Anyone else not met an aspie in real life before?

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I knew of someone from church who admitted he had autism but I never told him that I also had autism (I don't usually tell people I have autism, and he was telling someone else and I overheard). I rarely see him now. Aside from that I haven't known to have met an aspie in real life. Whats it like? Do you suddenly think "Wow! Its like looking in the mirror in terms of behaviour!!"? Or do you think "Do I really behave that awkward"?

I've only met Craig Nicholls from The Vines. It was fairly easy to tell he has AS. We both didn't make much eye contact and he had less expression in his voice and face. It was actually a bit difficult to talk to him. He didn't seem interested in what I had to say at all. I didn't ask him anything about his band, much to the annoyance of my fellow Vines fans. I was drinking that night so I was talking way too much and he just said a few things. Then I got a photo taken and his autograph and he went back upstairs.
After that I thought 'well I guess just because he has AS doesn't mean we have many things in common.' And Craig isn't one of those people that is proud to be AS. It's a disorder to him that gets in the way of him playing shows with his band and touring.

I had Aspie boy as classmate in high school. Even he was my deskmate. We communicated well. But he was kind of wuss, easy to cheat. I often was an Interpreter between him and NTs.
He wasn't my mirror-picture. As I said, he was very naive and I am more agressive type*. He was cheated, I had a lot of misunderstandings. He wanted to become NT, I want(ed) to be Aspie and know all about NT.





*I don't care about you, people. Even hate you. You can only waste time and energy. But you can shut up and follow me!

I was in a special needs school from the age of 11 onwards and I was in a school full of aspies and autists so I think I might win the competition in this thread here..

Yet it was pretty good fun but also there are the worst too, constant meltdowns, obsessions, you name it.... But they were pretty surprising though... the talents are the things that surprised me the most.

At first I couldn't think of one, but now I can. He's not somebody I know well, and if there are different sub-types of AS then he's definitely a different type than me, but I have heard that he is an aspie.

Nope, never met another aspie. But that'll change on monday, as I'll be joining a course to find work for people with autism.

I've met one aspie who went to my clubhouse, for a very short time. He was a very pleasant young man to talk to. Him and I had a lot of conversations. I also know another man on the spectrum, who goes to my clubhouse. Him and I get along, pretty well. I find that people on the spectrum are easier for me to get along with, anyways.

I've met too many aspies. Lot of them seemed normal but my aspie radar doesn't work. I knew one boy in elementary school and he might have had it. He wouldn't talk to anyone and he wouldn't listen to what people had to say and when he would talk to people, it was what he wanted to talk about and he ignore your questions. He also didn't respect peoples property. He also didn't understand instructions. I think he was a severe case of it. He also didn't like being touched and he scream "Don't" when you touch him. I didn't even know then I was the mild version of him. But I could relate to I was a lot like him when I was young but outgrew it and was better.

I knew another aspie when I was 15 and 16 and he was okay. We were able to talk and we played video games together and watched TV together and we both had fights but he had ODD and manipulated his mother to get his way by hitting her and throwing things and breaking things to get it. He also bullied kids in his school and my brothers. I didn't realize how many problems he had and what he was really like until I came over to his house. I was like "whoa." He was a totally different person at his house but at my house he was more normal and more nice. But I had no idea he did it behind my back to my brothers. He was also a chronic liar and made things up by telling me stories and I believed them all. I found out my ex knew him too. Then I was enjoying the Devin bashing by him. He was telling me of the things he did to him at their school and telling me how much of a bastard he was.

Then there are the groups I go to and they all seem normal to me. There is one girl there who is always rocking back and forth and at the ASAN meeting, there was a guy who seemed higher on the spectrum and when he talked he sounded like he had MR. Very few people at the groups appear different. One man there said he can see AS in everyone there, even me and I was like "really?" I don't look into the traits or look into what people are doing is AS or not. But Roger Meyers doesn't seem to have an off button for his talking and the ASAN leader tends to cut people off and she doesn't realize it so she tells us to let her know. She thinks someone is done talking and she doesn't know they were not finished.

I don't even want to think about if I do this or that. Scary. I remember how hard it was for me to finally accept I can't read people or pick up on social cues. Instead if there is anything annoying they do, I make sure I don't do that myself such as asking the same questions over and over which I find annoying. So I imagine it must be annoying for others too when I do it to them. I see it as a wake up call as MONKEY said. I had an ex who always argued with me when I had a different opinion than him or different point of view and he argue it until I agreed and it was annoying. I decided I will not do this to other people because they must feel this way too. I also had other wake up calls like him taking things literal and it depressed me because there was nothing I could do about it. It was annoying when he did it. Gosh no wonder kids found me annoying in high school and was mean to me for no reason. Also him not getting things, that also depressed me because I bet that's how the kids felt in my school. They used to get mad at me for asking too many questions. I just felt bad for myself and the fact there was nothing I could do about it. I could stop asking questions to get things and just pretend I understand.

