. The passenger back side of the car was dented, huge!

I called my parents and let them know, I called my boss (she works for the police station), and I reported it. But they said there were no cameras so, not much can be done.

I always worry someone will run me over, I never thought someone would smash up my car. And in a church parking lot no less.

my birthday was last month, and i received what i think is a sort of a rude birthday card. the card basically says, "congrats on being old!". i'm approaching 30, so being called old is sort of sensitive and plays into misogynistic ideas about women being old when they are over the age of 25. at my birthday party, i tried to spin this as a joke because i thought my friend was just joking but she said that biologically we are losing muscle after the age of 25 and and so on. i felt it was unnecessary to bring this up because neither of us suffers from any age-related illnesses. the said friend is also a decade older than me and admitted to not doing very well due to anxiety over her career, while i have been quite successful in mine. this makes me think she might have projected her own insecurities on me and kinda soured my mood for the rest of the evening. although i explained to her how misogyny plays a role in society's view on women's aging and i don't find it particularly amusing, she didn't apologize for the card. when i was trying to joke around later in the evening to resolve the tension by calling us "the OLD friends" (the emphasis on old here as a pun), she said "i see that this really offended you". i had a somewhat similar occurrence with a colleague who said that fashion is for young people only and we're too old for that (for some context, fashion is my special interest). i noted her comment but didn't react because it was said at my workplace and i don't want to start anything.

my boyfriend says i should tell her how i felt uncomfortable about the card and our discussion, but i think i have already said enough at the party because i explained to her my views on ageism etc. she also noted herself i felt offended by her card, so idk what else am i supposed to write to her. btw, she's NT so she understands social cues way better than me. i, on the contrary, struggle with discerning people's intentions.

edit: it seems like some commenters don't understand why age related jokes can be insensitive. if you're about to type how it is very common and okay to tell a woman she's old after the age of 25 or 30, please educate yourself on gendered ageism and self-reflect if you don't understand how it is harmful, thank you.

another edit: for people who rush to say it was a joke, as i said above, i tried to spin it as a joke, but she was dead serious about pointing out medical facts about aging. when i said i reached the ripe age of 29, she said that after 25 we start losing muscle. she didn't go along with any of my jokes at all.

My whole life, it’s taken me much longer than other people to do just about anything. If I were going to wash the dishes that would take someone 20 minutes, it would take me an hour. I am intelligent and I did well in school (mostly), but I was almost always the last person to get up and turn their test in. I rarely did homework partially because I knew that it would take me hours. I tend to get places after other people despite feeling like I drive fast. I can’t even do the simplest of tasks with the efficiency of other people and I don’t even know why. Cooking is the worst— it takes me about 3 times longer than the recipe says it will. The only thing I can do faster than other people is read. Anyone else?

I used to feel quite neutral about being autistic, even a little positive at times since I was late diagnosed and finding out the answer to all of my behaviors felt really liberating. But lately I’ve been realizing that dealing with constant over stimulation, dysregulation and just generally feeling isolated because of autism is actually very difficult.

I have more meltdowns at work now because I can’t handle stress as well as I’d like, I have issues keeping myself regulated in my relationship because I’m dating an autistic man and I find him quite overstimulating at times. I still live at home and living with family is its own nightmare.

It’s just a lot to deal with. I feel like I can never truly be myself and unmask unless I am fully alone. More and more I realize that maybe I am meant to lead a mostly solitary life. I hate it, I have such a hard time making friends and keeping relationships going because I second guess everything; every interaction, I willingly put everything I do under a microscope and stress myself out unnecessarily.

So yeah I just needed to vent. Life has been a lot lately.

Hi everyone, I’m on a quite literal journey for a few years regarding the possibility of being on the spectrum. I am 23 currently.

My first appointment was with a non specialist and they wanted to first keep my anxiety down with meds to stabilize and then seek an assessment. Thing is that appointment after appointment they only wanted to up my meds since my testing basically said that nothing worth mentioning, so they pretty much ignored the reason why I even when to see them, so I gave up for a few years.

