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Kaleido
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09 Sep 2008, 3:12 am

I love being alone because I always have a list of interesting things I want to do and I hate being interrupted when I am concentrating.

I also like people, well most people anyway, and quite like being with them as long as its not for too long or I start withdrawing. Its a bit like chocolate, absolutely delicious in small amounts, but too much makes you sick.

I have been trying to make myself go out more - very stressful and exhausting but no doubt its good for my mental health so I will try to keep it up.



tomamil
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09 Sep 2008, 3:24 am

i am content being alone, at the moment. i just know it's not going to be like this for the rest of my life. i know that i am going to have a family of my own. just not now.


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09 Sep 2008, 4:27 am

I love being alone. Although, if I didn't have the internet, I think I would get tired of it eventually.



Who_Am_I
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09 Sep 2008, 7:00 am

I'm more than contented with being alone; I'm delighted with it.


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Fidget
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09 Sep 2008, 8:04 am

Even though, I'm not exactly alone anymore, I'm still much more alone than most people I suppose. Yes, I'm okay when I'm alone now, if you would've asked me four years ago though, I would've responded different.



Age1600
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09 Sep 2008, 8:12 am

yea i rather be alone, love being in my own world, i couldnt ever handle being a social bug, i can barely handle having one friend in real life hahah.


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alba
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09 Sep 2008, 10:39 am

Alone time is a luxury. I crave being alone about 95% of the time. In my mind's eye I've got a 50 page list of things to do which I've been compiling since near infancy. It's a list of crossed off things (which I'm proud to have accomplished) as well as things I hope to accomplish. Nothing motivates me more than planning the next thing to do on my list. I view life mostly as opportunity and possibility. Even though I don't fit into society seamlessly, and others may see that as a drawback, for me it's just who I am. No need to pity me. I'm between 1/2 and 2/3 as well adjusted as an NT and fortunately I can learn what I want from them and ignore all the crud that isn't me. People will call me aloof and eccentric, and the few friends I've had admire that about me.

I like to nurture and be nurtured, but that has rarely worked out for me...i.e., relationships fail so I've focused on taking care of myself as well as I can. It is when I self-nurture and see that my basic needs are met that I am happiest with my life and more relaxed in my social encounters. Even so I have to work hard to overcome a natural and mutual toxicity with most people, an inborn tendency to both irritate and be irritated.

The thing that's happened as I matured was that I got to know myself better and got better at setting attainable goals. My long to-do list aren't really goals, but it's hard to define why they aren't. When NTs speak of goals they usually have an element to them that involves something like being a better person, like New Year's resolutions, losing weight, or something to do with making more money, getting married, having kids, etc. My list isn't like that. It's just a whole lot of things I'm extremely interested in. The fact that I know what I want makes me feel very fortunate.

When I was a child I wanted desperately to be accepted for who I was, and if that couldn't happen, then I tried to change so I would be more acceptable. In my youth I was terrified to be alone but I grew out of it. At 21, I was no longer afraid of being alone but wasn't craving it either, not yet. The older I got the more I wanted to just give up completely trying to get along with people.

After a lifetime of social failure, I've decided to set the bar very low for myself. At this point I have the very realistic and pragmatic goal of trying not to alienate my acquaintances. These are people like neighbors, store clerks, bank tellers, plumbers, car mechanics, etc. By going the extra mile to Not Alienate these people who indeed enable my life to function, it ensures that they won't have a truly bad experience with me. It's very hard for me to do this but so far I've found not only that I can do it, but that I've almost acquired a skill for small talk. Imagine that! It's taken years of dedication and patience but it's paid off quite nicely.

All my life I've hated small talk and had no talent for it whatsoever. So now that I'm almost as good as an NT at it (even though I still hate it, being better at it makes my life a whole lot easier), I'm not nearly so uncomfortable in social settings. And while in the beginning it was a huge deal, now it doesn't seem like that much of a sacrifice to make for 'normalcy'. haha.

