Talk about yourself for a bit

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ILA
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02 Jun 2007, 9:17 pm

My full name is Jeffrey Thomas Niemann. My brother tends to call me Jeff while my parents usually opt for "Jep". At stages throughout my life I'm sure I've hated being referred to as that, although at the moment I feel accustomed to it. Thomas was the name of my grandfather. In the late eighteenth century the Niemann family immigrated from Bremen to Adelaide [the capital city of South Australia], shortly afterwards they took part in the gold mining boom. This was while they lived in Bendigo, which is a city located in rural Victoria, north of Melbourne. Bendigo is a significant location for my family; my mother was born there and as a child I'd vacation there every Easter, although it's been some time since the last time, due to being socially isolated almost right off the bat since hitting my teen years [I'm 21]. I feel more relaxed to venture outside of my usual boundaries so hopefully I can say differently in the near future, eh. Bendigo is a fine city and a place I can easily reminisce for, perhaps especially due to the Easter parade; Chinese dragons, firecrackers and all that. Also while driving up there we'd stop off in a tiny little town called Gisbourne, a shop would sell chips with the most delicious gravy imaginable! After acquiring these we'd walk a short distance northwards to a park where we'd sit down at a bench and relax amid the tranquil scenery. Here I go again.

I was born in the Frankston hospital. Frankston is a Melbournian suburb, south of the city in the bayside region. My actual place of residence was about a 10 - 15 minute drive north of Frankston, an even smaller suburb called Chelsea. Our first house was quite large with immensely tall ceilings. The backyard was huge as well. One problem we encountered was occasional examples of rodent infestation, especially mice. Incidentally I hold an intense revulsion of rats, wild anyway; domesticated I can't say I like but I don't mind them so much.

The preschool/kinder I attended was called Swanpool. I walk by it at times, at least from the exterior it hasn't changed a great deal. My memories of my time there is finger painting and playing in the sand with other children. I seem to recall my teacher tucking sums of money under her clothing, too.

After that came Edithvale primary. I never quite hit it off, occasionally clinging to fellow classmates but never part of a group. Also the most stand-out memories tended to be negative experiences with teachers, especially being pushed off a chair after failing to properly follow an instruction from a teacher, and that happened with another but in this case he invented this stupid little rhyme to poke fun at me.

My old school reports are still laying around our present house. Over time I improved across a variety of subjects but one constant was poor self-esteem.

At this school I met a kid called Adrian Dunbar. I considered him to be my best friend as he stuck close to me and gave me a constant feeling of companionship which was truly exceptional. However in retrospect I see that he took advantage of my submissiveness, and this relationship ended on a bad note as, during high school, he noticed that I was seen in a poor light and he distanced himself from me so as to escape being caught in the same frame as I.

Moving back in time. After completing grade four my mother decided to transfer me to Chelsea primary as I wouldn't have to travel as far as I had. I hold a positive image of my two years here, more positive than at Edithvale. I recall being part of a group!! It's one of the biggest regrets of my life that I didn't opt for Patterson River high - we went for Mordialloc as this is in closer visinity than the former, however the majority of my Chelsea classmates went to Patterson.

Shortly into my high school experience, I dropped out after encountering bullying of the psychological kind. I'm very brittle mentally and it didn't take much for me to seek an escape. In the ensuing years, so came my social isolation. I've already written about some of my experiences during this time, so I will leave this section briefer than others.

My interests, my hobbies. Let's see. Since childhood I've enjoyed conceiving complicated letter designs. An online contact suggested I seek a professional career of this, perhaps a cover illustrator for a publisher?

Film, especially Asian cinema. For a while the majority of film I'd seen came from Hollywood, however in recent years I've branched out significantly, exposing myself to the work of outstanding directors the world over.

Anime [Japanese animation]. It's sad, but as what happens to some, I became obsessed with anime and created a false image of Japanese life, a life being one of sparring with your brother in the family dojo, afterwards sipping sake while cherry blossoms slowly glide in the distance. Well, I'm relieved to say that I'm no longer so ignorant as this and realize the problems inherent in Japanese society. Still I'm keen on travelling there someday, a variety of entertainments from this country have sunk their hooks into me, for instance literature [well, Murakami pretty much], cuisine [lately I seem to be living off sushi and miso soup], the women [of course, beauty exists all over the world but physically I can't go past Japanese women], music, film, so on.

