Just learned about WrongPlanet...

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And here I am... Undiagnosed (or, should I say, almost self-diagnosed) AS, doing my PhD in Physics.

Something about my "life": 30 years old, single, no girlfriend (ever!), only had a female friend with whom I lost contact recently. Interest in Physics (obviously), Computer Programming (fluid in C, C++, Python, LISP), collecting programming languages and human languages (native Spanish, good English, some Japanese and Swedish, very little Turkish), reading and collecting science fiction books, classical music, some electronic music, symphonic metal, etc. I also enjoy writing (prose and poetry, haiku).

I learned about Asperger Syndrome a year ago but I knew the symptoms perfectly all my life. I just found the name for it, and that it is not so uncommon as I thought it was. Anyone who was diagnosed AS so late in life?

Hope we will have interesting conversation, actually I'm pretty sure of it!

Nice to meet you, sd.

Hi, sd. You'll find many of us diagnosed much later in life here! I'm twice as old as you and learned I had it at 58. Giant relief ("it explains so much!") Some experience first the sense of relief, then a sense of loss. I haven't so far. You are quite the typical aspie I knew at work . I just retired from aerospace and felt a kinship to many of my fellow eccentric coworkers. Now I know why. Welcome to WP!

Thanks AnnaLemma and lau for your replies and the warm welcome (I feel like a little child now! ), it seems one is the unexperienced guy wherever he goes

I guess I'm in the "experience first the sense of relief" phase, it all really makes sense now! Like having a hole with a very particular shape carved in your mind/heart, always aching, and finally finding the piece of the puzzle that fits it. Now I'm afraid sometimes go into "I have AS so this was expected" phase and using it mentally for an excuse, but I try to avoid it.

I have thought about the "loss" phase, I guess it has to do with seeing all your (pessimistic) predictions fulfilled in your current projection of the future, mostly related to lack of a life partner.

Unfortunately in my country (I'm from Chile, but now I'm studying in Sweden) there is no awareness about Asperger whatsoever (I wonder if I will have to go to US to get diagnosed? will it be really necessary?), and the really technical, die-hard geek population is very scarce. I've known a few (neurotypical is the term? how do you feel about this classification?) technically inclined people, and no AS people so far.

Once again thanks for the warm welcome, and I'm sure I will learn a lot from you.

lau,
I find it great to finally be in a place where I can laugh out loud at the "I see your X, and raise you a Y" construct without being embarrased...

Welcome to WP!

Welcome to the Wrong Planet neighborhood, sd.

Bienvenidos sd

To WrongPlanet!! !

My only "official" diagnosis was when I was around 5 or 6 years old as being "minimally brain damaged",
then upgraded to "developmentally ret*d" to "bright underachiever" in my teen years. I was in my late
thirties when I saw a 60 Minutes news story about Jerry and Mary Newport and few days later my mom
suggested that I may be a higher functioning autistic or have Asperger's syndrome.

Gracias, sillyputty.

I'm still wondering if I will need an official diagnosis or not... maybe things will be the same without it (it's just the sense of scientific completeness that makes me feel this has to be closed somehow).

In an unrelated topic, does any of you (all of you?) have highly developed hearing? Could it have to do with AS? I mean, besides being intolerant to some noises or tones, have you noticed perceiving more auditive details? Detecting notes out of tune, being uncomfortable when the music is not equalized like the way you used to listen to it, remembering the exact tone of phrases (from movies, for example) or being able to recall sounds (like special effects) flawlessly? I can recite almost every dialog from several movies (be it in japanese, english, or spanish) before the characters say it with the perfect entonation, it always amuses a few friends.

My theory (or maybe all of this is known fact, I don't know... I'm really good at rediscovering "established" facts) is that lacking visual clues about the emotions of the people around, sometimes makes the hearing develop to replace these clues, and one gets really sensitive to variations in speech. By not looking directly to the eyes I tend to focus on the voice and all the sounds around.