Asperger's and being popular

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I'm just wondering what everyone opinion of this is: I have aspergers, but I was very popular in high school. I admit I didn't have any REALLY close friends, and when I went to college I was really lonely and depressed, but when i was in high school, I was involved with theater so everyone knew me. I was really popular. Has anyone else had this experience?

I had the same experience. I still get invited to parties by some of my high school friends, but I didn't really meet anyone in college. To be fair, I only went for one year, but I wasn't very popular, even though everyone knew who I was. Random people would say hi, I'm like who are you lol

Not really. I was kinda popular at astronomy camps, but there are not a lot of girls/women at camps like this.

It's funny, I've had that problem where Everyone knew my name, and I didn't know their name. I was getting frustrated. But I was really liked in high school. then in college is became different. had a little trouble socially... but i eventually got better.

not really. people respected me because i had good grades, but i was never popular.

I'm popular, but in the wrong way. Everyone knows my name, not because I am liked or anything, but because I am known for being picked on, and yelling at people. It ain't nice.

I never was popular at high school, thanks 3 straight years of hell. Even if I was with the in crowd, that would be short lived. Because at the time I was not rich, I had no interest in parties, and had no interest in alcohol or in weed.

I had a similar experience in High School. I was extremely popular but had few close friends.

I really didn't care to be popular. I just wanted to be accepted.

It think its called celebrity syndrome. People see you on stage and that's what makes you popular. As soon as you leave the stage for a while, you stop being popular. The "stage" can be anything that makes other people look/listen at you. It can be a literal theatrical stage, frequent media appearances, or something else that puts you in the spotlight.

You'll also see this kind of popularity when someone is especially physically attractive and people simply look at them a lot. A nice NT personality can also be attractive.

A few years ago I was on the radio every morning and people started wanting to meet me that I didn't even know. So, while I was "popular" at the time, a year later, few people even remembered who I was.

i am very unpopular.
people rarely know what i am talking about.
i rarely know what they are talking about.

even though people think i am not bad minded, i still have no connection because i can not understand people at all.

i do not desire to have friends that are humans with all their grievances.

i do like innocent animals however.
they make me feel at home and calm.

I think I experienced something similar recently.

A few weeks ago, I was randomly talking to someone in a different department. I had to pass their room to get to where I worked, so I would sometimes bump into them in the corridor, or pass their room with the door open, and I would make the effort to say hi to them.

And one day one of them who was working in our office from an office in a different country came into where I worked and was chatting to a few of us, and he mentioned something about me being smiley and always smiling. And I thought: "Who? Me?"

But then on reflection, I realised that yes, I do make the effort to try to smile and be sociable. It doesn't come naturally to me, so I really do make an effort to seem 'normal'. And somehow that's had an even more positive effect than even I intended.

And now, I recently changed jobs and I'm working in a different department, and today I bumped into someone else, who sits in an open plan area I used to pass, and I used to say hi to him when I was passing. And today we bumped into one another near my new office, and he stopped to chat to me and he said I should stop by and smile again.

Again, I didn't realise that people were noticing. I was just trying to be 'normal'. But people have somehow got this impression that I'm very smiley and friendly! When I'm actually a bit shy and insecure. But in a strange way, it makes me feel more confident. They seem to think I'm friendly and smiley and confident, so I feel I've got to somehow live up to that. And me 'pretending' to be like that... again it's a grey area, when am I pretending, and when am I actually like that?

It's kind of scary, but kind of nice at the same time, that people see me that way when inside I'm more insecure and reserved than they seem to give me credit for.

The only real physical place I was so called "popular" and that wasn't an online community was at a boarding school I attended to for the summer. People wanted to get to know me because I was the mysterious, quiet girl from the state which has the most celebrities...






take a hint yet?

I was in a sense. No one liked me or even wanted to be seen with me but everyone knew who I was.

I have a problem now that I say things that get me in trouble... but once people get to know me, they don't mind my quirkiness. I'm able to make pretty decent friends. Been making a lot more Neurtypical friends recently, which has helped me a lot!

I have found that when it comes to making friends, it is that NT are better but will come mixed. I have really close NT friends and "decent" friends. However with the AS ones I have to say none of them are really really close. I have difficultly handling them and their quirks. Weird and I have AS I thought understand came with that. Apparantly not. Oh well, they're still pretty good friends at times. Now with the popularity thing. My has been a weird one all over the place but most really enjoy my company. My quirks became really subtle once I left highschool and now people are very suprised to hear that I have any mental illnesses whatsoever.