Future

[venusofthenorth]

I'm considering to move from Sweden to the US in hopes of improving my social skills long-term. Thoughts?

[Hidden]

There are more therapies in US ABA therapy and Son Rise Program and Anat Baniel - movement - here there is intensive interaction = all on youtube - whatever helps and you could get involved in - I am sure there is support for adults and support groups like myautismteam which you get information from

[Glad2BDifferent in reply to Hidden]

I was lucky in the fact that I got a hell of a lot of social training via the National Autistic society in the UK (A charity)... it was ten years ago now, so I have come through the anxiety and socially awkward stages... The training I had was based on not seeing the people you were talking to. You would come into a room and sit in a large circle with the chairs facing away from one another and it put on headphones with a mic built in and could just talk. It allowed me to learn to "break the ice" and to find what kind of social interaction were my strongest and we worked from there... Only 1 person in the group of ten was NT and would get the ball rolling. We would have to elect when we wanted to say something and a panel of lights would indicate our turn so I could learn when to listen and when to chat... It might sound weird, but within weeks, I could anticipate when to speak and when not to, I could hold conversations face to face and eventually I even broke the ice with a lady there and we dated for 6+ years.

The key I found to overcome my issues, was in feeling comfortable with knowing I was getting it right instead of permanently thinking I was wrong.... Social training comes naturally to the NT crowd as they learn by observation from a young age and are expected to just pick it up.... For us....We need to be sat down and trained how to do this as we do not look for the social cues so blurt out information that maybe inappropriate, poorly timed or just irrelevant to the person we choose to speak to... Once that part of the training was done... I just got it

There is no timeline to get it right, there are no judges (Okay the NT's do, but that is a social inadequacy on their part) , there is no normal... It is about you and all the experiences in your life that is the "I" when you talk about yourself...It is as unique as you are and only you can experience that.... I was 37 when I got diagnosed privately and am 47 now. It got easier but I still have a social protocol script I follow to get it right!

I wish you every success and hope you can overcome your demons with time