Why am I so well adjusted?

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I could be completely arrogant here... But in talking to alot of the people here, I can't help be feel that I'm not like you...

I don't suffer from meltdowns, or overloads, I rarely stim, I rarely space out, I'm don't completely freeze up in social situations. I can adapt to almost anything that comes my way with minimal fuss...

WHY!?

I was prescribed medication for ADD, but never anything for AS or ASD. I don't really have much of a use for my psychiatrist...

Why am I not like you?

Or have I completely lost the plot here?

GA

I personally think it is clear from your post that you aren't like me. However, this does not mean that there are not other people with an AS diagnosis like you.

Only you, or your doctor can accurately answer these questions. I personally can't answer your questions as my effort to do so would simply return the results of me asking you why you are that way and I am not. My first thought is simply that myself and some others here may simply be more severly affected by AS than you are, which, IMNSHO, you should be thankful for.

Perhaps you should present your question to your doctor, that may give you a minimal use for him, or her.

Everything you said could also be said about me, including the medication thing, so it's not like you're the only one. From reading posts, I seem pretty smooth in social interaction or unexpected situations compared to most people here, and I'm practically unaffected by the sensory stuff. I just have horrendous difficulties in other areas, like a lack of empathy. AS can be hugely different among people.

I do not suffer a lot of negative symptoms either, which is why I have not sought a diagnosis. What brought me here was my complete inability to understand the point of small talk.

I never had much interest in the things people usually talk about, so I would end up talking religion or philosophy, and people in general find this incredibly boring

I made a sincere effort for a while, just to try to have "normal" conversations, but banter is incomprehensible to me. So thats when I heard of AS, and then all the little things fell into place. Like how I watch TV with the captions on, and all the times when I had this vague feeling that I was "missing something" when in a group of people.

I did have meltdowns when I was a kid, just from frustration in dealing with my family, but at school I always played it pretty cool.
I have found that living alone is ideal for me. I just need that haven.
Anytime I am around people for too long (like all day every day), I feel very suffocated.

You have to remember that AS is part of the autism spectrum. Some people are more severely affected by it than others. Because of the nature of autism itself, some of the more severaly affected people may not even view some of the less severely affected ones as being autistic at all. It is understandable that you do not understand certain things about more severely affected people, such as myself, just as I am not able to understand how things that are impossible for me are so easy for others that have been DX'd with the same "condition." Without experiencing it it is impossible to understand (even difficult to understand if you do experience it), because one thing that is common among Aspies is that empathy simply doesn't exist. My doctor has told me to not even try to understand certain things, simply because I can't.

Perhaps Neuroman would like to contribute something here...

Same here, but it could be something to do with the fact that since my mum found out I'm autistic she decided not to tell me and to act like nothings wrong, so I only found out by fluke, but I still got the help I needed.

I experience empathy..in strange circumstances. I just can't express it. A lot of the time I feel like laughing instead. I have to go away in these situations to have a laugh to myself.
I experience the empathy for worldwide events rather than for those that are close to me.

I seem to be quite high-functioning for someone with AS as well, but as I remember I was a lot worse as a kid. I did not "outgrow" it, but I do believe I've matured and integrated considerably. This doesn't mean I don't have it, just that I seem to be able to cope with a lot of things better than many people with AS (like social situations).

Some of the oddest things can affect me emotionally. Not too long ago I was listening to an ABBA CD (Greatest Hits) and I could not stop playing one song over and over. For hours I played this song continuously and cried very hard the entire time. I do get sad over certain events, but I don't think that is what is meant by empathy. From what I understand, empathy is the ability to know what someone else is feeling, or thinking without them having to tell you. They call it mind reading, or "walking in someone else's shoes." I do not believe that empathy really exists.

I don't seem to have as much difficulty with (planned) social situations as some people here, but then in some areas I have a lot of difficulties - my worst being my complete inflexibility and total inability to deal with any change in routine whatsoever without a lot of notice and time to adjust.

Even if given notice, my first reaction is often anger and upset. People who know me well know to give me notice that my routine is to be disrupted and then to rapidly find the nearest exit while I stomp and yell and hit my head and pace up and down in a highly emotional state trying to make sense of the situation and reformulate a new set of plans to accommodate it. I cannot control my emotional responses in this situation (such that I am beginning to wonder if medication to calm me down is an option, I upset a lot of people and I upset myself ) When I have calmed down, which could be hours later, I may still become agitated if the change of plan comes up in conversation. After a few days I will likely have accommodated the change and be ok about it.

I think in this respect I am very bad, I have little if no control over my responses when I am in that state.

Whereas in planned social situations, with people I know, taking place on my terms, I think I may feel more comfortable than many of the other people here.

We're all different.

Change is bad, very bad.

Feather,

You just described my reaction to change, except I can get more agressive than just pacing (I have a foam covered plastic baseball bat that I use to beat the couch if I think about it before I actually smash something).

I was taking medication and it did help calm me down a little bit, but when I stopped my companion started saying the my emotional reactions were getting worse. The medicine did make me lose some focus and made me less sensitive to sounds, which is why I stopped. I am highly sensitive to sounds and this is a good thing when mixing music, except now my computer seems a lot louder than before.

The closest thing I encounter to scoail situations is sometimes going to my mom's on a holiday, where my brother and his wife will be there. I am OK with that, but if anyone else shows up that I was not expecting then that is bad.

My doctor tells me that this is at the core of autism and goes back to that connection thing we have been discussing on another thread. With me, it doesn't matter what other people want as long as I know what I want, or don't want. I can get very upset when at my mom's if we sit down to watch TV and I suggest that we watch one thing and my step dad puts it on something else. Some people refuse to do things on our terms. It isn't as simple as me just getting my way, as some people have accused me of. It is a matter of my needs, what I am prepared for, looking forward to, or comfortable with. My inability to regulate my emotional reactions takes over when it seems that someone refuses to do what I am focused on doing. I can't really explain it. My mom says the tantrums I threw as a child were because I couldn't get my way. How unastute of her! If I am prepared for something, focused on something, excited about something, or expecting something and then someone denies, or prevents me from having/doing it, I just shut down and at that point any number of reactions occur.

Good for you. I am now going to pretend I am making a banana sandwich.

MMMM... Peanut butter and banana sandwiches... The thought of it just makes me want to drool, but that would be gross, so I won't.

Drool! Drool! And then have a banana sandwich.

We're getting off topic here.

GA, you're probably just well-adapted to the NT world, even though you're an aspie. Over the years, I've become much better adapted, too, probably without even realizing it. I'm a lot like you, only I occasionally overload. But by the time I totally lose it, I'm usually by myself and it doesn't matter anymore. A lot of the social things I've learned by imitation and acting, even if it seems superficial at first.