This year I categorically went and analyzed every psychiatrist I could find that has experience on the topic, a specialist, and I did find one but on the second appointment, 20 minutes before our time is up, she just blurts out that on the testings I’ve done years ago and while on meds, the person should’ve investigated further the possibility of a personality disorder because she feels like it’s more likely, also due to trauma.

Personally I was and still am very disheartened to hear that as I genuinely identify with almost all aspects of the spectrum, and not a lot from other disorders. I also do not think it was trauma related as I felt the symptoms before they happened (mother’s death and school bullying).

I am thinking about getting a second opinion but pragmatically I think I shouldn’t since she is a specialist so it just seems like I am not “accepting reality”. It doesn’t feel that way to me though, I just don’t identify with her hypothesis. The whole reason I am in it is so I can better understand myself and the “set of tools” I was born with. It changes absolutely nothing if it doesn’t make sense to me.

I guess I am looking for a bit of comfort and to know if other people went through the same.

It feels a bit silly to be excited about this but if anyone gets it, it'll be y'all.

So today I found a really nice and comfortable outfit for a dinner with friends today. So that already had me feeling happy and confident. I get to the metro and miss my train by a hair. As I'm gonna get settled on the bench to wait for the next one, I see a lady pulling her stroller up the stairs one by one because the elevator was broken. No one else was near her/could see her struggling so I went up and offered to help her up the stairs. She was very thankful.

It's such a small thing but there are often times I see people that I think need help but my fear of social interaction paralyses me to actually help them. Then I spend the rest of the day kicking myself for not being "a good person".

I'm glad my fun outfit gave me the confidence to actually help today! 🤗✨💅🏻

two cold tortillas and half a can of mandarin orange slices

I am running into a similar dynamic with potential romantic interests, they ask an endless stream of questions. The questions seem thoughtless and put a constant demand/pressure on me or an expectation that I respond. This feels worse than a job interview for me!

Where is the line? How much do we educate people on our Autism or other things like a PDA or RSD profile?

Hello All!

I am new here so I apologize if I am not allowed to post something like this, please let me know and I will remove my post.

I bought a new sweater and didn’t look at the tag before I bought it, as I am on vacation and have been very overstimulated

I was wondering if anyone knew the best way to remove a tag like this, it is completely stitched into the back of the shirt

Thank you everyone

I thought I didn’t struggle too much with relationships but lately I have been reflecting on the term “best friend”. I’ve never felt someone to be my best friend despite any obvious closeness but I run into this dilemma where multiple people refer to me as their best friend! And it feels awkward, because I have trouble labeling them this back. Almost feels like the notorious not saying “I love you” back to someone who says it first lol.

Was anyone else constantly labeled as over-dramatic, drama queen, attention seeking, etc. growing up? I wasn’t diagnosed until my 20s so as a grade schooler my big reactions, unfiltered facial expressions, and meltdowns were all viewed as me wanting attention. I also feel like a lot of times when bad things would happen to me, I would have to exaggerate about it for people to perceive them as being worthy of the amount of distress I felt. For most of my childhood I ended up just accepting this as my label. In my head, I was the annoying attention seeking drama queen and deserved to be hated for that. Did anyone else have a similar experience?

EDIT - There is so much strength to be found in shared experiences. I hope that everyone reading and commenting on this thread feels less alone and can understand that you were NOT being too dramatic or difficult or attention seeking. We were all doing our best to emotionally regulate and have our needs met different levels of information and resources… for some of us, that was none. You should all be so proud of yourselves for surviving that and coming out on the other side to a space where we can learn and heal and forgive ourselves.

I feel so silly posting this so please don’t make fun of me. I’ve lived alone for many years but laundry was always a struggle for me so I’ve always had help with my laundry. Now I got my own washer and dryer for the first time and I feel so silly but I can’t figure it out and I don’t know where to ask for help…

Since I recently moved further away, I have a huge backlog of laundry that needs to be done. I started by separating by kind (I made a pile of underwear and thin fabrics like tshirts, a pile of towels and bedding, a pile of general clothes and a pile of black and darker items). I bought three types of detergent: for black, white or colorful laundry.