I have also seen a public meltdown and it was disturbing and I bet that's how others feel when I have one. I don't know if they were autistic or not but one of them may have been a fake because I was on the train heading to work one night and there was this man crying asking for money so he can eat. Then he threatens to kill himself if he doesn't eat and that got a reaction out of people and I thought that was so pathetic. But once a teen gave him money finally, he stopped and was back to normal. He never got off the train and he got off where I got off and he went to the smoking area instead. Never went into the airport to get food. But that still showed how scary a meltdown is for other people when they don't know you.
I was scared and felt un easy. But when it happened at one of the groups by the girl who is always rocking, I didn't feel uneasy or anything because I know her and I know she isn't going to go hurting anyone or take out a gun shooting people. Instead she was taken out of the room.

There is a ASAN meet up in Portland, near me, but I have never been to it. They had a protest at Pioneer Courthouse Square, but I only saw pictures of it.

I used to go to an Aspie meetup in Medford, and still have a good friend there that met with another WP member up in Bellingham to see Dr. Tony together. That was fun. I also met a group when I went to see Dr. Grandin in Portland, but the ASAN folks were protesting out front and I never met any one of them, then, either.

So, yes, I suppose I have.
My thoughts were 'oh, my GAWD, do I look like that when I do that?'
'cause I know I must

Merle.

I've met two Aspie girls with whom I was friends. I've never met an Aspie boy (that I know of), but I have strong suspicions that my old crush has it.

It was awkward with the girls, even though we were friends, but not so with the boy. We could talk and talk and talk. Aagh, I miss him.

I've only met one and she was really rude and pushy so I have no clear judgment as to how I fit in. I think in her case she just had a poor quality of character.

I was trying to explain today, it's a bit like the last tasmanian tiger. How would the last tasmanian tiger know it was the same as other tasmanian tigers if it never met one?

I guess this is why I umm and ahh about my diagnosis.

I've only met one person with a confirmed diagnosis. I didn't know it at the time of meeting, I was told later after he had left. He hung out by himself a lot playing on a hand-held console. He wasn't nerdy looking, and was physically fit, more so than the average. When he did talk, he seemed to get overly enthusiastic.

One of my friends while growing up I suspect has it. He has no brutal honesty though, as is in fact the complete opposite (lies a lot). Other than that he has the odd gait, postures, use of gestures. He didn't even hold a spoon or a fork normally. Held them like a child. He ran kind of funny too. He combed his hair kind of dorky, his room is always a complete mess, he talked to himself when he thought nobody could hear him(that sort of worried me as a kid). Most people I know think he is dumb, and outwardly he appears to be that. He doesn't focus on your conversation much. Stares into space, and randomly interrupts you. He isn't very aware of his surroundings either. He can seem kind of slow. He certainly isn't dumb, if you got to know him. He lacks some common sense and doesn't seem to "think" about some things. He also could not determine very well on his own when others were speaking to him or not (in an online setting) even though they clearly had no interaction of any kind with him. He had to ask me. He would sometimes call me while eating food or watching TV. I hated that because he wouldn't pay attention. I would purposefully insult him to see if he would respond, and I'd get nothing, and then I'd have to repeat his name until he answered. I'd say this guy is pretty close to the spectrum if not all the way on it! Fortunately for him though, he can hold a full time job. He doesn't need a diagnosis.

There is another I suspect that is on the spectrum, but she thinks it is impossible even though she has a lot of matching criteria. I don't see why people would be so in denial of a possibility. Is it truly that bad to be considered autistic to some people?

-edit- forgot the main point of the post! I have wondered how I come off to people, especially knowing how some AS individuals can be. I think to people who don't know me, I am mostly normal, just quiet. I don't know what they think about my lack of social reciprocity. I know that if I were to talk too much about my interests or beliefs I would quickly scare them away. I vary greatly from the three mentioned individuals in this post, but we still share a lot of the same qualities. How they are doesn't make me worry too much about myself.

Seen many, spoken to none.

O, wait, how could I forget? My nephew. He's diagnosed with "ASD" though, as they don't give out specific labels anymore at the place he went to. He's of the active but odd make (compared to my passive make), but he's still clearly "autistic".

O again, and I...relate to him more than the average bear, yeah, even though we both manifest the ASD a little differently.

I never speaked to persons who I know they're AS diagnosed, and I don't know anyone who I suspect to be.

There's a contract employee (temp) at my workplace who says his wife thinks he has AS. The subject came up because he asked me if *I* have AS. This is not the first time I've been "discovered" by someone who doesn't know me well at all, so I asked "Bill" if it was really that obvious. He said it was totally obvious, if you know what you're looking for. Interesting.

So he picked me out. I did not pick him out, and in truth had never thought about it. I can't say that I really thought about him at all other than in terms of the job he does. I am not a very good observer of behavior (either mine or someone else's; isn't that the nature of AS?) so I think it's unlikely that I would pick someone out as having AS even if I was "tuned in" to their behavior. Now that "Bill" has brought it up, I don't know what I think about him. I guess there are things he does that i consider a bit odd, but I don't know that I equate them to AS.

In other words, I don't know if I've ever met anyone with AS, and if I did, I don't know that I'd recognize it.