The other country I'm most keen on travelling to is Iceland. Landscape-wise, no other country possesses as astonishing scenery as this tiny nation. Truly some areas come from another planet [speaking of other planets, astronomy is an occasional interest, I keep telling myself to acquire a telescope but I never seem to get around to it]. Aside from the landscape, Iceland fascinates me, a country which punches above its weight, considering its tiny population. The nobel prize winner Halldor Laxness is one of the most elegant writers I've come across. Also the music scene - Sigur Ros are my favourite artists.

It's quite a long piece, I hope it proved engaging for those who took the time to read through it.



Kenneth1908
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05 Jun 2007, 5:02 am

Hello my name is Kenneth and I live in Westchester, New York. I am 23 and currently out of college, not having earned a degree and not offically dropped out. I currently live at home and work part-time at my local library. I would like to get a better paying job (or at least something not in the civil service) but I doubt anyone would want to hire me. I am about 99.9% sure I have aspergers as well as clinical depression and/or bipolar disorder, but I have trouble getting a straight answer from my doctors.

School for me was a mixture of good and bad. I could do well on tests but left to my own devices I would ignore homework, thus causing bad grades. I had a few friends in elementry school but mostly was ignored. In the 5th grade I attempeted suicide and was put in a childrens psychiactric hospital for two weeks. After fifth grade I was put in a BOCES program, which resluted in me spending my junior high years in a different school each year. While I did make friends in each school, I would have to start from scratch each year. When I went to high school back in my home district and was able to meet up with my friends from elementry school. Once I left high school my social life collapsed, as my old friends moved on and I wasn't able to make any friends in college. Looking back, I think the only reason I was able to make those friends was that I would be around the same people for the whole day. Don't get me wrong, my friends in high school were all very nice to me and still are, but I was always the "odd man out".



willow
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06 Jun 2007, 8:44 am

wow. I just read all six pages...there are some really interesting folks around these parts!

I'm willow...I'm 34..recently diagnosed aspie with two spectrum sons...one with aspergers and one with autism. I home school them and we rock.

I don't really like letting people into my space...I like puzzles, cross stitch, basketball, video games, gardening.....I'm wiccan...I like picking scabs....I SI but haven't in some time..though arguably the scab picking could count..in which case I'm doing it right now. I like taking pictures....I like shiny things and smooth things.

I like piercings and ink...I have around 14 tats and 4 piercings. I would have more..but my mother is really old fashioned and freaks out. she asked me not to pierce anything else until after she is dead. <shrug> whatever.

I'm pretty sarcastic...I say exactly what I think...people tend not to like that. I don't really care.

I have three people in my life I really couldn't do without...two BFFs, one of each sex...and my boyfriend. I'm pretty sure my male BFF is on the spectrum. I think he is on my side about it. he and I are twins or something equally creepy and scary. my female BFF isn't. they both completely rock my socks.

my boyfriend is an NT. we're very comfortable with each other..I think we knew each other in past lives.

I'm a veggie...I cook meat for my kids. coffee is key to life. I am obsessed with my bookshelves...arranging the books and such...I use a ruler to make sure they are all even with their spines. I like odd numbers. I am a guild master in WoW....if the member count hits an even number, I /gkick someone to fix it.

I am a grammar nazi...I don't like capitalization....except for "I" and things that look weird in lower case (like BFF)...

the words I most frequently typo...."form" instead of "from"...."woudl" instead of "would"...I hate making typos, though.

(I love using ....... as you can see.)



I'm out of coffee...


<wanders off>


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Venevus
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25 Jul 2007, 5:10 pm

My nickname comes from a dream i had when i was 9 about another planet...
Can't give out my real name (too paranoid)

i'm 170lbs, 5'7.5" tall, 23 years of age, white, long brown hair, hazel eyes, thick eyebrows, and i like to dress in all black (i just feel more comfortable like that). I'm attracted to women, though possibly asexual (ironically).

I'm currently in school working towards my Bachelors degree, but i prefer work, because school hasn't paid off yet and I'm growing impatient. I live in a 1 bedroom apartment that's almost too nice, yet I've still managed to fill it with my things.

