Well, for one, it's certainly not the end of the world. Aspies aren't worse or better than average folk; just different. I wouldn't change who I am for the world.
Look at yourself; decide if you want to change anything. If you don't, great--just come hang out with us; we'd be glad to have you. You don't feel so strange when you know there are other people who think the way you do.
If you do want to change something--say, you want to find out how to become more sensitive to what other people are thinking (this is a common deficiency among Aspies)--then you now not only know what you want to change; but you also know you have a set of characteristics--defined by "Asperger's"--which serves as shorthand for the way you think and learn. This allows you to find out how other people with those same characteristics have solved that same problem you're dealing with.
For example, I have problems concentrating on schoolwork, both because I daydream and because I lack motivation to do things not involved with my "special interests". (A characteristic of many people with Asperger's is that they have special interests, bordering on obsession, which can take up a lot of their time. Mine, at the moment, are psychology and D&D.) I've come here to ask about study strategies; and the ones I've gotten work as well or better than any recommended to me by people in the non-Aspie world.
And, of course, there's just the idea of support: People with Asperger's or autism need to know that they're not the only ones in the world who think the way they do. Feeling like an alien or an immigrant who "doesn't speak the language" is not pleasant; it's nice to know there are others like you.
13 Feb 2006, 7:59 pm