I've set the bar quite low for myself and pleased with the results. You'd be surprised what can be accomplished if you're patient and content with small increments of improvement over an extended time period.



Sublyme
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09 Sep 2008, 11:31 am

I'm totally content being alone...I actually prefer it to being around other people. I have never know what being lonely felt like, and I don't think I ever will. As a child I was never bothered by the fact I didn't have friends. As an adult I have made a few friends over my almost 27 years of existance, but two of my three friends live in other states, and the other I see only once every few months. I do have a fiance, so I guess he'd be my fourth and best friend, but I do not live with him. I do see him probably five days a week, and I enjoy his company, but I even when I'm with him I need some alone time, which he does give me, as he also likes being alone (he's a loner too).



WillMcC
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09 Sep 2008, 11:47 am

Sometimes I'm content being by myself, but there are times when I crave social interaction and can't get it, in which case I feel lonely.



aintnowreck
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09 Sep 2008, 11:52 am

I LOVE being alone but always end up yearning it.

I hate social gatherings, I hate chit-chat, I hate people telling me their problems and I hate people showing off.

I have a family, it is hard being alone but I wouldn't spend time away from my kid for too long either.

I'm on the phone and email all day so I am quite content when my day of work is over and can just put my MP3 player on, hit the streets and be in my own world.


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x_amount_of_words
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09 Sep 2008, 11:56 am

I'm usually content being alone but sometimes it can be lonely. I have one friend offline but she is busy a lot so I usually just post on WP if I want social interaction. Being alone does give me more time to play video games. I sometimes don't leave the house for that reason.


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Tim_Tex
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09 Sep 2008, 1:19 pm

No.


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jul
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09 Sep 2008, 1:42 pm

I love being alone. I need to focus and get stuff I want to do done and I have a hard time doing that if I have to plan to go somewhere. It ruins my whole day -- Anything social exhausts me totally. And then I'm left with that awful feeling that I am, yet again, not at all like anyone I know. I usedto really think social stuff would work if I kept trying, but now I think I understand it has nothing to do with my trying. I'm not associating on some level that other people can immediately sense. that level, whatever it is, is not there for me. I do have a couple friends, neither one of whom is close by. Neither is my family because they stress me out -- they are all very NT, except for my mom. She is WWII generation and I suspect was probably AS without, of course, any diagnosis, because her generation wouldn't have known. I only just found out about it, and after reading about it, felt a connection with those who were diagnosed. But that was the first time in my life I've had a connection like that, the rest of the time, I was trying to hard for connections that were not there, like as in bad relationships and so on. I try to limit doing social things. For one, it's hard for me to get out of the house. I get really uptight and anxious and I can't go anywhere. I never wanted to get up to go to school as a kid, and I never want to go to work. I'll just delay leaving my house as long as possible, even when it means losing money at work. I just want to stay alone, wish I had a job I could do at home. That struggle to connect enough to get through my day at work is sometimes enough to get me through. But sometimes, no, I get upset, can't explain things really well, and that everything implodes from there. Last week when that happened, they told me to take a couple days off. They're right though, because a lot of times I can't deal. When I'm alone i'm fine, happy. I'm also okay dealing with the friends I have who I know really well. But other than that, I get really stuck.



CMaximus
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09 Sep 2008, 2:42 pm

I could technically make a strong case either way for whether I'm content being alone, but if I were to answer in an off-hand way, I'm not sure what I want, really.



Greentea
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09 Sep 2008, 2:48 pm

Being totally alone in the world is a very painful experience. Spending time alone and knowing you have people if you want / need them is a completely different experience.


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lionesss
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09 Sep 2008, 2:50 pm

I have my family and some close friends and thats fine with me. I prefer "alone time" but the idea of being truly alone with no one around is scary. But as far as big social groups are concerned, unless its a club made up of others that have something huge in common with me, I have no use for those.


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