Sorry it was 9 years ago. The reason I say that is because I am 34 now, when I first heard about this was when I was 25. That was the moment I really felt like there could truly some hope for my life. John Elder Robison promised it could be on the market in no less than 5 years. Well, that didn't happen, and I've held out so much hope for this to make some kind of difference to my life and the lives of other people. I have poor social skills and at times I am downright hopeless at reading other people. Between then and now, nothing has changed in my life. I'm still as stuck as I've ever been. I've had dreams of getting married, starting a family, getting a job but none of this has been possible. I even wrote to a professor who was doing a trial here in Australia in Melbourne asking where to sign up for the trial but it was full. That was about 8 years ago, I hadn't heard anything else about this until now. Just empty promises. I just want to feel like there's some kind of hope for my life and other people's lives! I am alone, basically. I have no real friends, I have no partner and at this point in time I have no job. I've got less money than I've ever had. A 34 year old unemployed virgin living with his parents. And I'm not the only one either, this is often the rule rather than the exception for people with this condition. We are often the victims of bullying and discrimination, and I've been through bullying at both school and the workplace and I haven't worked in years. I am not the only one with this condition who is STRUGGLING. Acceptance and a change in attitudes will solve about half of our issues. But it won't solve everything. It won't solve the bonecrushing loneliness that people like me live with almost daily and the frustrating struggle to get anywhere in life. And if you think it's that simple, there are a LOT of us in the same boat, wondering if and when it's ever going to get better but it never does. There a lot of low functioning people with autism also, they struggle with certain sounds, textures, bright lights, unable to communicate with anyone and locked in a world of their own. We shouldn't only dismiss this as a condition that's easy to live with and to just accept it and move on because at times it downright sucks!