Why so many people from US / England here?

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Weren't you Belgian?

I have a theory: the U.S., Australia and England are more discriminatory against aspies and introverts in general than some other cultures may be.

I have seen relatively few Canadians here, for example. There is one of whom I am aware, but he actually seems pretty happy and adjusted to his surroundings, so not sure he even counts.

India is a HUGE English-speaking country while Singapore also speaks English as the national language. None of these are represented simply because many people on this board diagnosed with so-called mild Asperger's may not be far outside the norm in other cultures.

The severe cases of Asperger's are going to be disordered everywhere, but many of the mild cases may be considered disordered for cultural reasons more than anything else.

Well, the canadian character is not exactly a world standard. Canadian stereotype is very kind and polite.

For example, mediterranean countries are socially very aggresive against introverts. If you're shy, you're socially dead. North Europe is far more civilized.

Yeah, so America isn't the worst place to be; there's also some regional variation here. I'm so glad I don't have to live in Spain or Italy.

I'm pretty sure a lot of NT's I knew in China would be diagnosed with mild Asperger's if they were forced to live among the white middle class in Texas. The Americans over there, especially two Hispanics I knew, complained endlessly about everything and became depressed and negative. I didn't tell them that's how I felt having to live in most of America.

There is a point to be made that some diagnoses of mild Asperger's are more due to cultural bias against introverts than to actual pathology.

@Tyri0n - if that was about me, thank you. Turn the clock back 6 months and I made bumble seem like she's in a pretty good mood. For real. I've managed to put that frame of mind & lower level of functioning behind me now, so you don't see it - but I was night & day different, much more Mr. Hyde than my current state of Dr. Jekyll. Well, the nicer Canadian version anyways.

Yeah, I think the Canadian stereotype has something to do with it, too. I think I probably get cut a lot more slack here than I would in other parts of North America where people are less forgiving of social faux pas.

In US there's a general missconception about mediterranean countries. They use to think that Spain or any other mediterranean country is an european version of hispanic societies. It is not.

South-american societies are far warmer and more considerate.

However, asperger is not highly diagnosed in mediterranean countries, even though the aggresivisity of this societies. Or perhaps because of it: acknoledging symptoms of autism is a social shame.

I've never been to any of the Mediterranean countries so I can't speak for them, but I live in northern Europe, and if we are among the most civilised places (concerning being introverted and aspie), I can't even imagine what it's like to be aspie or introvert elsewhere.

Based on your username, I'm assuming you are Norwegian like me? Anyways; I don't think Norway is too bad at this. I keep hearing that we are so introverted, that you get looked on weirdly if you talked to starngers etc.. It's not perfect for introverts, not by any means. But I think a lot of places are far worse.

Yes, I'm Norwegian, and my experience is that I'm very much in the wrong place. I don't feel at home here at all, and I'm completely at odds with everyone. I have no illusions that it would be better elsewhere, but if this is an introvert 'heaven', I'd hate to see the opposite. My traits were a huge red flag for the teachers who forced me to go to a child shrink (basically because my lack of interest in other children was a great cause of concern to them). (Of course going there helped nothing and turned into a nightmare when I wanted out, and they called in barnevernet (child care services) and wanted me sent to a boarding school for children with behavioral issues. Thank heavens my grandfather was good at speaking for me! Child care services should concentrate on children who are abused or neglected at home, not those who have trouble in school. It all caused me a lot of mental issues, including something that behaves close to PTSD.)
I also hear that we supposedly are cold and hard to get to know, but to me it seems that I fit that stereotype while those around me don't.
I don't think it's anything special about people thinking it weird to talk to strangers. We don't have the culture for it in northern and western Europe. I've heard that's different in southern Europe but I don't know if that's a stereotype or true. Besides, in this country it isn't valid if you meet someone in the woods or elsewhere where it's isolated. Go figure.

To those of you living elsewhere, is it considered weird to talk to stranger where you live? (Besides asking directions and special circumstances)

Talking to strangers is not considered weird or odd in the U.S. and it is considered dangerous mostly to talk strangers especially for children. It depends on the circumstances and if I am at a training conference for work and I talk to a person at the conference who happens to be a stranger to me it is not really considered weird. If I talk to a stranger on an airplane it is not weird if the person is sitting next to me on the airplane. If I am walking down the street I will not really want to talk to a stranger passing by me as I will not know the person and I will not consider the person safe to talk to.

Hope this makes sense.

I've wondered why England seems to be so highly represented on this site as well, it seems like at least 50% of people are from there! Probably an overestimate but still, there is a huge population of people from England on this site. And such a small country too! I don't see nearly so many British on other areas of the internets, usually the other European countries are represented about equally with theirs.

Well, the founder, first of all, is American. Second, this is the internet.

There are a lot of English and American people here, though. I will say that.

As of the time I'm posting this, Wrongplanet has close to 75,000 members.

Perhaps more people in England spend longer online than in other countries

The way society is going in the UK, being inside your house online is preferable to being outside these days

that's my excuse anyway