Is it always AS?

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Thank you, but Olympia is an hour away from me.

How did you know I just moved back to Seattle? I think I may have heard of you, but you have posted very few replies to my threads.

Again, thank you for your support.

The information was meant for NorahW, but you were welcome to it. Both of you list your location as Seattle.

Well, thank you for your welcome home.

It's often necessary to have to travel a bit to find a qualified specialist to diagnose. I know of parents who live in isolated areas who have to travel a number of hours for an initial assessment and sometimes followup treatment.

I agree with the people who say it's just a label and it doesn't matter... I got sent to see a psychiatrist after some issues I'd been having at work, and got diagnosed with AS, but so what? Anyone who goes to see a shrink will end up being diagnosed with something, even if it's just Seasonal Affective Disorder (I'm sad cause it's winter... I mean really, FFS!!). This is because of the over-medicalisation of personality, IMO.

However, having been told that these things are features of my personality, I guess I can use that to try and work on some things... I now consciously try to make occasional eye contact with people I'm talking to, for example.

And the fact that next time I get in trouble at work, I can say "don't oppress me, you neurotypical bastard!" is a definite plus

But that's the thing...I don't "get" the divide when I'm with a group of NT's...is it just a case of Stockholm syndrome, or what?

I don't know whether it's the same for everyone here or not, obviously, but yes - I feel a huge gaping chasm between me and 'normal' people. It's not simply a confidence issue - I don't understand them, period. I don't understand why certain things seem to matter so much to them that seem laughably unimportant to me, and vice versa. I don't understand their social intricacies and why they do the things they do. I don't know how they can stand and talk about nothing for half an hour or more at a time, or why they can't stand more than a minute's silence before they have to fill it up with nothing-chatter. I don't understand why somebody who doesn't even know me all that well wants to hear all about my friends and family, or why they seem to think I'd want to hear about theirs. I don't understand their sense of humor; why every conversation has to be constantly punctuated with shrieks of laughter - is every other sentence really that funny?

To me Aspie is more than just a label, it's unchangeable. There are many people with problems socializing who are not Aspies... usually because their environment didn't support developing social skills. As an extreme example there have been studies showing that people who are locked in closets for many years have many of the same social difficulties that Aspies do. To a lesser degree, professions like computer programmer (my profession) that don't involve much interaction also tend to produce people with poor social skills. But in those cases once the person has spent time in a new environment that supports social interaction, they start to lose their social problems.

This is the real hallmark of an Aspie (and why I think I'm an Aspie): persistence of the social problems. Even at the times in my life when I spent years going out every night to groups and pushing myself to be in social situations, my ability to keep friends was still much lower than that of my coworkers who went home and watched TV most every night.

So for me the label itself doesn't make much difference, it's the prognosis that is important. The reason I am thinking about getting a formal diagnosis is to feel more solid in understanding what my future holds.