So how do you know?

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Well I definitely fit the hobby obsession part of the profile. I pick up at least a few every year, and I tend to dive headlong into them for awhile. In the past few years I've picked up disc golfing, sushi making, beer brewing, paintballing, fishing, bow hunting, gun hunting, home cooking for pets, and bought a pet lizard and built him a home made cage. I've built a home theater, rebuilt an old utility trailer, bought a old fishing boat and built and installed a deck in it. I started bowling, photography, and built my own website. When I make a decision to buy something I'll research it for days online and read up on all the options over and over until I'm practically and expert before making a decision (this drives other people crazy!). And with new hobbies I have to read up on how it's supposed to be done and get all the quality gear and hit the ground running. A good example of this would be that my wife and I just got a dog last fall. I didn't even want the dog, but when we decided we'd get one I researched all the breeds to pick the perfect one for our situation. I had to read up on all the proper training methods, feeding, psychological needs, etc etc. After the pet food recalls I read up on home cooking, picked up hunting to get meat (bow and gun along with all the research behind getting that equipment and how to do everything just right), everything to process my own deer, a chest freezer to store meals, a dehydrator to make home made dog treats..well you get the point. An aunt of mine recently referred to this as extreme behavior. Now that I see it all in writing maybe she's got a point

I'v thought about becoming a psychology major and helping children "lower" on the spectrum (for example, I'm not sure that some parents realize that clothes can be extremely ignoring, completely understand why their kids stim, or have considered that the reason kids rub their eyes could be that they may have trouble with eyesight. I said SOME.)

And maybe I can fund my own museum and be an archaeologist/theologist with the money I earn from being a psychologist (eventually, I wouldn't charge much to help a parent help their child).

And I would also like to thank zghost for giving us the link!! !

I recently found out that I'm on the spectrum because looking back on my childhood I know I was. The defining factor for me is synesthesia. Yesterday at work someone brought some candy and I blurted out "this tastes....pastel i guess" and I got "huh?????" so then I said nevermind.

Last edited by nomnom_hamster on 17 Dec 2007, 11:47 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Is your wife NT? I like a guy with aspergers and I'm always interested in hearing how others get along.

not me right?

Well assuming at the moment that I am, it's a struggle for us. My wife is a social butterfly, if it was up to her we'd be out with friends/family 24x7. I try to stay home some of the time, try to leave early some of the time, and it causes a lot of arguments. That and of course the hobby thing starts a lot of fights since that eats up a lot of family time. She just doesn't get how I can be happy sitting at home watching a movie night after night and I don't get how she can want to be around other people all of the time. Probably the biggest problem is just how little time we spend together where we are both really enjoying ourselves. Having said that she knows I need my personal time and does her best to give it to me, and I make the effort to be social as often as I can so we've done pretty well so far. I think the real test will come with children though since the delicate compromise we're working with right now depends on free time that won't be there once we make that next step. That worries me quite a bit.

If you are ok with family knowing about this, then you could print off some information and ask a relative who is older than you if any of the information resembles you now and if it did as a child.

If you don't want family involved, then go to your GP and ask for a referal to a psychologist or psychiatrist who knows about ASD.

Affected how? Are you looking for an official diagnosis or are you just looking for answers?

I just sort of stumbled upon this site last night through Wikipedia after finally looking up what Asperger's was. I first wondered what it was after hearing the song You've Got Asperger's by MC Frontalot, and then saw it mentioned again on a forum I frequent and finally decided to look it up just out of curiosity, only to find some of the symptoms seemed really familiar to me growing up.

More about myself, I'm 23 and was diagnosed as having ADD when I was 5, and throughout elementary and middle school they tried me on all kinds of different drugs for that, but none of them seemed to completely help. Off the top of my head I remember having been on Ritalin, Prozac, Depakote, Zoloft, and Wellbutrin at various points.

I was always one of the more intelligent students in school but was never very socially inclined and often bullied, I pretty much had 1 friend at a time up until High School, and even then I had a different group of friends in 9th grade than I did at the beginning of 10th grade, and yet again had a mostly different group of friends by the end of 10th grade and throughout 11th grade, but Ive maintained my friendship with my small group of 4 friends from then for 7 years now, and its been my greatest social achievement yet. The worst were my 'friends' in 9th grade that took me all school year to realize that they were all a bunch of dicks and weren't really my friends. I didn't stick around in High School due to always disliking school, and tested out, but still haven't accomplished much since then and sadly still live with my Mom.

