do you enjoy being around other aspies

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MrStewart
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22 Mar 2013, 10:56 pm

Have not met another autistic person since diagnosis. Did briefly work at a grocery store with an autistic man many years ago. I... liked him, i think, but I remember not being able to understand why exactly at the time. Part of it, thinking back now, was that he didn't try to make eye contact with me in the way NT people do. When my eyes happened to be looking at his eyes, he was looking at my left shoulder, or something off in the distance, or whatever it was. When my eyes happen to run across the eyes of an NT, their eyes are almost invariably looking directly back at me. It was easier, or... let;s say maybe less stressful, to talk to him, in part because of that.

This was of course long before I had any idea I was also autistic. I don't know about now. Maybe i would like to meet another aspie? just to see, maybe, if socializing with them might be comfortable for me? Ordinarily I do not socialize at all. I am essentially reclusive outside of mandatory work-related social contact.



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22 Mar 2013, 11:46 pm

I've only ever met one other aspie face to face, my best friend's boyfriend, and he was great. It was nice to know we were on exactly the same level, even if he did have a tendency to go on about his special interest , politics, a bit much :) I was rather sad when they broke up, I would have liked spending more time with him.


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UnseenSkye
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23 Mar 2013, 12:00 am

I find it usually very easy as telepathy to relate to other Aspies who are high functioning. With NT people, much depends upon their level of intelligence (emotional may be as or more important than intellectual) and their ability to genuinely understand "where I'm coming from." I do not find high functioning Aspie people boring. Nor do I find inherently intelligent NT people boring. I'm not easily bored, because (I think) I find a lot that is fascinating and do not make people the center of my universe. My universe is inclusive of me and a few people I've let inside.

I have been very badly hurt by trusting NT people who were not very intelligent in any direction, but knew how to scam the emotions of others more naive. I am more naive. And I have been very badly hurt by trusting highly intelligent NT people who were unable to understand me and treated me as though I was a project or a puzzle they needed to solve. No matter how intelligent I might be in numerous areas, I am in some sense "not seeing what is obvious" about NT people -- and have been exploited and hurt in ways that have been very unpleasant. There are those who will exploit whatever resources you possess and then deny responsibility when it comes time to answer for any damage they've done. They make excuse after excuse and I am non-violent. The thought of strangling them or smashing their faces into the ground crosses my mind and I cannot bring myself to act in such ways. There are others who give and give what they believe are appropriate THINGS that ought to make you happy and fail to understand when you are not thrilled (and bought, like any other object) by all you've been given. Then, you are branded as manipulative and ungrateful. There are some aspects of being as I am that cannot be explained -- although this is not for lack of having done my best to explain. I am a BAD person who misled them because I did not become what they wanted me to be. Even though I told the person: "this is NOT who I am" very clearly from the start. The person believed in THEIR power to mold me into whatever it was they wanted -- and what they wanted wasn't me, so they failed. What sense did this make?!

I've yet to meet an Aspie who will comfortably lie to my face or steal from me or gossip behind my back and then return to me and tell me that "others are talking about what a mean person I am because I will stand up for myself and not allow another person to speak to me as if I am dirt because I am afraid that they will throw me into the street." I feel deep sadness for women with small children who may not believe they can leave a bad situation and rebuild (or build) an independent life and career and succeed without an NT partner (usually a male) who bullies them. Often these are NT women caught up in some traditional religion who never learned a marketable skill and not are Aspies -- but they focus on me as a terrible woman when I tell off a NT man who privately has behaved like a jerk and has publicly walks around wearing a halo.

I have BEEN made homeless, after refusing to be intimate anymore with a NT man who became physical and verbally abusive with me. At least I'd worked hard and bought myself a car that I could use to travel and live in. Another Aspie would not throw me into the street for speaking my mind or having a melt down, any more than I'd behave this way to a Aspie partner or roommate or to a NT person who truly accepted me as I am and did not ridicule me for my moments of "absurd innocence" that occur in the midst of intelligence. I've had to explain to NT friends who DO love me: please don't call me "dingbat", even though it is a term of endearment to you. I realize that sometimes I space out in public -- this is sensory overload. It IS correct and important to tell people "this bothers me" and not be angry about it -- often the person does not know a word they consider silly and sweet is one that really is insulting. I may call myself "space cadet" and "dufus"... but this is very different.

