IMFAR 2012: An Aspie Presents a Poster at IMFAR

Yesterday night, I flew home from IMFAR 2012. It was one of the most fun and interesting 3 days of my life. First of all, it was the first time I was away from my family other than organized kids’ camps. I was very excited to be presenting research, and it was my first trip with a close friend (my undergraduate mentor and coauthor who is also a good friend of mine travelled with me). I discovered things on the trip, little things, such as how to handle crowds of people in a large auditorium and still focus, and had a little more practice on learning to make myself relax if I was nervous. For the first time in a long time, I had a trip with a friend and had the experience of exploring the city with a friend and sharing stories and memories. I also got to see my favourite CN tower which is something I have been fixated on since adolescence. On the trip I experienced some nasty turbulence on the trip to Toronto, where the plane did a drop. It was at moments like this that I was glad I was traveling with someone and not travelling alone. My friend is the type to accept me no matter what, whether I scream when upset by turbulence, make a mess at the table in a diner due to my messy eating skills, or couldn’t find my way around a cardboard box, much less the conference place. When I was a teen, I had friends, but they were often judgemental of my differences. I will look forward to visiting my friend next month, getting a CD of conference photos, and sharing the memories. Now on to the research side. My mentor and I presented a poster on “sexuality in a community based sample of adults with autism spectrum disorder.” As I mentioned before on this blog, me, my mentor, and my graduate supervisor have this article published in Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Our poster got many questions from fellow researchers with over a page of email addresses. It also appears to be generating some discussion in the blogging community. As the extreme male brain theory and sexuality and autism is one of my special interests, I loved being able to explain the poster and answer questions. It was an awesome experience.