New to AS, looking to talk about it

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I wanted to have an In depth discussion with a few people who have AS, I'd prefer experience on the subject, Such as if you've known you've had it your whole life and you know the ins and outs of your own AS, I'd like to talk to you.
But also people who are unsure about whether you have it or not, or about AS In general (I am unsure myself, though I'm sure I have it) I'd like to share ideas with you too

So, If you want to talk (I'd like to have a real-time discussion, Skype or something) I'd love a PM, I just want to kind of Gather information.

Thanks.

Well it's 4:03 AM by me right now so you're out of luck for live chatting.

My advice which you can ignore or look at:

Go to your nearest government mental health facility,
sign up for a psych evaluation,
while in the psych evaluation don't tell him you think you're an aspie or whatever. Just tell him your history, how you feel around people, what over stimulates you, stuff like that.
Be completely honest about your life and experiences,
get your diagnosis and know, you'll be offered medication in most cases and your evaluator will give you the rundown on your new persona.
I got diagnosed for free because I'm a U.S. Citizen and I'm poor as hell because I can't get passed the damn interview part of any job interview!

Everything else you can learn online or from us! Until then, I wish you luck!

Things you might want to know about Aspies:

- Eye contact causes feelings of fight or flight and forced eye contact is very uncomfortable (causes adrenaline for me, I get all shakey)
- There are many types of Aspies, when you've met 1 of us you've met 1 OF US! Don't generalize us, we only have a few shared traits really..
- We tend to have a narrow special interest, mine for example is computer programming! Not to say that can't branch of into related fields though!

- Might have a hard time controlling facial expressions and recognizing them in others
- Possibility of visual apathy (Looking like you don't give a s**t when someone gets shot, lol jk)
- Lack of facial expressions
- Hard time keeping and maintaining friendships and other interpersonal relations.
- Tend to get along with animals better then people!
- Could have high IQ, could have low IQ yet still be very eccentric and bright! IQ really doesn't count for us.. ( I believe it's full of s**t anyway :p)
- Famous people believed of having Aspergers syndrom post mortem! Einstein and USA's founding fathers! (Only ones I remember, sorry)
- Eccentric vocabulary or use of large words noone else cares about because they would rather talk in acronyms like "YOLO!"
- Might describe things in big visual detailed ways that other people don't care for.
- Tend to be sensitive to sensory things, taste, touch, smell, etc.
- OCD-like qualities, attention to small details and appreciation of patterns
- Extra cranky for reasons unknown to people who care about you and don't understand you.
- Usually comes with a side dish of anxiety or depression or both, possibly even more stuff (lucky you right?)
- Eh.. deficiancy in Seratonin or something like that.. makes it harder to sleep and remain happy, quicker to depression.
- Lack of understanding humor, sarcasim, etc.
- Very naive
- Overly black and white views
- Earnest faced

These have all been off the top of my head, You could literally find everything you want to know within like.. 5 minutes on google..

Too lazy? Click here!

I usually don't even bother to talk to self diagnosers but who knows, maybe you're not just a teenager with self esteem issues and a bit of depression with social anxiety sprinkled on top

Last edited by Tsproggy on 24 Apr 2013, 6:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

Tell us a little about yourself and your traits. I notice you are undiagnosed and anymore it is hard to convince me that some people even have AS. If you like you are more than welcome to send me a PM and just maybe I will go into more detail once you tell me a little about yourself.

I've had Aspergers all my life which is on the severe side. I have been professionally diagnosed twice but the first dope I went to seen it as a mental disorder. Another thing that helped me is taking Aspie test which indicates I'm on the severe side. But I won't go into every detail of my Aspergers on this thread, since some of it is extreme enough that it makes most Aspies seem like NTs.

Look out, we have a badass over here!

You got that right and I may even make you look like an NT.

I'm really struggling with the lack of public understanding of Aspergers so I would be really happy to discuss Aspergers with you.

I might give you a run for your money or at least break even

I might give you a run for your money or at least break even

I see you are an older Aspie like I am. If you would like to PM me and tell me how you can give me a run for my money or at least break even, I will give you the address of my You Tube video that goes into a lot of detail about my Aspergers. Fair enough?

You can PM me if you want. I was diagnosed at age 7 and was sent to this school: http://www.theoakhillschool.org/

I concur with Tsproggy about getting yourself tested and to go about it the way he suggested.