Some NT people can accept an explanation and some will take information and clobber the Aspie with it... you need to "test", in a sense and know who to trust. I've learned that the NT people who have good common sense and who have suffered losses and been treated as suckers by people they trusted -- they can identify. Again, there is a curious sense of being "at home" in the presence of another Aspie. At least, this has been my experience. There is inherent understanding. Here, I am writing a great deal in explanation. With another Aspie, words would very often be minimal unless we were discussing an common interest or cool discovery. Words are minimal in explaining "Who I am" and generally, all that is needed is to look and a few words at most and I will know worlds about that other Aspie. Aspies love without the BS and need for complexity or explanation. You are who you are and nothing less or more. NT people..I am weary of their nonsense, their masks, their head games -- the ones who are genuinely kind and evolved are, in my experience, few and far between.

I know and trust few people, NT or Aspie. I do not have any Aspie people in my life or near me at this time and this is difficult for me. There is a closeness and sense of comfort that is impossible for me to achieve with NT people, no matter how wonderful they are and although I rarely feel "alone", there are times having a tangible rather than virtual Aspie in my world would bring me closer to the happiness that seems to have eluded me, since losing my best friend I'd had in my life.



goldfish21
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23 Mar 2013, 12:27 am

Yes.

Whether family members, best friends or other friends - most of the people I ever hang around with are aspies. Sure, there can be some frustrating times, but its mostly good as we tend to all intuitively tolerate each others quirks as if we know the same set of social rules.

Also, one of my closest friends is an aspie w/ some mutual special interests of mine, so yeah, even at 30 and 27 years old its awesome to hang out with an aspie friend w/ mutual interests to talk about or teach each other about. I can pass hours/days like that when our schedules align and we hang out often. Its a friendship type like no other, imo, and I highly recommend it if you haven't met another aspie you naturally click with who has similar interests. I've read about AS klids being paired up for this type of friend benefit, but o can tell ya there's no age limit. I've had this awesome friend in my life for the last 2 1/2 years and get more out of our friendship than I have out of almost any other, ever.


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Chloe33
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23 Mar 2013, 2:47 am

I am HFA and i usually am not around many people. My friends son has Aspergers, he's 9. Him and his 2 baby brothers aren't getting the best parenting out there. With my 9 year old friend, i do take the time to talk to him, make sure he's not being bullied. His 2 friends who lived next door got taken by CPS since the parents got arrested so he really has no one to play with and his folks don't pay attention. So i brought
over my flute and he's been learning the recorder in school, or we'll toss a frisbee around. He appreciates that i take the time with him. He loves Pokemon, it's one of his obsessions and his reading is off the charts!

I have one other friend (this one an adult also) from back school days who has Aspergers.
As of late i have talked to him on the phone, since a couple of us were concerned for him as what was happening in his life, yet i talked to him and he is doing good, having left his problematic environment for a better one.
This friend i have known since we were 12 in middle school. We are friends, yet there were times we didn't always get along. He could get annoying and i would get in a fight with him lol. I had behavior issues in school. Yet even after graduation a group of us remained friends.
We live all so far apart, yet still talk.



Tsproggy
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23 Mar 2013, 4:57 am

On the internet I have yet to find another Aspie who will talk to me without trying to prove a point to me and insult me somehow. In real life I've found it really nice. We can both hold a conversation without looking at each other, maybe just sitting with each other at a table or something. Discuss deep topics, and we're both on the same "wavelength" and can damn near complete each others sentences at this point. The result from these encounters are usually inspiration and I value them when I get to. I've found that talking to fellow Aspies make for very intellectually satisfying conversation when not masked by the internet and allowed to be a dickless c**t.



scarp
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23 Mar 2013, 10:57 am

I have never knowingly interacted with another person on the autism spectrum in meatspace, but it is statistically likely that I have unknowingly done so numerous times in the past. I did have a few conversation with an aspie on Skype a while ago and he was very, very interesting. However, I did not know that I also had Asperger's syndrome at the time so I guess that was a missed opportunity to compare notes. Given some of the things that we talked about, I wonder if he ever suspected that I had it but politely decided not to say anything. Hmm.



