Hello, New Here

emberkid

Hi, I'm new, you can call me Ember.  I don't really know what should be included in this introduction, so I'll just share a little about myself.  I'm 29, female, and my primary disability is autism.  I'm also diagnosed with ADHD, PTSD, and a few other mental health things. 

I've been physically clumsy and awkward all my life, and after meeting with a physical therapist, I learned this clumsiness is due to low muscle tone and ankle joint misalignment, so I will soon be wearing AFOs.  This will be my first experience with being "visibly disabled", and I have a lot of questions for the community about what I might be able to expect.  

Some of my interests include writing, drawing, swimming, and collecting stuffed animals.  I have been working on a comic series about autism for the past five years, and have been writing stories all my life.  My autistic special interest is dinosaurs; I can tell you anything you want to know about them!

I look forward to getting to know others around here, and learning from everyone's experiences!

Jo_2022

Hello @emberkid! 👋🏻 A warm welcome to you on the online community! Thank you for this post. It is lovely you have shared your story with us and I enjoyed finding out about you 😊

How are you today? My younger brother has Autism and he is interested in films, tv shows and video games.

You may want to have a look at these sections:

https://forum.scope.org.uk/categories/coffee-lounge

https://forum.scope.org.uk/categories/learning-disabilities-and-autism

All the best! Take care 😁 ♾️ 

emberkid

Thanks for the welcome guys! I look forward to checking out various areas of the forum and getting to know more people!

Alex_Alumni

Hello again @emberkid and welcome! If I haven't said already I love your profile picture, did you draw it?  

And can you tell us anymore about your comic series? It sounds like you've been working really hard on it. 

Hopefully you're finding your way around the forum okay, but please ask if you have any questions, or need anything, we're here to help.

Alex

emberkid

Lol, thanks Alex!  No, I didn’t draw my profile picture, I found it online and thought it was appropriate 😆

My comics feature anthropomorphic animals, and center around a ten year old cat named Jacie, who has autism and ADHD like me.  Generally each episode is a segment of a larger overarching story, and there can be several stories within a volume.  I’m currently working on volume five.  

The stories are really just about the day to day life of a child with autism, either based on my own experiences, or the way I wish things could have been for me growing up.  I’m not an expert artist by any means, but I enjoy it and it passes the time.

Sue_Alumni

Good morning @emberkidd and a warm welcome to the community from me too.   What sort of questions would you  like to ask our members ? Feel free to talk about things that are close to your heart and know that you wont be judged  and that our community is friendly and supportive. 
Take care - it's good to have you on board. 
Sue

emberkid

Thank you for the warm welcome Sue!  I recently asked a question in the mobility aids category requesting tips for a new AFO user, since this will be my first time using any kind of mobility aids.  I'm also interested in hearing from other orthosis users about their daily life experiences with said orthoses, as well as getting input from anyone with hypermobility issues, as I'm in the process of being evaluated for ehlers danlos syndrome. 

Mostly I'm just looking for people with similar conditions to converse with, since EDS and orthosis use aren't the most common of conditions, at least according to the google searches I've performed.

L_Volunteer

You are welcome @emberkid. It is the very least you deserve.

Hopefully, someone will be able to respond to your question in the mobility aids category soon, if they haven't already. 

It might be worth posting about the other things you are interested in within the relevant categories too. How are you currently feeling about being in the process of evaluation? 

Wishing you the best of luck with all this. We are all here for you and you don't have to face this, or anything else, alone if you don't want to 

Alex_Alumni

emberkid said:

Lol, thanks Alex!  No, I didn’t draw my profile picture, I found it online and thought it was appropriate 😆

My comics feature anthropomorphic animals, and center around a ten year old cat named Jacie, who has autism and ADHD like me.  Generally each episode is a segment of a larger overarching story, and there can be several stories within a volume.  I’m currently working on volume five.  

The stories are really just about the day to day life of a child with autism, either based on my own experiences, or the way I wish things could have been for me growing up.  I’m not an expert artist by any means, but I enjoy it and it passes the time.

That sounds amazing @emberkid, it can be an incredibly powerful thing as a child to find a story which centre's someone like you, or explores what you are experiencing day to day- something which can be hard to find for many disabled and neurodiverse children.

Hopefully if ever you do get to share your work it will have a really positive impact  

emberkid

Thank you Alex! I’ve been encouraged multiple times to publish.  I don’t know if my art is publication-worthy, and I’d have to do some reformatting for some of the earlier ones in which I was still learning and hadn’t figured out layout yet, but it would be a lot of fun to get to share my work with a wider audience!

L_Volunteer

The most important thing to ask is would you like to publish it @emberkid? If you would then it's worth a try!