One can either read about Asperger's, take online tests and talk to people here and self diagnose ... Or you can go get legitimately tested and find out for sure.

It all depends on how important it is to you to find out for sure.

The example I give is, if you think maybe you have some medical condition, like say diabetes, you can spend a lot of time researching it on the internet and guess about whether you have it or not... or you can get tested for it and find out for sure.

I've done Lots and Lots of reading, and I relate to almost all the criteria i've seen so far, which is rather alot. (E.G I'm absolutely terrified of heat, Obsession with informing and being honest, lack of facial expression and monotone voice, hard to maintain friendships, Lack of empathy (But not entirely, as I'm sure you all understand), I have Anxiety issues, the list goes on)

With that in mind, I'll note a few differences of note:
-I had the apparent Typical Aspergers childhood, I had a 6 month period of being mute/Ignoring the existence of others. though only recently has it been investigated properly.
-While I've never understood most of the social exchanges that happen in real life, and while I avoid them when I can, I feel I've adapted to them fairly well, Though everything is still a Calculation. Someone says this I say that for That effect, It doesn't come natural but it's become a habit that when I'm conversing with someone I obsess with being as NT as possible. If I'm forced to talk I'll maintain eye contact as much as I can (Not much) maintain a Calm presence and try and be Competent at talking as much as I can, but it's extremely draining. If I have to have a half hour talk with my teacher I'll usually shut down for the rest of the day.
- When I'm not being forced to talk, Like if I'm at dinner with my family, I'll pay a Varying level of attention to what's being said. My mother seems to like to get me to agree with her, turning to me and asking "Don't you think" About nearly anything, I always agree because I don't care either way and if I disagree I'll have to come up with something. Or I might drift off entirely.
-Stuff like Sarcasm and Humor, I can kind of figure out when it's being said, and I'll laugh for other people's sake even when I don't understand, or think it's plain Stupid. I kind of have an understanding of social interactions that's Superficial, Like you might learn the rediculous glitches in a game and how to exploit them?
I've learned some of what causes what, such as Sarcasm and forms of humour, can figure out when to laugh and when not to.
As the specialist I've seen put it, I've "Learned to play the life game", I feel this is due to my Obsession with Honour, I want to be as Normal and socially Competent as possible, so I've been learning how to work the social game for a while, and to be honest I feel like I'm lying most of the time.
I don't care about or understand 90% of what people are saying to me.
-I had to stop college due to Anxiety Issues.


And btw, I'm currently working with a Asperger's/Autism specialist (Whom has Aspergers himself and despite my best efforts, picked up on my "Aspie" Traits during our conversations) To be diagnosed officially,
I thought I was good at hiding it, but Apparently not

I feel liek I should be telling this stuff in person, so I'll stop here.
I'm going to wait until a few more people respond, I have to go out the most of the rest of today anyway, Tomorrow I'll go through and send a few PMs to you
Thanks for the feedback though

Basically what I'm saying is, While I still have the Trademark problems with Social situations, I've spent most of my life thinking of ways/learning how to get over it.
I'm not sure how to deal with that, because until a few weeks ago I thought I Was the only one.

You're of the generation where Aspie signs are easier to pick out, but lost in the massive amount of noise out there on various social media platforms.

You're not the only one.

A few months ago, I realized I must be aspie after years of confusion, frustration, anger, anxiety, and stress. When I read posts on here, I can almost always relate and have often experienced something similar. When you explained social exchanges as being calculated for a certain reaction and not feeling natural...I wanted to yell YES! That's how it is for me!

Whenever I have to attend a social event I get extremely anxious and have to preplan what is appropriate to say and how I'm going to manage being cooped up with a bunch of people for said amount of time. Afterwards I have to stop myself from analyzing different conversations, because I often can't figure out what I said or did wrong and I have to just forget about it.

How could a 51 year old american have been diagnosed with aspergers at age seven? Nobody in the US couldve received that label as a diagnosis before 1994. That doesnt make sense.

A family friend of mine who is around the same age was diagnosed young but not as Aspergers. He didn't tell me what they did diagnose him as but his parents freaked out and he went to alot of electro-shock therapy to basically make him think he wasn't an aspie. They didn't have to have a definitive name for it to diagnose you, he could've just been labeled autistic.