Cafeaulait
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23 Mar 2013, 11:34 am

I don't know any other aspies.

I would love to get to know them but have no clue where to meet them...



AgentPalpatine
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23 Mar 2013, 12:03 pm

Sadly, there is no "Aspie Resturant" where we can go to meet Aspies.


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Dillogic
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23 Mar 2013, 12:24 pm

I don't enjoy being around all people.



Joe90
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23 Mar 2013, 1:40 pm

It's hard for me to say since I don't have many Aspie friends, only two I think. One of them is a girl and one of them is a boy, and I'm not sure if the girl has AS or not but I know she has a mild disability because she said so, but she didn't like to say what it was. She finds making friends difficult, and so likes me even more because I'm the only friend who really bothers with her and enjoys her company, and I suppose that's nice for any Aspie, to feel accepted. That's just what we need more of.

My other friend is high-functioning Autistic, but sometimes I feel he doesn't really like hanging out with friends any more. He tends to stick with other people that are more severe than me, and likes to do things like go bowling with them, but not for too long. Last week I arranged to meet up with him at 10am, and he said he was going somewhere at 12.30pm so I said two hours is fine. I also said that my bus might not get to the bus station dead on 10, and he noted that. But when I arrived to the bus station, I was only 5 minutes late and he wasn't there, so T sent him a text saying ''I am here at the bus station now'', and he put back ''I've got out now because I got to the bus station and you weren't there''. I did feel a tad annoyed, because he could have waited a little while longer, and maybe sent me a text first saying ''I am here at the bus station now, how long will you be?'' or just anything to notify me that he's there and I would have sent a text saying ''I'm on my way, the bus will be a little bit late''. And considering we hadn't seen each other for ages, I thought he would have waited. He has done this before. But I'm not the sort to hold a grudge, and because he's Autistic, I suppose I will let him off and I know he wasn't doing it on purpose because I know he is very honest. If I were NT I probably wouldn't of understood that.


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howzat
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24 Mar 2013, 3:57 pm

I would say they are a good bunch to be with.



algegon
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24 Mar 2013, 4:32 pm

I echo the above posts where I have never really known anyone else on the spectrum. I do know that conversations with NTs tend to bore me. They never want to talk about anything interesting (or to be fair, what I find interesting). Instead of philosophy, religion, astronomy, and politics -- the discussion is about the last episode of family guy (shudder).

I could see myself really enjoying high intellectual conversations. Minimal small talk (I especially despise small talk) and pointless discussion. Just a talk about the deep things in life. Although I no longer attend church, I do miss the sermons that discussed the meaning of abstract concepts (morals, love, kindness, and compassion).

I even enjoy listening to people talk about concepts that find interesting yet know nothing about. Some of my most enjoyable experiences is listening to the foreign exchange students at my school share about their culture. Fascinating to hear such stories.

Anyway, I am getting off-topic (I'm rather scattered at the moment) and need to refocus. So, I would enjoy anyone that could hold a deep discussion. But such conversations are rare. School is the only place I can ever get intellectually satiated, and even then I don't get to choose the subject matter. (How can anyone get excited about civil legal procedure?)



idlewild
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24 Mar 2013, 5:43 pm

Mostly, but especially if we share interests.


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Kuribo
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24 Mar 2013, 5:54 pm

I'm a lot more comfortable when interacting with other Aspies than when I am with Neurotypicals. They don't usually bother about social cues as much, and Aspies haven't given as much, if any, of the pretentious bull s**t I so often receive from NTs.



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24 Mar 2013, 6:06 pm

In internet, this is the only place i have been so far, and it feels like a good place so far.

In real life, i do not know who is aspie, and nobody knows i am aspie, so i have no idea. :?