Heya folks, the restructuring of Insert Credit (As an aside, I deeply appreciate the tonal and symbolic shift.) has given me space to feel more comfortable starting a thread around this hot new console I uncovered in my attic! In vulnerability, I struggle with concepts of community as well as it’s moment to moment mechanics. I also recognize that I want certain kinds of community. Among many other rad things, I am an adult-diagnosed autist. I’ve heard others on the panel mention neurodivergence before and wanted to make a topic dedicated to autism. I think video games are exceptionally awesome and simultaneously stupid. They’ve been a place for me to seek out new experiences while also understanding facets of the familiar/nostalgic.
I don’t have any specific goal with this thread. Maybe it’s for barking into the void? It’d be rad to talk with other folks about autism-related struggles and successes. Share cool observations. Maybe it’s just a space for ideas in your wrinkle-box to exist outside. Mostly I think it’s funny to imagine my autism as an old game console that I’m still making games for and this is a space for me to actualize that joke. A goal for me is to learn how to be more casual. I’ve already horribly over-analyzed this intro so, that’ll be for another time.
I spent 35 years of my life, with a hunk of my source code encrypted and I’m working on acceptance and engagement and I think this feels like a safe space for me/(hopefully us) to do it. Hope you all have a rad week!
I’ll bark back!
I‘m in a similar type of boat, where I only started getting the message a few years ago at age 32. And let me tell you, my life suddenly made a whole lot more sense. Really helped with expectations I set for myself and in my relationship, too. And I get that feeling of looking for kinship. So besides being new myself in this forum, let’s welcome our neurodivergent friends with open arms.
Re: that title, whatever you do tho, don’t get an X68000. I‘ve owned one before and it was a miserable experience.
My real challenge with autism has been comorbidity. Where does autism begin and avoidant personality disorder start. There’s a lot of overlap. Autistic people often have a diminished sense of self. That is also a core feature of every personality disorder. A lot of autistic people have difficulty in social situations and employ avoidant tactics like chilling with the dog at a party. Avoiding situations that are emotionally difficult is also a feature of AvPD. Granted autism is informing the defenses I developed as a young child but when choosing a trauma model modality or a symptoms management modality, it can be difficult.
Hey there @Jockel! Welcome to the forum and thanks for reaching out.
Thanks for sharing that. Setting healthy expectations of myself is something I’m actively working on. I grew up in norm-centric, results-based environments so my exposure to all of that makes being gentle with myself difficult. You’re doing rad wok finding those spaces! While I exist in very supportive spaces now a tricky hitch for me regarding that concept has been not holding onto resentment/frustrations over spaces that could have been more supportive. So it goes.
I’m curious to hear more about this X68000 model. Is it a game console?
Thanks for sharing that @Chekhonte, I hear ya. Because autism is a neurological and developmental disorder there is no set fixative for any of that and I can sometimes find that space confusing to navigate as well.
I thought your 69000 was in reference to the X68000, haha.
The Sharp X68k was a badass personal computer from the late bubble economy years in Japan. It’s basically a super charged Amiga. It was known for having some near arcade perfect ports, which was really rare at the time. It’s also really good at dying if you look at it funny. The unit I bought as junk saw me replace all of the caps and it kinda booted, but graphics output wasn’t working correctly and it didn’t read any disks. Sent it to a friend who’s extremely knowledgeable and he said it was the worst X68k he‘s ever seen, including one that literally caught fire.
Badass design tho. Wouldn’t mind a modern PC in this case.
Also very good autism thinking. If there’s a conceptual fork in road where something can be interpreted in multiple ways I will always take the path most related to my hyperfixation.
