I'm here, older than most, have had a good life, and I think I was always milder than most. For example, I don't remember ever having any noticeable sensory issues (worst there was being worse than other people (probably mostly NTs) at distinguishing words from a lot of background noise. No big deal: it wasn't really easy for _them_, either, and if we wanted to really talk we'd go somewhere quieter. I don't think I ever did any noticeable amount of stimming. I think I invented echolalia independently. My parents thought that I was doing it to annoy them, and I think maybe I thought so, too. I did eventually quit doing it, and could, I believe, have quit sooner, if I hadn't wanted to annoy my parents.... I was no good at team sports, but then girls don't have to be.
Part of the reason that I'm here is that Asperger's/Autism has become my main Special Interest, since I found out about it. I'm probably not in need of any "Support Group" for it, but I'd like to find a few friends here, with the intensity diluted by being online, instead of in the Real World. I don't even know any Aspies/Auties in my real world, and I'd like to know what the rest of us are like. I'm already in several other online groups that match some of my Special Interests, and have been for the last 14 years, since I got onto the internet.
I've had a good life, probably better than most, worldwide, maybe not as good as might-have-been, but probably nobody does and is everything they think they're going to be when they start out. Most kids who love baseball are never going to play in the World Series. I'd do my life again. It might be better if I could start out knowing about Asperger's, and knowing as much as I do now about it. In that way, all you kids are lucky.
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Asperges me, Domine