I like computers, drawing(my first obsession), making stories (i have a long, untold story in my head that I've created over the years), Architecture, nature shows, cats, medicine, cooking, and video games
Some strange likes of mine (as in things i just like the look of) are teapots, bottles, boxes, cooking stuff, tarot cards, treasure chests, eggs, circles in general, etc...

I like learning how to "hack", but I really want to be a Computer security consultant, or be in computer forensics. Before that I wanted to specialize in Historical Architecture. Before that I wanted to be a great artist. I've also played with the idea of being a video game maker as well. I also have a little fantasy of being that doctor in the room when someone's hurt and no one else knows what to do. Or maybe the only doctor in a small town after the apocalypse and the fall of civilization (silly, i know).

I long to have more friends, and close friends, but every time I get to know a new person they're not the one I'm looking for. Usually they're the same as a person I've known before them. The two most common people i end up wasting my time meeting are the brain dead party goers who's whole world is sex, and the campus evangelist. I would like to meet people who can be laid back, but not overwhelming. I also like being needed and useful (almost to a fault).

Growing up:
I didn't talk until I entered Kindergarten (age 4). My family consisted of my Mother, Father, Brother (3 years older than I), and Cat (his name was Sasquatch, the best cat ever). I lived in Flint (where me and my brother were tormented at school because we are white)until age 7, when the family moved to a town called Flushing (yes, seriously). I had a few friends there that never seemed to last more than a year. When my Parents got a divorce (i was 8 ) I recall not having any friends and doing sh***y in school to the point of having to attend summer school. My mom was always crying and the sibling rivalry between me and my Brother escalated to what I consider abuse. He would physically and emotionally torture me every day. I recall being chased into my room almost every day with him yelling at me and trying to hurt me. In the pool he would try to drown me. I remember an occasion where he sat on my chest and I couldn't even breath or tell him to get off. My mom never did anything to stop this. She would take my side, but never took steps to help him not do those things. She was pretty self centered, and to this day is still highly defensive (if you say "the drain is clogged!" she'll respond "I didn't clog it why are you accusing me?!"). In Jr high and High school i was an outcast, yet there I made my first real friend. I graduated on time as a C student and went on to a local community college where I received my 2 year degree in 3 years time.

I go back and forth about having Asperger's while I await the evaluation for diagnosis (should be this month), but I'm also looking at Social Phobia or PTSD. I'm sick of Psychiatrists and pills however. What I need now is a strong person to be a good friend. Psychs can't do that for me, and I'm suspicious of their sincerity.

Other psychs have diagnosed me as depressed (age 14), bipolar-nos (age 21), and schizoid-avoident-ocd (age 23). I've been prescribed prozac, zoloft, paxil, lexapro, lamictal, zyrprexa, and concerta. All of them were overpaid flakes and I wish I could get my money back, as well as my personal secrets.

I feel like I get social communication, but most people are a disappointment. I feel like OTHERS don't respect or understand my personal space (perhaps I'm tactile defensive?). I've tried dating (never really been in a relationship) but I would be too nervous to keep it up, feeling a "dead" feeling in my gut, and feeling like the pressure's on to perform the act physically (the rituals people do, such as holding hands, kissing, french kissing, having sex way too soon for my comfort). I still want to be with someone some day though.

I'm afraid of public humiliation like i suffered too much in school. Still I feel like people showed their true selves in school (monsters) and now they put on a mask (fake nice). I don't know how people see me because no one ever tells me. What I think how people see me is that I may be a bit awkward in my movement (sometimes I feel like I'm too tall or something), my voice may be a bit deep and monotone, that I'm just a quiet weird person who keeps to herself, or maybe I look a bit washed up (bags under my eyes from too much computer time).

I posted all this, without having read each one of yours (I feel it's rude of me), but I just felt like talking about myself, since I've been pretty lonely living by myself since January with no one to talk to.



Last edited by Venevus on 26 Jul 2007, 1:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

JerryHatake
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25 Jul 2007, 9:04 pm

I am 19 years old.

I have High Functioning Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome (AS) and ADHD.

I am a Special Olympics Athlete, Retired NJROTC Cadet and Former Mustering Petty Officer and Commander of the Academic Team of OPNJROTC.

I am confused about a whole lot of things, mostly social stuff and misunderstandings of some things.

I am very active listener when people talked to me about things and give sometimes positive and negative feedback.

