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Kawaimo OP t1_ir83w9w wrote

Reply to comment by possums101 in Who are these people with candy asking for money?? by Kawaimo

Yeah.. I know.. You're absolutely right, just looking back on it. Forgive me, I have autism and ADHD. I tend to be curious and have a slip of the mind. I had this idea of trying to get life experience, and so hell, I made a stupid decision. I was depressed for a couple of years and missed a lot of high school.

I suppose at least I have a story to tell my friends, and yeah... that was a moment.... maybe I should learn from other people who are street smart, it's probably a safer alternative to, well... experiencing things foolishly?

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joejoeaz t1_ira7ub1 wrote

I think you made a series of small decisions that turned out put you in an unsafe situation. Please stop beating yourself up over it.

You stated you're autistic and have ADHD. Neurodivergence issues like Autism, make you an easier a target for people with ill intent. I am not sure if you have an occupational therapist you work with, but possibly asking them about developing a toolset for avoiding exploitation like this might be a good idea, if such training is available.

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If there is any way to learn from the mistake(s), try to take what you can learn. Most people rely on "gut instinct" to avoid situations like this, and autism means you might not have a very developed sense of "gut instinct". Learning the red flags to look for, and having actual "if you see this, get out" type of information would probably be more helpful to you, than expecting you to take a full read on the situation, and trying to figure out if something doesn't seem right.

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I think you have an amazing attitude about the whole thing, writing it off as a story to tell your friends.

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In doing a little bit of quick googling, I found a book called "No More Victims: Protecting Those with Autism from Cyber Bullying, Internet Predators, and Scams" Which looks like it may be appropriate for its content, but you also mentioned having ADHD, which could make a book a bit of a challenge.

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I found this youtube video, which isn't exactly the right topic, but is "adjacent" to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYCJ9pvQJhA&ab_channel=AutismFromTheInside

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joejoeaz t1_iraqbe2 wrote

I just watched that video I linked, and it's not really related, although you might find it an interesting channel :)

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