Looking for Aspie adults to talk to

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Hi. I just joined.

I am not diagnosed with AS but I highly suspect that I am. I first started to suspect during my freshman year at college 5 years ago when I first learned of AS. I related so well to the descriptions, but I told myself I was just looking for verification of being "special."

Since my freshman year, I've been diagnosed with depression, social anxiety, and possibly ADD, but I have never felt any of the treatments helped. I felt no one was really addressing my problem.

By chance I watched a video on youtube about AS and it got me thinking again. I did some reading and for the first time felt someone was describing my "problem." Just now I took an online AS test at http://www.rdos.net which was recommended by someone at this site. Some of the questions felt so personal and addressed things no one else has ever addressed that I cried.

I really want to talk to diagnosed Aspies. Especially, high functioning ones. I think people have always assumed I was eccentric because I was "gifted". Looking at my past, my childhood is filled with obvious signs of AS, but I still have doubts. I think talking with someone without doubts would really help. I don't trust doctors much.

If you are a high functioning Aspie and would be willing to be a pen-pal with me while I figure out all this, please respond or send me a message. A college grad would be really nice, so that I can understand how i could have gone through so much schooling without diagnosis. (Not to say school was easy or enjoyable to me, heh)

Thanks for reading this!!

welcome here

Howdy, the adult term here, can go a lot of different ways. At 56 I can easily go into a much younger play time, the same goes for those of a younger real age, they can be very adult in thinking.

There is an adult with a little longer life expiereance section. But don't get into not looking at other spots here. Good people every where here.

Welcome to WP

I am a very similar case by the way. I don't know how I could have made it so far through school and work without somebody realizing what was up with me. Blows my mind really... was called "gifted" also...looking back now it all finally makes sense.

Heh, I didn't mean adult as in "adult" I just ment a grow-up, especially someone who was diagnosed over the age of 18 or better yet after college. I hadn't reached the "adult" aspie discussion thread when I posted this. lol

Ok, I'm going to attempt to tell my AS story or why I think I'm an Aspie. It's going to be a work in progress. I'll add as I feel like it.

Let's just start with childhood, right?

First off, I didn't start speaking till I was 3. There was suspicion at the time about autism, but Asperger's was almost completely unknown in the states. So, I wasn't diagnosed with being on the spectrum. I had troubles with speech and had to take speech lessons longer than anyone else in my school, till I was 9. I was also horrible at reading phonetically. I learned to read young, but not by phonetically forming the words. I memorized whole words and their meanings. To this day, I cannot pronounce any word I have never seen before without alot of luck. Despite all this, I was still labeled as "gifted" when I was 5 and was in gifted programs during all of my schooling.

I don't think i need to say anything about my social difficulties. Pretty much everything I have read on the subject at this site and others apply to me. I learned to compensate some for my total lack of social intuition, but like the rest of you, all social interaction is forced. Since a very young age, I have thought of myself as an actor playing the character of "Me" around others. I talked for my own entertainment. Other people's conversations held little of my attention. My side of conversations are always full of personal jokes with myself and obscure quotes.

The question: "Do you use stock phrases or phrases borrowed from other situations or people?" from the Aspie quiz really struck a cord and surprised me. I was also surprised by the question: "Before doing something or going somewhere, do you need to visualize the place you're going to or rehearse possible scenarios in your mind so as to prepare yourself?" I do this ALL the time for everything from interviews to greeting someone at the door, phone calls to anticipated social events. I thought everyone did it, but when i looked at the evaluation of the quiz, it was quite apparrent that only Aspies did this routinely.

Ok, from that divergence, back to childhood before quiting for the day. Since forever, I have been very easy to cry. It's surprising that I was not diagnosed with an emotional problem at a young age. I was diagnosed with depression during college and thought maybe that was an explaination for the crying, but the asperger description of emotional outburst better matched what was going on inside me when I cried. It wasn't saddenness, but usually frustration and anger that would and still can cause me to cry.

This last subject brings me to why I want to be diagnosed. I have been through psycho-theoropy, drugs, and cognative behavior theoropy for my depression and anxiety. I always felt that these treatments weren't addressing the real issue, whatever it was. I'm hoping that Asperger's is the proper diagnosis and will lead to proper treatment for myself. I want to stop the feeling of beating my head against a brick wall, which is what these other treatments feel like.

Thanks for reading. This is longer than expected, but there may be more to come. There is ALWAYS more to add. heh

-Rae

welcome to WP

Welcome to WP!

Tim

Hi HurricaneRae!

Welcome to WP. I have much in common with you, such as the fact that I did well academically, never managed to 'fit in' socially and didn't get diagnosed (or even learn of AS) until I was at university. I was also diagnosed with depression and generalised anxiety disorder when really the problem at the time was undiagnosed AS.

If you want to talk to me some more about this, that's fine, I would be happy to help.

Hey Rae welcome, I too was in your spot trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I didn't talk until I was maybe 3 and half, and even then it was all noises but no words, and had to go to intense speech therapy until the age of 12, I was dx with everything and nothing ever fit. You were right, aspergers and any other ASD wasn't known back then when I was a kid either. I wasn't dx until I was 19, and I'm 22, I was in your position and from what I read you seem like you fall under the spectrum also. I hope you get the information you need, and find what your looking for, good luck in all you do. I'm also here if you want to talk too.

Hello, Hurricane_Rae:

Welcome aboard, fellow newbie.

Welcome, and I think you'll find many people here willing to talk with you about your situation. As with so many other posts I've read here, much of it sounds like I could have written it, which I'm finding out is a VERY common thought WP members tend to have when on here!

Hello, HurricaneRae:

I have an M.A. from the University of Alberta, so you might say I'm "high functioning"
(although I don't distinguish much between Asperger's Syndrome and high-functioning autism).
I'd be honoured to be your "pen pal". Look for some of my posts to find out more.

Hi I am a High Functioning Autistic Adult from Michigan age 28 and I am willing to do Pen Palling.

If you wish to send me a private message on here, feel free to do so, im even willing to chat online if you wish.

Hope to hear from you soon take care and God Bless

Sincerely
Ryan