I am sometimes misunderstood by other people because for what I do.

I am a kind hearted and nice person in different ways of explaining myself some times.

I am in Gryffindor in HP terms.


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space_cookie
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03 Aug 2007, 5:09 pm

Hi my name is Abbi (or space_cookie if you like), I'm 20yrs old and I have known about my aspergers all most all my life. I live in a place called Snienton in Nottingham (hoping to move outta this craphole soon though!) with my partner, our little black and white cat called Smudge and my 2 month old daughter Torrie, who is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen. I like typing really fast on the keyboard or writing things down in general, animals, drawing, customizing clothes and watching interesting documentaries and random trash telly. I sometimes don't catch what a person is saying to me or understand it properly and I sometimes have a hard time explaining myself or how I feel without coming across as selfish or self-obsessed to other people. I am modest and have a warped sense of humour and I like dirty jokes, my dream is to become a comedianne but I wouldn't know where to start! :)



FirstandEllen
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03 Aug 2007, 7:15 pm

Hi! I'm Mary. I live in Boston.

I got a 44 on the Baron/Cohen Autism quotient, 66 on the Systematization quotient, and 15 on the Empathy quotient.

I'm undiagnosed and recently realized I have AS. I'm lucky because I have a spiritual advisor (Buddhist) who is also a psychiatrist. She pretty much agrees I have it, but doesn't think it would be helpful to get a diganosis, but better to just work on what I want to work on about myself. I see it as they key to understanding many of the problems I've had my whole life. So much makes sense now, and it's much better to have a rational explanation than wonder "What is wrong with me??" I feel like a lot of the times people gave me a hard time about stuff, it was as if they were saying to a blind person "Why didn't you see that??"

But yeah, most of the bullets points are me- social interactions are difficult, hard time making and keeping friends, no age-appropriate friends (my friends even now are all in the 23-25 range, I have nothing to say to most people my age), phsyically clumsy/uncoordinated (Something About Mary!!), learned to read by myself at 4 years old, notice odd noises and changes before everyone else, can't not pay attention to music, etc., see everything I can in systems and patterns, can't read people or can't read them without thinking about it afterwards, hate eye contact, hard time with office politics, etc etc. Not good at math though, I think I'm alittle dyslexic too. I'm good at writing but I have a hard time with longer papers where I skip steps and even professors get lost, and I think my brain just goes too fast. I think having AS has made me shy and afraid to speak up for a number of reasons, but I'm working on that. I think I have adapted a lot already. I am curious about what else I might try to adapt to and decide it's not worth it.

For work I am a business writer, for about 8 years now. Knowing about AS has me rethinking that though- you can't write in busniess with dealing with a lot of people and egos, and I've never been good at that. It's regular office politics x10 and I'll never be as good at it as I am doing independent work, and some people around me have actually been really damaging to my reputation because they have agendas and they don't understand me, and end up making me look bad. Luckily my actual boss appreciates me and sees through that stuff, but in the long run, this just isn't going to be the best for me. I want to get a phD in Aesthetics/English Lit.

I love dogs (see pets thread) and food. I'm vegan but never obnoxious about it. I love punk, especially hardcore, and I still go to shows and have tons of friends in bands. I used to dress punk but I'm into being more subversive/low key about it now so I'm pretty girly. I also love the beach and going to the gym. I read all the time, but that's a given. I was raised on Tolkein and I'll read about any subject or type of literature but the writing has to be solid. Academically I am interested in Modernism, WW 1, and aesthetics, which is the middle philosophical ground, more or less, between all types of art- literature and the visual arts seem to be the easiest to talk about for me. I just found I couldn't write a lit paper without talking about art, too.

Phew!



AiMaiMii
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04 Aug 2007, 6:06 am

Hi. I don't like disclosing my real name, so you can refer me as my user name.

I have been professionaly diagnosed by someone who specializes in adults with Aspergers in late May 2007. I am a 23 year old male at FSU. I am in my forth year of studying (not yet a senior). Having the diagnoses has helped me understand myself a lot. I have few close friends, and a few friends at the university that are in my Japanese language classes, and I am satasfied with that. The main reason I got the diagnoses was from a recomendation of a counselor who thought I had Aspergers, and refered me to a professional who could do so!

