Here's my lousy excuse for an introduction. I'm a 27 year old male, living in the USA in the Oklahoma City area. Due to my utterly inept social skills, I've been jobless since 2003 and am still living with my parents. I've been in therapy for the last few years, and my therapy started with the assumption that social anxiety was my problem. But my psychologist brought up Asperger's and autism at one point and we now both agree that most of my arrows are pointing toward Asperger's instead of social anxiety.
He encouraged me to take the Asperger's test found on Wired, and I scored 48 out of 50 on it. After I began researching Asperger's, I typed up the following three paragraph description of myself, pointing out what I have in common with the symptoms of AS and why I feel it describes me better than social anxiety. I printed it off and gave it to my therapist, and he told me that it reinforced his Asperger's diagnosis. I have it saved on my computer, so I'll just copy/paste it for anyone interested:
Quote:
Existing social anxiety is very narrow, limited to approaching people. No shyness, no fear of being judged, no fear of public speaking, no timidness, no fear of eating in public, no anxiety about future embarrassment. Not afraid of interacting with people (aside from approaching), just socially inept. Ignorance of social rules, can't remember social rules, or lack of respect for social rules. Disdain for "small talk" and social formalities or lack of understanding of them. What little fear exists of social situations (aside from approaching) is fear of inept social skills resulting in poor communication, not fear of being judged. Inept social skills and communication problems remain even with people known to me for a very long time, whereas people with social phobia typically don't have problems with communication, at least not after getting to know someone.
Difficult to communicate, putting thoughts into words. Often use hand gestures instead of speech. Tendency to think and speak literally. Difficulty "reading between the lines" and recognizing idioms, sarcasm, and joking. Stuttering, can't get a word out, slurring. Rarely know what to say next. Don't notice when someone is not interested in what I'm saying, often don't realize how long I've been talking, give needlessly long/verbose responses to questions requiring simple answers. Don't notice when I've said something that could be interpreted as rude or insensitive. Making eye contact is uncomfortable or impossible. Easily distracted and prone to daydreaming. Obsessive interest in certain subjects, interest in trivial details. Poor short term memory but excellent memory recall of subjects of interest. Fidgeting, repetitive motions, can't sit still. Poor balance, clumsy.
Extreme sensitivity to touching. Slightest touch from another causes cringing, extreme discomfort. Extreme sensitivity to sound. Sound does not necessarily need to be loud to be discomforting. Makes me physically uncomfortable, nauseated, as if I can physically feel sound. Sometimes feel overwhelmed by sounds around me. Poor auditory perception despite sensitivity to sound, words are heard clearly but aren't comprehended. Extreme sensitivity to warm temperatures. Temperatures in excess of 70 cause nausea, sweating, feeling as if my skin is burning. Windy or stormy days always cause headaches, even mildly windy or rainy. Sensitivity to light. Set habits/routine. Easily angered, flustered, distressed. Can't sleep longer than four hours total per night or more than an hour at a time.
I originally wrote two pages, but whittled it down to a three paragraph "greatest hits" of sorts. Not every single common description of Asperger's applies to me. For example, the whole "prefer nonfiction to fiction" thing doesn't apply. But like I said, this is where most of my arrows are pointing, and my psychologist agrees. Anyway, this intro only covers my Asperger's. My personal interests will pop up in posts on other topics.
03 Jun 2011, 8:16 pm
)
