Drem yol lok. Greetings.

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Hello. I made an account here a while ago but never got around to posting, so here I am.

I'm 22 and my relationship with Asperger's has been... complicated. My parents first learned about it when I was a teenager and it seemed to fit, so I went to see an autism specialist. He told me I was too good with people and interested in pleasing people, so I got diagnosed with social anxiety disorder and went on with my life. Went to college, where I had such an awful time managing my workload and dealing with professors that I had to drop out. I started seeing a therapist and she suspected there might be something deeper than social anxiety going on, so she recommended that I have a neuropsych evaluation done. I did and all the signs pointed to Asperger's, so now I'm trying to work with it.

Having been through all that, I'm now interested in raising awareness about Asperger's in women. From my experience, and from what I've read, a lot of the more pervasive stereotypes just don't apply or look different in women. We socialize differently from men, society treats us differently, we get get different feedback and learn to respond accordingly, and I think too many people, especially men, overlook that. Sorry for the long story, but I just get frustrated when I think how I could have gotten help sooner, had anyone recognized it.

Anyway! I'm into languages, linguistics, Disney, video games, music, fantasy, and cute stuff. I'm trying to regain my confidence so I can get back to school and keep studying linguistics. I don't really know any other Aspies, but I figure there's a lot to be learned if I did!

Welcome!
Which languages are you especially into or have you already learned?

Hey dawnstar welcome, and "Hail Sithis"!

Thanks!

Welcome!
Which languages are you especially into or have you already learned?

Hey dawnstar welcome, and "Hail Sithis"!

Wow. It is pretty creepy how much your experience is similar to mine. I think it's kind of sad, actually. All these years we lost to misdiagnoses by "professionals", and we end up diagnosing ourselves. My problems started in college, too. I could not afford to go to college right away, and I had no problem working full time before college. I did not have trouble at college right away. It was actually a nice change after working full time for 5 or 6 years. I think everyone should work a few years before college. I still worked part-time, so I did not take a full course load. After a couple of semesters of part-time classes, the excitement of college being something new wore off. I came to realize that some people just did not like me in my college life. Everyone likes a hard worker, so I never had trouble at work. At college, however, I found myself butting heads with some of the professors and most of the students. Not like a physical thing, I have not been in a fight since highschool.

Some of it had to do with the fact that I was 26 and ignorant people make up ignorant rules that 26 is too old for community college, and said ignorant people will spend as much energy as possible to let you and everyone else know that you are breaking these unwritten rules that only exist in the minds of sheep. Most of it was because I am autistic and I just did not know what that was at the time. I took abnormal psychology as an elective and started to wonder if my shyness was something more than "just being shy". At first, I thought it was social anxiety, like the autism specialist you saw. Of course I am not a professional, so my mistake is understandable. I eventually went to a mental health clinic. They diagnosed me with anxiety and depression and said they never even heard of social anxiety. A year or so later I was watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I am trying to find a clip of the show to put up on youtube or something, but it was S02E6 "The Tower is Tall but the Fall is Short". In the episode, the terminator robot "girl" talks to a therapist and the therapist tells the terminators "mom" that the robot may have Aspergers. The therapist, of course, does not know that the terminator is a machine. It is a really good show, but I keep getting off track. Anyway, I told my therapist that I think I have Aspergers and they sent me to get tested at the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities. The results of test were that I do show signs of autism, but I was denied help from the office because I did not have documentation that the symptoms showed up before 22, which I could not convince them of. I have since had more testing including a neurological test, and lots of psychological evaluations, which all point to me being on the autism spectrum.

Welcome to zee forum! (My attempt at a german accent, lol! )

Hi and welcome =)