For the most part, I am satasfied with my life. I don't need a lot of friends to be happy. I prefer to spend time with my hobbies over people, and I learned thats okay. The main problem I am faced with is that I long for a romatic relationship, and my social circle does not consist of many (actualy none) women to interact with. And I have a hard time understanding body language, recognizing new faces, and still trying to figure out how to have empathy (at least appear so).

I don't care for my major much. I only took it because it allowed me the chance to learn Japanese, one of my interests. I am dreading history courses since I can never understand what the professors want us to remember for tests, so I normaly fail those type of classes. This my diagnoses, I hope that a note taker will help ease this problem. I'm good at learning Japanese, dealing with computers, but thats about it.

Sorry if it was kind of long. Anyways, this looks like a nice community.
Hi.



Malachi_Rothschild
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06 Aug 2007, 10:29 am

Hi everyone. My name's Malachi -- it's really a pseudonym from Second Life.

A few years ago a social worker I was seeing explained the gap between my verbal and performance IQ's as indicative of NLD. Prior to that I'd seen a specialist for food sensitivity testing. My sensitivities suggested to him that I'm probably somewhere in the autistic spectrum. Within the past year I've cut out dairy, gluten, soy and greatly reduced my sugar intake. I've been doing a bit better since then. My official diagnoses over the years have been: depression, bipolar disorder, ODD, NLD and possibly a few other things. I'm looking into new neuropsych testing now to determine where I fall on the autistic spectrum.

I was very hypersensitive as a child and still am to a lesser extent. Sunlight bothers my eyes. I can usually pick out a number of the ingredients in what I'm eating. I usually don't like being touched unless I know it's going to happen ahead of time. For my attempt at an at-home silent meditation retreat I took down all of the pictures on my walls and put away all of the tchatchkes lying around. I haven't wanted to take them back out since then. Zen aesthetic appeals to me. I've always been attracted to muted colors. The buzzing white noise a television makes underneath the audio irritates me sometimes.


Even though I don't enjoy crowds I do love public speaking. It gives me a bit of a high and I generally perform very well. I'm a bit confused regarding some things about myself, how they might fit or not fit into the autistic spectrum. For example, I'm very intuitive about other people. But I've noticed I'm no less intuitive on the internet where there isn't any body language to worry about. Maybe I get it all from the words and the situation. I tend to feel very deeply about things. But I have a hard time expressing that effectively. When I spent three months at a new agey jewish retreat center there were a few very emotionally expressive people who seemed to get offended by my inability to show deep concern. Salutations are difficult for me to understand.

I'm deeply spiritual but also agnostic. I don't like to disregard my subjective experience but I don't like using it as a basis for discerning absolute truths about the world either. Instead I embrace it with the understanding that it's only my personal experience and I try to accumulate multiple reality maps that I'll apply as seems to best fit the situation. My current interests are Jung, dream interpretation, lucid dreaming and since yesterday hypnosis. Generally my specific interests have something to do with spirituality, religion, personal and spiritual development as I understand it. But they can get a bit obscure like the Dubno Maggid or Shabtai Tzvi, neo-hasidism, meta-halachic processes. When I was younger I was very into Dune and horrorpunk among other things. Now I tend to be more cautious about what I listen to because I realize how strong an effect it can have on the way I feel.

Small talk never interests me but I've learned to cope. When the people around me start to small talk I amuse myself by joking around and making a lot of non-sequiters. Enough people have asked me in the past if I'm currently high or if I do smoke despite the fact that I've never tried a recreational drug in my life, alcohol not withstanding (I've never been drunk.) I think my sense of humor has its roots in watching so many hours of sitcoms as a child and my love for watching stand-up as a teenager. I'm most engaged, however, when I can talk about deeper matters.

When I speak about a topic that interests me I'm usually extremely animated and can be a bit charismatic. But if I'm not interested I tend not to be so expressive.

I started a blog a few months ago about the overlap of spirituality and technology. Unfortunately, I quickly learned I was one of only two people in that hyperniche. Now I've expanded it to cover my spiritual journey in general.

Nice to meet you all.

--Malachi



Joeker
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10 Aug 2007, 2:42 pm

Greetings!
I'm Joeker, an 18 year old blogger, a writer, a poet, and a gamer. I do a little of this, a little of that, and so on. I love webcomics, games, and a lot more than I care to bore you with. :wink:

Anyways, I'm not much of one for long-winded introductions, so I'll see you around the boards!
Cheers!

