Hello,
I am 41, female, and haven't been diagnosed officially with Asperger's, but I feel it fits me.
I am often told by people, my mother especially, that I have horrible social skills. Many times when someone explains how they feel I've been rude, it doesn't make sense to me. Apparently I come across as deadpan, cold, arrogant, and not terribly interested in others. I don't smile very often. Being told to smile is irritating, and it happens often.
I find small talk baffling. Initiating and maintaining a conversation usually crashes into awkward silences when I wonder if it's ok to go away yet. Either that, or I go into what I call a "chatter fugue" and will keep talking until I somehow manage to redirect my attention.
I go through long periods of obsessions with things where the subject will utterly absorb me. The subjects are usually either disturbing or uninteresting to most other people, as far as I can tell.
Stimming is very prevalent with me. I will wring my hands and twist my fingers over and over again when I am excited, agitated, or daydreaming. I will sometimes do this so aggressively that my fingernails dig scrapes into my hands. This was annoying to an extreme to my family when I was little, who would make me sit on my hands for hours. I can control it to an extent in public now, but will find myself just stimming differently, such as stretching my hands above my head and wringing them. Sometimes my face will contort while wringing my hands and fingers, too.
I don't want to overwhelm people with too much text, so these are just the basics. I was amused by the title of the website, as I often privately refer to myself as an extraterrestrial.
Thanks for reading.
30 Sep 2013, 1:03 am
welcome to the club 
