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Greetings everyone!

I'm a 25 year old guy from NSW Australia, currently undiagnosed but strongly suspecting that I have Aspergers. I first discovered the possibility at the start of the year, when for some reason I came across the syndrome and became curious about it. So I started reading about it, and was struck by the list of symptoms as I could identify with many of them. At the time I spoke to my mum about it who's a registered psychologist and she immediately dismissed my curiosity about whether I may have it, so I took her word for it and forgot about it. Then for some reason (don't ask what, as I've forgotten already) I recently started looking into it again, and found I was relating to the symptoms and experiences of aspies even more. So I started digging more, reading more and then I found this site and the various ASD quizzes, which yielded some interesting results that seem to strongly indicate that I may been an aspie! (see below for results ) Besides that, it explains so much from throughout my life. If I had to pick one, it would be the incessant comments about how I need to smile more.

I've barely scratched the surface of this site or my exploration into Aspergers, yet I already feel at home and highly excited/stimulated at the same time by the thought of discovering similar-minded people! In fact, the feelings I've been getting since discovering this whole new world have been quite overwhelming, so I've just been taking it slow at the moment.

My interests are music (listen to a very wide range of genres, from rap to classical to jazz to pop to flamenco), playing guitar, languages (I often struggle with English but seem talented at learning foreign languages, I also have a fascination for accents and identifying languages by ear), geography (one day I just became fascinated by it and started obsessively trying to memorise certain things, particularly capital cities, and when I first discovered Google Earth it was like all my Christmas's had arrived at once), movies (foreign, thriller, horror and drama are what I love the most), foreign affairs/food/culture, video games (I go through obsessive phases where I will think about nothing else, and then phases where I don't have the slightest urge to play them), poker (I've had an interest in this for a few years but only just recently started getting into it). I apologise for the messy approach in this paragraph! My slightly OCD impulses are nudging at me to do something about it but it's too much effort

As I said, this has all been quite overwhelming for me, but I have one very pressing question at the moment though which I would be very interested to hear responses about. Well, to put it into words in the first place might be pretty hard, but I'll try...

Though my test scores indicate a strong likelihood I'm aspie, I don't think my life has been hugely affected by the way I am, at least not to the degree of many aspies. I don't have any major sensory problems, and I have 'okay' social skills (always had at least a couple of friends throughout school, have had a few girlfriends) so I'm skeptical about whether my situation can be seen as a 'disorder'. So, I'm wondering... if I can't be diagnosed as an aspie, where do I fit? Are there many others like me that don't really fit into the 'disorder' category but still think like an aspie?

Anyway, good to be here, and sorry for the super long intro!

Hi Matt! Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome Mate.

Ahoy there!

If you aren't affected badly socially you probably aren't an aspie, but there is PDD-NOS and Non-verbal Learning disorder which are both kind of more high functioning then asperger's from what I understand... I could be wrong though, of course.

Thanks for the welcomes!

I've looked a little into PDD-NOS and my understanding was that it's closer on the spectrum to Autism than Aspergers. Not aware of non-verbal learning disorder so I'll look into that, thanks!

I guess it's hard for me to say how badly I'm affected socially, as I don't really have anything to compare with.

Do check out the symptoms of NLD (non verbal learning disorder). Figured out quickly when I started hanging out on here I have all the classic symptoms i.e. horrible at math...terrible hand writing...rough social interactions..dont make friends easily..dont play well with others etc. (Been experiencing that stuff since 2nd Grade in school) I was identified as left brain dominate many moons ago on various psyche tests but did not realize it was now classed as an official ailment. In the old days they say well my talents just lie in other areas from the right brain types. I thought I was special..and guess I am...lol. Anywhere this is the link I used for a self diagnosis. I also have a girl cousin who worked as a counselor/therapist for NLD folks in a clinical setting..she did not argue with the assesment. Everybody in the family always knew I acted funny all these years..lol.

http://www.weirdnotstupid.com/whatisnld.php

Welkome to WP

Mick

Welcome! Ni Hao user here