~Joeker


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Grimfaire
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10 Aug 2007, 3:40 pm

I'm 36, damn that sounds old. :(

It's only recently (the last few years) that I found out there is a name for what I've lived with my entire life.

I've a few things I'm into in no particular order, books, computers, gaming and books. Oh yea.. and books. In typical obsessive fashion; I've over 20k of them and the collection continues to grow. So if it falls into my genre (sci-fi/fantasy basically) than I've probably got it.

I work full time as a Security/Systems Administrator/Engineer for a nice little company. I read someone wanted to get into computer security. Drop me a PM and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. I'm a card carrying Security Geek even. I'm CISSP certified which is like the holy grail of security certs. :)



richardbenson
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10 Aug 2007, 10:04 pm

my names richard im 27 and ive lived in 5 or 6 different states but currently live in arizona. i love collecting sportscards and rocks and ichiro suzuki is my favorite ballplayer. i dont have a job and get ssdi, but in tha past ive been a janitor and a dishwasher. currently my favorite shows are law&order and charmed. i love music and painting, i also like sleeping and day dreaming. i also love haunting the woods and listening to blackmetal. sometimes i fantasize outside when im walking with my portable cd player, my favorite bands are emperor, slayer, pantera, and immortal.

:o


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shopaholic
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14 Aug 2007, 4:39 pm

I'm a 41-year-old woman (but no-one ever actually believes that because I look and act way younger than my age!)

I'm single and have been celibate for some years, but not out of choice! Lets just say I'm pretty useless at relationships. For some reason the guys I fancy never fancy me back, and the guys that do fancy me are never my type.

I live on my own with my cat who I love to bits. (I seem to have an affinity with cats, and sometimes dogs and other animals. This seems to have got stronger since I got my cat).

I have always known I was "different". As a child, my parents treated this as a good thing, and as a result I grew up believing that I was superior to others. This was mainly because I could already read fluently when I started school, and was so good at Maths I simply raced way ahead of all the other children. I have an IQ of 161.

However I didn't always like being treated differently and hated having to miss the TV reading programmes the others used to watch.

The first really AS thing I remember was when I was about 6 years old. I always used to insist on my mother waiting for me at a particular spot in the playground, and one day she decided that I was too old for that and waited around the corner instead. I was furious once I realised she was not coming and eventually charged around the corner screaming with rage at her. The next day my teacher took me to one side and told me off for my childish tantrum. My reaction was a six-year-old's version of "So what did that have to do with YOU? It was between me and my mum!"

I have very few memories of my schooldays that involve friendships with other children in my class. In fact I probably thought of them as pretty much part of the furniture. I did have friends of course, but only one "best" friend that I did everything with outside of school, and she was in the class above. No-one else was very important to me at all.

I was far more interested in Christmas Grottoes (my big obsession - I used to design them, long ones and short ones, and they all had a number and had to be in a particular order.). Later on, around the age of 9-12 I suppose, I was into chickens. I made up stories about a chicken school; for years and years, I would be in the bath at night and my mum would be in the room and we would "do the story", a kind of dialogue where I was a character and my mum had to be another, responding to what my character did. Looking back, I suppose it was my way of dealing with the situations I came up against in my life, by putting them into the story, I could make them come out the way I wanted, or find a way of making them make sense. This went on well into my teens.

But I was into real chickens as well - I knew all the breeds and what they looked like, and read "British Poultry Standards" for fun. Then I decided to breed them, and chose Anconas because they were the first breed in the book (how Aspie is that?)

I faithfully catalogued every egg - which hen laid it, in which nest, and how much it weighed, and who it went to. This interest died a death when I found out that breeding chickens meant getting rid of the cockerels, who I had grown to love as pets. It was just too painful.

I had passed my 11+ (a year early) by now and gone to Grammar School, and this was where my problems really started. I would sit on the school bus and record bus registration numbers of all the ones I passed (remember, I was a girl!) I was bullied by the other kids and couldn't relate to them at all. I ended up being "friends" with a group of fellow-misfits.

I got a crop of good O-levels, but in the Sixth form I had glandular fever and ended up not doing so well on my A-levels. However, I ended up going to University - and for the first time, I failed! If only I'd known then what I know now. About how AS meant there was a reason why all I did was make copious illegible notes in my lectures without taking in a single word. I had to resit my first year, and in the end got a pretty mediocre degree.

