Hi all, I am new and I am unsure if I have AS or not.

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Recently, about a week ago I learned about AS and I have been very confused ever since. The more I looked at it the more it described me to every detail. I have issues being social with people, and I can be completely obsessed with my special interests in computers, web design, and hardware tinkering for well, days if I wanted to.

I have always been slightly clumsy, and I have had several emotional outbursts when teased as a child, I always thought there was something different about me like I was a failure or something. I was eventually diagnosed with ADD but i just feel like it doesnt explain everything about me. When I discovered AS, I took the aspie quiz at the rdos website about 3 times, and I score ridiculously high every time, around 165/200

The thing is I am 23 now, and I dont know if I even want to bother getting diagnosed, what good would it really do me I keep thinking. Anyhow, I am here now, looking for answers and possibly people to relate to who have been in a similar predicament as me.

Greetings, fellow-traveler TOGGI3, and welcome to the Wrong Planet neighborhood.

I was 52 when I ran through the "Oh yeah, that explains it..." phase, and I only went through the formal diagnosis part recently after I was told my participation in a research study wasn't ethically acceptable unless I were registered as autistic. It took a while, but went through smoothly in the end.

If you ever get tired of being classified as a techie and thus not fit for the real world, you might want to play the discrimination card.
Check the occupational health and safety laws, and your employer's level of interest in their implementation - there is a political aspect to autism, and the clearer my picture gets of what it is I haven't got, the keener my interest in it becomes.

To WrongPlanet!! !

You meet others like yourself here. I don't meet them in real life. In fact it was 1994 when I came across the internet and met others like myself with regards to all sorts of interests, that none of my regular peers showed any interest in.

It was a good experience when I could post stuff about my "obsessions" and found people actually interested in hearing them.

I did get a formal diagnosis once but it was with a private doctor. My previous company wanted a medical report. Incredible how companies think they have the right to see your medical records.

I hope you find your answers.

I don't see the real point in being diagnosed. I'm 22 and was diagnosed with aspergers when I was 12. I knew I was still the same person I was before my diagnoses but all my friends & family started treating me differently, as if I was a helpless victim of some terrible tragedy beyond my control. Ten years later I am still upset by that. I ended up dropping out of school because I couldn't deal with people treating me like I was handicapped. It is nice to be able to say to yourself "Oh, this may be why I have been having some of these issues with life." but there can be a huge down side as people are typically afraid of what they don't understand.

i understand the hesitaion of being diagnosed, i am the same, i do not want people with little understanding to start treating me like i cant do anything by myself, that would be horrible. i do not want that type of interferance.
On the other hand, a diagnosis may be valuble, for example in a job interview, if you find it hard to make eye contact the employers might take this the wrong way, but if they had an explanation then they will be tolerant.


a dianosis may give me little insentive (im bad at spelling, sorry) to talk to my friends and try to understand them, i want to keep trying because i want to get better at social interaction, i will have an excuse to act differently (normal for me) and though my friends will not mind at all if i show my 'AS side', but they will not be my friends forever and i do not want to have to start from scratch (never really understood that expression) with practasing being social.

i do not know if this helped, but it was nice to contribute.

Welcome to WP!