Would you pay 10 dollars a month to be part of an aspiegroup

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Seriously question would you pay money to be involved in aspie support groups of some kind.

It's a free one where I live and I still do not participate, so no.

You mean thru the means of insurance and group therapy? Perhaps, cause typically insurance will cover such costs.

If you mean voluntary, non-therapy group. Yeah but it depends how good the group is. If we are just sitting around, taking up space the whole time while someone is struggling to host something, then no. I would probably try it out a few times, and see if it was worth it.

If by "support" you mean "social" groups, I think $10 USD would be a small price to pay for the experience.

If we were so inclined, we could also sell Stim Cola, Synethesia Cookies, Meltown ice cream, and Tesla Fries to help fund the group. We're still working on a name for the hot dogs and hamburgers. Lots of groups help finance with themed food sales.

Edited for clarity

Last edited by AgentPalpatine on 18 Jan 2013, 5:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If it's important to you, yes.

I don't think Aspies have any problems, per se, with hosting events. Hosting events is one of those things that's far more trouble than it looks, and you might need to have at least a little experience of being in a larger social circle.

Edit: And I want my Stim Cola and Tesla Fries!

I wouldn't pay a penny. Then again, I wouldn't attend such a group in person to begin with. WP is enough.

Cyborg, may I ask why you would'nt want to meet in person? I mean, we all come to WP to exchange something, even as simple as basic communication. Why would in person be any different?

I used to run a monthly support group for people on the autistic spectrum, attended mainly by people with Aspergers.
I bought in a charge of 50p after the group had been running for a while, to fund biscuits etc.

I wasn't running the group for long after bringing the fee in as I got exceedingly fed up of it all.

It was a lot of work for very little appreciation and little to no help from any of the attendees

The group is still going, run by an NT now, but I don't think attendance is very high

No you had me at group.

Nessa238, as always, I thank you for your willingness to contribute your time and energy to such a project, and even through I'm from another country, I'd hope you'd accept my thanks for your hard work. It's unfortunate that some did not appreciate your efforts and that you did'nt get any assistance.



Is not WrongPlanet a group? Are we not a group of individuals who gather and exchange communication? I'm sure we all have arms, we all eat, we all breathe in front of the computer. What's the difference between WP and an in-person meeting?

It depends on what the aim of the group is and on what activities it involves.

It depends.

I already pay a few fees that make it harder to add more. Admittedly, those fees are Netflix and game subscriptions, but they require less effort to manage than actually going to a meeting.

There is a group local to me, but I have not yet managed to make a single meeting. This is mostly due to the fact that I never remember it or I remember it (or am reminded) very shortly before a meeting and that is too soon for me to deal with an unfamiliar situation.

I think I'd have to get over the "attending at all" before getting to the next step and determining how much I could pay to attend.

I can't really afford $10/month, but if I could... I'm not entirely sure I'd want to. I guess it depends on what the group does. I'm not exactly very social and I've tried attending group therapy for depression and ended up just being mad because all they did was talk about what outside problems were causing their depression (such as losing a job, being on disability). I was the only one who is *just* depressed. Maybe an Aspie group would be better... I dunno. My social anxiety has gotten a lot worse lately.

I pay £2 (just over $3) a week for a group I attend.

It's ironic that there's been more appreciation of my efforts from a person I've never met than anyone who attended that group!

I understand perfectly why people are happy to post on WP but wouldn't want to attend a group in person. Posting on WP does not take people out of their comfort zones. They do not have to go to a strange place and meet strange people, with all the uncertainty surrounding how it will go and whether they will feel accepted by the other people there. Posting on WP allows people to put their ideas across with none of the social anxiety or rejection risk. It also means that the person's thoughts alone are being considered, not how attractive or charismatic they are - things that are usually the main deciders of how much attention a person gets in a group in real life. Discussion forums subvert the normal social hierarchy rules and make the interaction process far more democratic.

I suspect people who can't see much difference between interacting on a discussion board and in real life have not suffered being made to feel invisible or not 'good enough' for a group in real life ie they haven't experienced what it's like to be at the bottom of the social hierarchy of the group and how demoralising the experience is.

Personally I am anyone's equal on a discussion board but in real life in a social group I am invariably sidelined, overlooked and ignored by people and even if I am given attention there's always this background sense that it's grudging attention and that I am not a natural person to be holding the group's attention. That group would basically have been enthralled if someone from the 'X-Factor' was running the group, which basically says it all in terms of how much of a mismatch of intellects was going on!

Last edited by nessa238 on 20 Jan 2013, 8:07 am, edited 1 time in total.