Do you suffer from addiction to online arguments?

Great -- you have overcome an addiction. I can not really overcome my addiction to arguing and reading arguments online. Being Autistic makes it harder.

 

most of us our a little addicted, but it is funny hearing the ones arguing they want the government to open up, then when they do, they decide they would rather stay here

 

I am really addicted -- my therapist can testify. This is a part of my Autistic Interest.

 

Intellectual, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs are the motivation behind all substance abuse which leads to physical addiction. You can break the physical addiction, but the angst of the base issue remains. I suppose those base issues can manifest themselves at a debate forum. Such as the need for approval, or trying to overcompensate for feelings of inadequacy. Or the need to control, and needing attention.

 

Thanks. I'm ignorant about autism. First off, sorry that you are afflicted by it. Is it something that one is born with or does it develop? Is it physical or is it emotional?

 

Autism is an inborn condition. It makes a person much much much more likely to be addicted. It makes a person socially awkward and isolated. It makes a person focus on his/her Autistic Interest -- which can change over time.

I am Moderately Autistic -- thus I can hardly interact with people.

A Severe Autistic would not be able to compose a sentence. I am not below average -- my diagnosis is high functioning autistic. I am not above average!

 

Thanks CC. That's a heck of a thing to have to struggle with every day. You have my respect.

 

Thank G-d and my parents for supporting me!
Thank you for understanding.

In USA, about 10 million people suffer Severe Mental Disability -- their lives are much much much worse then my life. In USA people with disability are dying by hundreds of thousands due to lack of help.

 

I probably qualify as an addict. But I don't think I 'suffer' from it. I think its a healthy addiction

 

I'm 69, and I didn't have a computer until I was 48. So, when you see those films shot in the past where people use telephone booths, yellow pages, that was the era I grew up in. My first Smart phone wasn't until 2013. My first cell phone was the size of an ice cream sandwich, and it worked very well. I graduated high school in 1969 and the first calculator on the market was a Texas Instrument behemoth, set you back a couple hundred bucks, but it wasn't available commercially until 1972. So, all throughout my school years, there were no calculators. But, we had them in college, thought, which was nice. I often find myself missing the 60s ( 'cept for Viet Nam, didn't miss that at all ).

I know one thing, and for years I was a wedding photographer. In those days all one had to do is purchase a nice size display ad in the yellow pages ( there was only one book ) and you got enough business ( provided your reputation was good ) you could make a living. When the internet came, I got in early and was on page one in the search engine for years, but, came 2011 and onward, staying on page one was increasingly more difficult, google changed it's algo, and if you weren't on the top five listings for your key words, you were out of business ( there isn't a lot of repeat business in weddings, you have to do portraiture, or get on hotel's preferred vendor list, and I was more into weddings than anything else ) and now you have to be on all the social media, have a blog, be on Instagram/pinterest, etc., and otherwise expend hours and hours pushing yourself on these platforms, and it became too much trouble, I was spoiled during the yellow pages years. So, in short, the internet, plus the advent of the digital camera, killed my business. What the digital camera did was make photography easy, and when it became easy, competition grew five fold, everybody and his or her brother is a photographer now, but the business did not, then craigslist had photographers shootings weddings for what a wedding would cost me. It just got to the point where making a living was very difficult. The digital revolution didn't do me any favors, though it helped others in other ways.

 

May I ask how old you are? And how old were you when you were first diagnosed as in the spectrum ( is it severe, can you go out in public? ).

Were you diagnosed soon after you received a series of vaccinations? ( just asking, I know they say vaccines doesn't cause it, but I like to ask, anyway ).

These are personal questions, so if you don't want to answer, I understand.

 

1) 50 yo
2) 22 -- I was diagnosed in 1992.