I am new to this site, please be kind

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Hello, I just thought I would start by posting a bit of background about myself and why I "know" I am on the spectrum. As well as a few other major differences between myself and the "Neurotypical" population one of the profound differences that I have only recently realised exists (I am in my late 30's) between me and "normal" people is the way we differ in regards to processing social information. I have only recently found out that "normal" people process social information in an intuitive fashion where they don't really have to "think" about it. I on the other hand have always processed my social interactions in a logical "if I say A then they should say B" kind of way. But what often happens is that I say A and they can just as well say X and when that happens I do not know what to do or it takes me a while to assess the situation in order to formulate an appropriate response. This is often cognitively exhausting and can lead to a lot of misunderstandings and ridicule. Some other reasons that I "know" I am on the spectrum is the constant state of anxiety that I am in. My anxiety is exacerbated if something unexpected happens or I have to change my routine all of a sudden. This is particularly the case when I am driving. if I have to make an unexpected detour down an unfamiliar route then I will get in such a high state of anxiety that I will not be able to focus on anything and compute normal thoughts. It is like my brain is whirling too fast for itself in order to catch up and I feel like shutting down. I take ant-depressants at the moment to take the edge off my anxiety (which does alleviate some anxiety but slightly affects my memory). If I did not take anti-depressants I would be a lot worse and would be so anxious that I would profusely sweat. When I was younger I used to have a massive phobia about dogs suddenly barking or cars beeping at me. If they did I would literally "jump" I would be so startled! I still hate it when Mopeds or Motorbikes drive past me when I am walking on the pavement, It literally hurts my ears when they go past. I have had a lot of obsessions over the years. A recent one is with the programme Columbo. Instead of just watching a few episodes I "have" to watch every single episode back to back over a few weeks and nothing else. I even like to notice any inconsistencies or mistakes that happen. It will get to the stage where that is pretty much all I think about. I have done numerous online Aspergers tests (and I know they are no substitute for an official diagnosis but I tend to score very high on them). I have a few people in my family who have received an "official" ASD diagnosis and there are one or two others who I suspect are possibly on the spectrum. I score 43 on the AQ test. And I did another test today online. I was wondering if anyone has done this test before and if so did they receive a similar score:

Sorry about the long post, it is nice to be able to express myself without the fear of ridicule.

Welcome to WP workhorse!

Hey workhorse welcome.

Welcome workhorse, I still want to take the test you posted but haven't had the time yet.

I also get exhausted from socially interacting with other people and often need some time alone to recharge.

AQ 44 here

Thanks for the welcome guys!

Welcome to WP

I have said it before, but I came to this site because it is hard to meet people in the real world who have aspergers aor autism who want to talk about it.
I hope you can find friends here (hint hint) and learn more about yourself and about others.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!