It was here though that I began to learn how to be social. People helped me, and this carried on once I began work, where there was a guy who used to tell me when I did something inappropriate.

Eventually I heard about dyspraxia, and then AS, and suddenly my life started to make sense.....



Aradford
Velociraptor
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Joined: 26 Jul 2007
Gender: Male
Posts: 447
Location: Canada

15 Aug 2007, 3:21 pm

Adam, 22, male.

Didn't speak until I was three, began with full sentences; no one word bologna. My parents left me to develop on my own (besides my fathers disciplinary ways when I did anything inappopriate). Although I have never been formally diagnosed I have a strong hunch that had my parents taken me to a doctor concerning my speech delay I would be a completely different person today... A lot less functional and a lot more disordered. I know a kid in my town who was diagnosed at a young age and has been traumatized all his life by peers, teachers etc.

When I speak it tends to be informative and to the point.

I love music and have been playing guitar for 7 years. My love for music belongs in the domain of writing and playing music and I am currently in the process of recording an album with my friend and a bunch of gear I purchased.

I go to University of Alberta where I study Philosophy and Psychology; I might become a clinical psychologist, therapist or something along those lines... Or I may dedicate my life to music.



Guthrie
Emu Egg
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Joined: 17 Aug 2007
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Posts: 4
Location: Canada

18 Aug 2007, 1:11 pm

I am 27 and am currently living in Canada. I'm not being more specific because I don't want this to get back to a sister of mine who has made most of my teenage years hell on earth. I haven't told her about my diagnosis because she will probably say that it is proof that I am schizophrenic. Yes, I am aware that Aspergers' isn't Schizophrenia. My sister sees things in terms of black and white, meaning that she either has her own way or she dosen't. She thinks that what she does is right becase she does it. She loves to hit people (including me) and can't see that this is wrong. If I try to explain, she either shouts over me or hits me. She once picked me up and threw me across a room when I called 911 on her (she was hitting my mom) and then took the car and left. Now that I have my own place and she has her own vehicle, my quality life is better. Sorry for the rant, but I needed to tell someone. If she finds out I'll probably be murdered, so mums the word.



Mademoiselle_Cafeine
Tufted Titmouse
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Joined: 21 Aug 2007
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Posts: 44

25 Aug 2007, 8:51 pm

Hello.

My name is Anita, but everybody calls me Ni (it's just a celtic nickname, non-related to Monty Python) and I like it very much. I'm 20 years old, but I behave half of the time as if I was 40 and the other half as if I was 4. I live in São Paulo, Brazil, and even though most of the world thinks brazillian girls are sexy, outgoing latino types, I'm just this geeky redhead nerd. I'm tall (ish), skinny and I look much younger than I am. I've got straight, long, red (ish) hair and big dark eyes. I don't smile much and, when I do, my smile is a little bit crooked (I can't say to which side, because I never could tell right from left) and a pair of dimples appears on my cheek. I wear glasses, but only for reading, writting and watching tv.

I'm afraid of butterflies and I can't stand loud noises. I've got hypermobility, eidetic memory and a weird nervous tic in my mouth. I draw pictures and paint since I was 4 and I can speak fluently 4 languages. I was the lead singer on a couple of bands, but I can't stay somewhere for too long, so I left both of them. I was, till last year, a Biology student, but I left college a few months ago. Now, I study History (I hope it lasts longer than the last one). I love animals, specially reptiles and anphibians, and I'm a Paleontology geek.

I'm a DVD, comic book, sci-fi/fantasy book, dragon/cat statuettes compulsive collector. I enjoy roleplaying games, reading, writting and studying under my desk or inside my closet. I don't like discussing politics and religion, even though I have a stong position about those subjects. I'm a caffein addict. When I was youger I've been diagnosed as a bipolar, dyslexic, schyzophrenic (cool, isn't it?), but my mom thought that was too much for a kid, so my doctor was insane and she decided I was fine the way I am and I never went to a psychiatrist anymore. I'm part Italian, part celtic (from Galicia), part Czech, part Polish.

I think that's more tha enough.



Last edited by Mademoiselle_Cafeine on 25 Aug 2007, 10:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.