I just ran the first programme (light colored underwear, socks, tshirts, sweatshirts) and opted for “wool/delicates” as the programme. I used the detergent that’s meant for colorful laundry since the white has whitener in it. There’s a soap drawer with three places where you can put the laundry detergent. I put the recommended amount (according to the bottle) in the most left opening. It was set to 40 degrees Celsius.

All the laundry came out still dirty; like not even a bit cleaner than it was before. While it was running I did see soap and foam forming. Should I just run it again but at a different programme? Maybe cotton or “mixed”? Or should I let it dry first? Also, could it be that there was too much laundry in there? I basically filled it up to the brim.

And if I do manage to get it clean, can I put it in the dryer straight away?

Sorry I’m so lost with this and I feel really ashamed not knowing… I hope someone can help. I tried googling but I could super overwhelmed and didn’t find the right solution for this precise situation… Thanks in advance.

Does anybody find solo travel to be so much more enjoyable than traveling with someone else? It’s annoying having to compromise with other persons wishes, habits. Regarding the sequence of the itinerary, how much time you spend there, how you take a transport, where/when you eat, just everything… And I HATE having to talk all the time, discussing everything you see or is happening. Like just leave me alone and let me think for once. And if i’m quieter they think i’m mad at them or worse get mad at me

Hi! I’m 17 years old, and my whole life I have been ostracized by my peers and had difficulty fitting in. In the last 3 or so years, I have been researching autism specifically in women. It’s something that I feel really aligns with my personal experiences in my life, especially when I was younger. I spoke to my mom as well, and it really opened her eyes to my experience and gave a reason for my “weird” behaviour. We cried a lot, lol. Anyways, I don’t have a family doctor, and I really don’t know how I’d go about speaking to someone for this. Anyone have anything to share from their diagnosis journey that could be of use? Any tips or just your experience is appreciated!! Thank you :) (apologies if I used the wrong flair or anything)

And it’s just not for genres, most of the time, even being born as a girl, I don’t feel like a girl or a boy…..just someone/human. As an autistic girl I feel weird by people saying that.

What are some things you guys do that help you to recharge or feel more productive when things feel overwhelming. I have been prioritizing my alone time everyday, sleeping in my space most nights, and consistently using a sleep mask that plays brown noise while under a weighted blanket to sleep. Just looking for more ideas to help me regulate my mood and not end up burnt out as I’m working a 30 hour job currently.

I know that not being happy when someone crosses a boundary that you've previously set is normal for most people. But is it normal for those on the spectrum to be at least *that* close to a meltdown every time someone crosses a boundary that you've previously set (or tried to set)?

Hi guys! A little introduction before I start asking for help: PLEASE DONT JUDGE ME I am a 16 year old girl with autism who has always struggled with anything dental related. I have difficult sensory issues with brushing teeth and flossing and going to the dentist is a struggle 😞 i feel ashamed and embarassed because i want to take care of my teeth like everyone else , but its hard and no one understands!!! My teeth arent that bad , but they are a bit yellow , i also have a few small cavities and some calcified tartar (yucky i know!)

Today I need help finding a toothpaste that will work for me!! Here are some factors i am looking for:

-Flavor that isnt too strong or minty or chemically (Ex: marshmallow , vanilla ,coconut , cupcake , lemon) -safe for sensitive mouth and gums -reminalizing is preffered -whitening is good also -flouride free if possible -NATURAL! -doesnt foam up much -doesnt leave any weird residue or aftertaste after rinsing

Here are some toothpastes ive been looking at! Please let me know your opinion if you ever tried them!!!!

-tanners tasty paste in vanilla ice cream -fygg nano hydroyapatite in coconut cream -Boka flouride free toothpaste in lemon lavender -happy tooth natural toothpaste in vanilla cupcake

THANK YOU SO MUCH! ALL HELP IS DEEPLY APPRICEATED 💜💜💜

Also if you have any tips on making dentist visits easier , please let me know! I get very anxious and any support will help

Per company policy, there's a high chance I will get fired due to being late again today after already receiving a final warning.

