In a comment on last Tuesday’s post, Lori from A Quiet Week in the House had a great suggestion: “A thought for your Tuesdays–could you poll your readers? I love reading about other’s perceptions, strengths, and areas of concern. It might be a good way to help others discover coping skills.”

So what do you think, readers? Shall we have a poll?

Wait, before you answer that, let me share something with you that I’ve been wanting to say for a while now. For me, one of the most enjoyable things about blogging is reading your comments. I don’t just mean the “this is great” aspect of the comments, though of course that feels good. More than that, I enjoy when you share your experiences.

I’m just one person. Though I do a lot of research, I write from a very personal perspective. When you read what I’ve written and then share how something affects you, it’s incredibly valuable, not just to me but to everyone else who comes along and reads the post and the comments.

And lots of people do read the comments. What we’re doing here–and I really do mean we as a group–is creating a rich, detailed account of what it means to be an autistic adult. We’re learning from each other and we’re creating something for the hundreds of silent readers who find this blog looking for information on some subject or other.

The Poll

So, the poll. Do you have a question you’ve always wanted to ask other autistic people? It could be something practical like, “how do you cope with _______.” It could be something you’ve noticed in yourself and wonder if others experience. Maybe you’re curious about favorite special interests or stims or stim toys. Maybe you have a tough thing you’re facing in life and want to know if others have dealt with it in the past.

Here’s what we’ll do:

1. Leave a comment on this post with your question(s). You can post more than one question and I’ll try to include everything, but I don’t want the survey to be too ginormous for us to answer.

2. I’ll collect the questions into survey format.

3. I’ll post the survey next Tuesday and we’ll answer then. I want this to be fun and not a lot of work, so let’s plan to answer as many or as few questions as we want. No pressure.

There are two ways I can set up the survey:

1. If you prefer to answer anonymously, I can create a Survey Monkey survey that we can answer without revealing our identities. I can then bring the answers back here in the form of a post, with all answers kept anonymous. We may get more answers this way. 
2. I can post the questions and we can answer in the comments. We may get more trustworthy answers with this option and we’d be able to ask follow-up questions (within reason, of course).

Let me know which option you prefer. Majority rules.

Anything I’m missing? Mostly, I want this to be fun and informative and not like homework for you.

ETA: Don’t be shy about adding more questions. If there end up being a lot, I can split them up over two or more weeks to keep things manageable.