I didn't actually have my first date until I was 22, and it didn't go well at all. After seeing a movie we went to get something to eat and I was content listening to her talk about whatever, and occasionally agree, disagree, or ask a short question, but she was getting annoyed with me not really saying much and kept putting me on the spot about what I wanted to talk about. She also complained about my lack of physical contact in any form during the movie with not holding her hand, or putting my arm around here or anything. Despite having talked to her online for a year prior to going out with her for the first time, I really didn't have anything to talk to her about since she didn't really share any of my interests, and could not hold a conversation with her face to face. Eventually we were just sitting there, neither of us saying anything and I got nervous enough to where I felt like my whole body was shaking, getting paranoid that other people in the resteraunt were noticing us sitting there not talking, making it worse. I took all my willpower to keep from bursting into tears, I excused myself to the restroom and calmed myself down and went back and pretended I had a headache to have an excuse to go home.

I always had a horrible temper growing up, and was prone to tantrums, and have a habit of crying whenever I'm really nervous, embarrassed, or angry, which caused me much ridicule at school. My teacher's in 8th grade thought I had Tourette's syndrome despite not having a tic, including a time when I was annoyed with the principal following me around in his golf cart and proceeded to turn around and flip him off with both hands and scream at him. There was also a time when I was around 18 that I misplaced my Gameboy in my friend's car and for some reason exploded on them and started accusing them of stealing it.

I have been a video game junkie since I was 5, and its always the number one thing I want to talk about, and pretty much the only reason Ive kept the friends Ive got as they are also gamers and our conversations generally revolve around that one subject. Outside of video games, Ive got an odd obsession with actors/actresses in which IMDB is my best friend, for when I watch something and I recognize someone in it I keep trying to place what Ive seen them in before, and check as soon as I can, Ive got an excellent memory for who's in what and sometimes randomly spout out this useless trivia when watching things with other people. The past few months Ive been really getting back into following Baseball, as I used to spend all my allowance on Baseball cards as a kid, and sporadically watched games on TV, but this year Ive found myself watching every postseason game I had time to watch, and even checking Baseball news daily after it had ended. I played Baseball for a couple of years of little league, but was never very good at it and took a few balls to the face during the process with not being very good at catching a ball. But really Video Games are the number one hobby that I crave, and the place Ive felt the most like I fit in has been video game conventions, as having a place where I know I can start a conversation with anyone I so choose is a truly phenomenal feeling.

Ive always been a fairly clumsy person, not consistently but it comes in spurts of doing something that just looks foolish like taking corners too sharp and bumping into things, tripping, and/or losing my balance. Often enough for me to find it annoying, I will take a bad step where I come down on the side of my foot, put my weight on it, badly stumble and barely keep myself from falling down. It seems to be caused by having an odd walk sometimes in which I'm not going Heel to Toe but putting down the left side of my left foot down all at once and then setting down the right side, but Its not always balanced right when I do so, but it only seems to ever happen with my left foot. I also find myself having an odd standing posture sometimes in which I'm standing with one foot with my toes on the ground and heel raised. Also along the lines of motor functions, Ive always had really horrible handwriting.

If you've read this far, thank you, its good to have a place to be able to comfortably get things off my chest like this. I really don't know if I have Asperger's or not, and don't currently have medical insurance to get a proper diagnosis, but I've my share of complications and oddities and I know I'm sure as hell no NT.

Ok I ran through the posts on the common traits and made a little test for myself.

Resistance to change: you have this set way of working out what is going on around you (remember, you cannot process your sensory input normally, so you are using a workaround). If your environment changes drastically, then your old workaround may no longer work. Confusion results. You prefer to stick to a routine and what is already familiar:
-I don't think I'm obsessive compulsive when it comes to routine, but chaos has a way of making me crazy.

