is is possible to be an aspie if outgoing as a kid??

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Really? So is it more common for aspies to go from more social to less social throughout the years? I always thought that being outgoing at the beginning was something anti-aspie about me... but now I realise I'm almost 100% aspie!

I think so, yes!

I am mostly introverted however I can talk for Britain and then some! Yap yap yap, and unfortunately for people on the internet I touch type (very quickly) so if you combine those two things you end up with someone who can do post after post in a very short time and who never seems to shut up!

I am taken to be opinionated but actually I am just a terrible natter box!

Natter box was one of my nick names as a child because I would walk up to people and just start nattering...and nattering...and nattering...and nattering. Most of the time they could not get a word in edgewise!

My other nick name was bumble...because I bumbled around. I was kind of clumsy lol

So I basically became known as bumble the natter box.

These days, around strangers I am very quiet, as I would tend to make a lot of mistakes socially and get told off a lot, so now I find it better to err on the side of caution and not do much of anything at all when socialising. But when let loose around someone I know well (and once I have learnt their particular mannerisms) I never seem to shut up! Unfortunately I keep talking about the same thing over and over again so eventually they all go insane and run away!

I don't so much talk with people as talk at people see...so my conversations are often one sided!

I am not good at letting other people get a word in edgewise, I have a terrible habit of interrupting people when they are speaking and if someone is asking a question I give them the answer before they have even finished asking it, especially if my brain is on hyper drive that day!

However I wouldn't have my brain any other way sometimes! Here is why:

I got told off recently for making too many posts on a forum that is related to the University course I am studying. I got a little excited by my subject, had a lot of ideas about stuff I had been reading about, got carried away and made post after post after post after post detailing all the thoughts I had.

Now here is the problem:

I am supposed to follow social conventions, wait for other people reply to posts before making another etc and generally not take over the conversation and dominate it but...

When I am learning something new, I like to digest the information (during which time I will be quiet) but afterwards I like to explore it. This means looking at it and considering it from many different angles at once. When my brain does finally start coming up with questions and ideas it bombards me with them one after the other after the other after the other after the other after the other...

I am used to this speed and can keep up with it, but other people cannot.

Also sometimes I will be prone to digressing because my brain likes to link things that don't appear to be linked on the surface. I like to consider all variables and all factors and all relationships and so on. Sometimes I can be talking about one thing and my brain will link it to something else or it will inspire an idea about something else so then my brain temporarily goes off in that direction.

Ie: if talking about unblocking bathroom sinks, I might mention that the last time I had to unblock a sink I had to use a plastic cup as I did not have a plunger. This, in my mind, may then cause me to start thinking about other uses for plastic cups...especially in areas that relate to my interests...so art for example. At which point I will suddenly start talking about art instead and ways to use every day materials in order to create something.

At this point other people lose track of the conversation because they are still thinking about unblocking sinks and I have started talking about something completely different to them...they cannot keep up with my digressions.

I also have trouble waiting for people to reply. I used to have a contact on msn who took so long to type his reply that I would get up and go and make a cup of coffee and a sandwich whilst I was waiting. If I did not do that I would just carry on speaking because I was too impatient to wait for his reply (god he took a long time lol) and he would get annoyed with me.

I touch type (remember lol) this means I can bang out close to 100 words or more a minute when typing directly from my brain (copy typing is a little slower as I have to read at the same time and process what I am reading in order to type it...so that runs at a speed of about 70 to 80 words per minute on a good day. Slower if the typo fairy keeps attacking me and rearranging all my letters!).

Anyway, I have problems with the way discussions go on my University forums.

1 People seem to take a long time to make their replies, in some cases people don't reply at all.

2 When they do have conversations their thinking is too linear...meaning that the conversation starts going in one particular direction in regards to one or two variables whilst a whole load of stuff either gets missed out or ignored because it diverges from the current line of thinking.

3 Their thinking is too narrow! They don't seem to be aware of hidden, but yet important, variables and fail to take them into consideration.

4 When you do open up points for discussion no one bothers to discuss them.

Now I realise that my way of processing information irritates people (speed and digressions etc) but I need to process in that way. Once I have all my ideas put together yes, I can present them concisely, but not whilst I am processing them. Whilst processing I need to explore and dart all over the place and I usually do that very quickly. I CANNOT process information they way they want me to. I lose my train of thought and lose some very good ideas that may pop up if I keep to a linear way of discussing things. It really limits my ability to let my creativity run wild and reduces the over all quality of my work over time. This is why I work best alone, in group work I tend to find my grade is lower (either B or C) whereas in my individual assignments I would get A grades. It seems I am limited in some ways by the rest of the group and cannot achieve my usual standard.

Also if I have to keep waiting to get my ideas out there I can lose them...I either need to write them down, discuss them or perhaps record them on a digital recorder in order to keep up with the speed they are being fired at me or not lose them by forgetting them!

And that is another problem...I need to finish my line of thinking...I do not like having my thoughts disrupted as I lose my train of thought and have to start all over again from the beginning. Never interrupt me when I am brain storming, this makes me highly irritable!

My style of processing and communication does not work well in the public arena, however it got me A grades for my essays at University (the essay is the final product and the point by which I have tied my ideas together and can present them more concisely) so I don't want to change my style because if I did, I wouldn't feel like me any more.

I suffer for it though...I tend to drive people away rather effectively lol

I guess I was also more outgoing before school. I used to be around other kids more than later at school. The most dramatical change happened when I was around 8, having severe behavioral problems (my hyperactivity peaked, and I was the "clown of the class"). After that period I gradually realized I can not be part of the community the way I used to be and feel, and I learned to accept it, from that time on focusing more on the academics.

Now I would describe myself as being an introvert and extrovert, depending on the situation, leaning more towards introversion.

Those identical words have been told to me by a girl, too. After those words I fell into isolation and was depressed (around age 12) for a very long time.
Other things I've been told more than once "I want to belong to normal people, you are not."; "Do you want to be normal or not?" ("not" meaning "then I'll leave you").

Anyway, when I was a little child, when I had my first experiences meeting other children, I was very outgoing and asked everyone to be my friend (at least that's what my mother told me, I honestly don't remember me being like that). Eventually someone said they'd be ok with me as a friend. The way I approached others didn't really work so I became much more passive over the years.

And this is what I do nowadays.