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Using a Latin greeting seemed more fun than just saying "hi." And Latin is one of my interests....I am a classical languages major. I have been lurking for a while, and I like what I see, so I think I'd like to participate. So, a little about myself:

I am a 19 year-old (well 20 in less than a month) college student. About a month and a half ago, I was given the suggestion that some things I was describing (elsewhere online, in a different context) sounded like Aspergers. Which I had never heard of. But after going into research mode for a while, and with some assistance from the person who gave me this suggestion, I am about 97% sure that this is correct. And the more I read the more this is confirmed, in my mind. It simply explains way too much about the way I am, think, and behave (more than I'm willing to take the time to write out at the moment) - and in too many different facets of my life, including things that I wouldn't even have connected on my own (eye-contact difficulties, funny walking gait, sensory issues, etc. etc.) - to be coincidental.

There is a part of me that is still a bit, shall we say, resistant to the any suggestion that I "have" something...this is the same part of myself, I believe, that became somewhat sulkily stubborn when I had to start speech and physical therapy in fifth grade: me? But I'm fine!

However, I have pretty much gotten over this initial resistance, as well as discomfort with the word "syndrome" (which in my mind, at least, has connotations of "disease" and "illness"...). Especially after realizing that this is not a disease, and doesn't mean that there is something fundamentally "wrong" with me. The resistance has become curiosity, and an eagerness to understand more - "know thyself" and all that. And something of a relief too, as now I have an explanation that doesn't involve me being crazy or a freak or sub-human.

The awareness of being different from most other people has simply been a fundamental fact of existence for me ever since the time I was in early elementary school, though I have never been sure how to define this difference, or what the extent of it was. Apparently at least some of the people around me perceive a difference to, though I'm not sure to what extent; my younger sister used to, when she was quite young, tell me, "you're not real" or "You're an alien." To this day, I'm not sure where she got this idea from, but I have certainly felt like an alien much of the time...

At this point, at least, I'm not really interested in getting myself diagnosed, for a few reasons. Mainly though, I am functioning fairly okay at the present (I think), for the most part. (Though there are some social issues that are kind of hard for me to deal with, like two years thus far of in a very large and sometimes overwhelming university without a single actual friend and no clue as to how to make one....But I digress.) And the potential benefits of being diagnosed don't at the present outweigh, for me, things like having to deal with a psychologist (especially when my parents are still covering my health insurance and thus would have to be involved), and my innate paranoia red-flagging the notion of something going on my record....

However, I have been and will continue to keep researching, and I think understanding more about the mental framework I'm coming from - and perhaps more importantly realizing that most other people aren't! - will help quite a bit. I've already become more aware of some things and been introduced to some others that have demystified some of the puzzles of social interactions. I hope that the more I learn the more this will be true. And it is my hope that these fora and the posters here can help me as well...and that I'll encounter some interesting people and discussions along the way.

So, thanks for reading, and I suppose I'll end by listing some of my current interests, which include:

Greek and Roman stuff
Sci-fi and fantasy
Judaism (even though I'm not Jewish)
libertarianism

Welcome to WrongPlanet, and welcome to my time warp.

Thanks! A time warp, you say? Well that does sound fun.

Okay, a question, to anyone: why does it say "Emu Egg" beneath my screen name? What does it mean?

Welcome!

Emu Egg and other titles are based on how many posts you have (I think). Later on you get to make up your own title.

Ah, I see. Thanks.

Wow, all that sounds a LOT like me, too!

I self-diagnosed, and also saw no need to go further. If you're interested in a self-diagnosis, try this:

http://www.piepalace.ca/blog/asperger-test-aq-test/

Welcome to WP!

Well that's a welcome change of pace.



Thanks. I took the test, got a 40, so I guess that puts me well within the range. I have trouble with these sorts of tests, though, since the gap between "definitely" and "slightly" seems like it can be quite large and rather vague, and sometimes I had trouble determining which one to go with....so the score could probably have been plus or minus a couple points. I was also confused by question 9: "I am fascinated by dates." What sort of "dates" were meant? My first instinct was calendar type dates, which I can be quite fascinated by (and by calendar systems as a whole...) but then I wondered whether social boy/girl dates were meant, and I'm not fascinated by those in the least. So I compromised by putting "slightly agree"...

Although the fact that I was overanalyzing the test questions probably says something about me in and of itself....I hate multiple choice tests for this very reason: I end up overanalyzing the syntax and diction of the questions to interpret them in various ways, seeing plausible arguments for multiple answers, finding "trick" questions where there are none and other such things...I do fine on them, but it's really annoying that I generally make the test way harder than it was intended to be. I much prefer non-multiple choice tests.

Hi and welcome

Greetings, and welcome to the Wrong Planet, phoenixflame22.

Hello phoenixflame22, welcome, enjoy your stay on the Wrong Planet!