From an anonymous contributor

Working Step 8 and examining the concept of personal values has made me realize that learning I’m autistic didn’t change my values, but changed my relationship to them. For example, I value the idea of living life to the fullest. Self-awareness about autism is making me reconsider what that means.

An important part of living life to the fullest, for me, has been the concept of hedonism, maximizing pleasure in life and minimizing pain. But after identification, I know I experience certain aspects of existence, like sensory input, more intensely than I was aware of before. That means I might need to integrate hedonism into my life in different ways from how I tried to before identification.

What about you? Has learning you’re autistic changed your relationship to any of your preexisting values? Do you understand “living life to the fullest” in a different way now?

Share questions:

• What, to you, is “living life to the fullest”, and has that definition changed at all since learning you are autistic? 
• In what ways do you live life to the fullest as an autistic person? 
• Post-identification, have you come to see any of your other values in a new light? 
• Any tools, strategies, or resources to share? 
• Anything else to add?