I was overloaded and exhausted and ended up sleeping through my alarms. I'm embarrassed and feeling dread.

I'm wondering how I can be my most "professional" self in a couple days when I inevitably end up having a conversation with my manager. It would be helpful to get advice on how to present myself in both the potential situations where either I a) get fired or b) don't get fired but still need to show myself as being reliable.

I've been trying to come up with a script for myself, and all I've got right now is that I've been being proactive to have better work life balance so I don't oversleep. Being exhausted means I fall asleep before I do any kind of bedtime routine, so recently this meant I didn't set my loud alarm across the room, I just relied on phone alarms. And then because I was exhausted, I proceeded to sleep through the phone alarms. Work life balance means sleeping well (something totally out of my control happened this week that majorly disrupted my sleep a couple nights ago) and resting after work. Something I've wanted to work on is being more organized outside of work, and I'm in a better financial position now to actually start figuring out what all I need to buy so I can do that.

Also, should I contact my manager in advance of seeing them next week? I don't work Monday

I feel pretty lonely with my diagnosis and I’ve been trying to understand if better. So I’ve been seeking out series and movies with characters who are on the spectrum. The only problem, I’ve never felt too close with any of them. The only one that I’ve found actually great is “atypical” although the character’s symptoms are still quite different from mine. Often it’s presented as something great, that makes the person special and attracts either success or other people. But for me it’s been quite the opposite. I struggle a lot in both social and academical/professional matters. I’m no genius who succeeds in life and I don’t have any friends, although I’d love to have them and struggle a lot because I don’t have them. Also, I’m what people call “lighter impacted”, with less obvious symptoms (especially since I mask a lot) and I feel like most representation is on the “stronger part” of the spectrum (I’m very sorry if I use the wrong terms or offend anyone with it, I’m still trying to figure everything out) So, I’m wondering whether there are any series or movies that you can recommend me where you found a character relatable, they don’t necessarily have to officially have autism but should be what people call “autistic-coded”. Thank you in advance!

Do y’all miss people when they go away? I feel guilty, my partner goes away for a week and I don’t miss them? I’ve moved away from friends and there’s times I wish we could hang out, but I don’t actively miss them? Anyone else?

I hate liking someone I stated before it makes psychically sick and mentally sick I get too dependent on them and I end up hurt , I haven’t eaten probably bc of that I feel so nauseous trying to eat I feel so miserable this is why I never want to fall in love I get sick . I have no one talk abt with this bc I don’t trust any of the ppl I know . And I feel so stuck and also with my autism I have trouble expressing my emotions & feelings probably . I feel like I’m gonna be miserable and end up alone bc I’m gen unlovable I feel like after awhile people get bored of me and I’m scared they will leave so I leave first. I don’t wanna end up alone that’s my biggest fear . I try to come out of my shell so bad but I end up going deeper into it . Love makes me miserable and I can’t understand how people feel so happy with it . Even tho I want to experience love and romance I see it as a curse I will get miserable and dependent and end up a nutshell . I want to find my life long partner I’m still a teenager so that wouldn’t happen now . And I feel like if I start to open up to a boy if we have smth they will look at me differently and end up finding me so annoying and I experienced this before when I told someone abt my autism and they started to pity me and distance themselves from me that was a lot to get off my chest ! .

I might genuinely kill someone if I have an AI assistant hang up on me one more time.

Hey ya'll, I just want to vent about that I don't have the guts to tell men how I feel about them and how much I loved them. It's sad that I distance myself from them without even knowing them first as an autistic. I need advice on how to flirt, do small talk and ask a man out without fear of rejection. I'm so lonely.

This is not meant to be political. I just need somewhere to express how frustrated I feel with myself. I wanted to go to the demonstration today, but my ride fell through and I was too nervous to go without support. Crowds are really overwhelming for me and I was scared to go alone 😔