Thinking too much: your brain has to do some extra processing for so many everyday activities, so you get used to thinking all the time. It seems like the right way to approach everything:
-This is me completely, it never shuts off. If I throw on a movie or the TV to relax it has to be something complicated that will force me to think. Being forced to watch reality TV would be my own personal hell. When it comes to movies there's nothing I like more than something that's confusing and requires you to work the whole time to keep up with what's going on. Movies that have your mind in knots for hours afterwards are an added bonus. My wife doesn't understand why I like to spend my relaxation time doing more thinking.


Social interaction: this one is complicated. A lot of it seems to come from the fact that you are expected to act illogically. To talk for the sake of talking, rather than having something to say:
-Definitely. I can't make small talk, I can't even really stand to be close enough to other people to hear their small talk. It all seems to phoney and fake and everyone in the conversation has to know that so why are they doing it? If something doesn't add up logically I can't bring myself to do it. I rant and rave often about the craziness of things like Christmas. Christmas is a holiday that creates stress, debt, and general unhappiness in a lot of people for no reason so why have it anymore? Just get together for your ham and skip all the other garbage. Gift cards? Why don't I just give you $20 and tell you to go buy yourself something? And if we're both just giving each other money why don't we skip it and just buy ourselves something period? How does giving gift cards embrace the spirit of giving but if I put $20 in an envelope it'd be rude or innapropriate? It's the same thing! When I talk like this to people I feel like I'm back in the day trying to convice people the world is round. You could go on and on with all the evidence you want on why the world is round and they'll just respond by shaking their head as if to pity you and say "But it is flat, everyone knows that." Somehow they just won the argument and your silence and confused look as you try to figure out how that makes any sense only seems to make their point seem all the more legitimate.

Obsessions. U must have them:
-Covered in an earlier post.

Always judging yourself. Never feeling good enough:
-Constantly. For example in a team sport if I'm doing poorly and bringing down the whole team you'd think the other guys would get on my case about it, but they spend most of the time trying to encourage me which just makes me more angry. I do worse and worse and get more and more angry with myself until I am completely miserable. I hate this because I know it means I'm no fun to be around at times like that and I bring it on myself. If I'm doing well I blow it off and shy away from praise. Praise and attention make me uncomfortable, but I crave them at the same time.

Climbing a mountain to think of the right thing to say only to realize at some point that everyone has left the room:)
-One on one I can manage, but in group conversations I have to plan things out too much or I blurt out something stupid or innapropriate. I often throw in my piece after the conversation has moved on. I know I'm doing it but it's like I already figured out what to say and committed to saying it so I can't stop myself even though I can see the opportunity has passed. I seek out small groups and personal conversations on specific topics and then I seem to do quite well.

Isn't inability to make eye contact common to all aspies/auties? I have had to force myself to make eye contact, but it doesn't come naturally:
-A real problem growing up. I only really got good at it when I got into the workforce and a good handshake and eye contact were so important. I've come to a realization lately that eye contact is one of the most important things in life. I don't wonder anymore why I could never get a date growing up since actually talking to a girl begins with eye contact across the room.


Dygraphia:
-I constantly get told how bad my writing is. I also use my right hand but hold my pen the way a lefty would. I have people ask me if I'm left handed even as they watch me writing with my right hand.

Crowds:
-Crowds make my skin crawl, I get a sudden panicked feeling like I can't breathe. I always though it was claustrophobia.

Seems to me like all signs point to yes on this one. I'm not sure how I feel about all of this. It's an overwhelming feeling of relief on one hand to think that I really am wired differently from other people. I'm always fighting thinking I'm one step away from overcoming my past and being part of the cool crowd, and I always manage to blow it. If I am just different at least I can accept that and stop beating myself up over it. On the other hand I don't know that I want to have a condition. I feel like I don't want to tell anyone. I want to keep it a secret and keep trying to pretend to be normal. I'd feel like it was all in my head and I'm being ridiculous. People will think I'm making it up or crazy or they'll treat me differently if they think I have some form of autism. That kind of terrifies me.

Well I have a lot of reading and thinking to do, but I want to say thank you to everyone who responded and for all of the information. It means a great deal to me to have found people who will listen and who I might actually have something in common with.

-someguy