Hi! Just a little personal journal to ramble about my life, since I guess that's at least some kind of new content being posted here. Yesterday at the chopped unc age of 29 I was officially diagnosed as autistic.

Now that will come as absolutely no surprise to anybody who has ever spoken to me but the fact I was only diagnosed a day ago may be a shock to some since I think I’ve kinda always made being pretty autistic my whole brand. A VHS collector and logo enthusiast with awful communication skills who also writes stories about cartoon characters in obscure fetish scenarios, you mean to tell me there’s something neurodivergent about that?! But I’ve always just worked on the assumption that I was, since there were things turning me off from seeking an official assessment (primarily the fear that if the diagnosis was negative then what the fuck is the reason for me being like this.)

Really, nothing at all will actually change now, it's not like I can start taking pills to act normal. It's purely a peace of mind thing and a sense of clarity about questions I’ve had about my own identity since childhood. Nowadays, with more general awareness about autism, most people will be assessed for it before they leave school, but that wasn't too much of a thing in the early-mid 2000s. Since I was a kid who kept quiet and isolated whilst getting great grades, and never really acted up, my teachers were probably just happy to have me around and had no reason to intervene.

But if like me you are an adult who suspects they are neurodivergent then I would recommend seeking to make it official. It pretty much feels like I’ve been validated as a person and some new support channels have been opened. Even though it did take more than 25 years to take the risk (then over three more years because that's how NHS waiting lists are these days)

Speaking of autism, thank you all for the great feedback on the Finley’s Apology story. It got a fantastic response considering it's a fanfic for an extremely obscure character that doesn't even have any other pieces of fan art at all. I have another fic in the works that I’m hoping/aiming to have out by the end of this month.

Thanks for reading,
Dan (autist)