Hi I'm new & here's (another, I'm sure) do I have AS po

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So, hi.
I've known there's something weird about me since I was eight or so. But I never bothered to guess what. That was five years ago. I've been going to the same school this whole time, and everyone there simply learned to accept that I'm weird and I don't like people and I can't talk to others well. But they simply accepted that as me, and so I never bothered to wonder why I'm like this. And I learned ages ago just not to tell them if I had any interests outside things like the Jonas Brothers and all that pointless stuff I'm sure I'll never understand. This works, as long as I'm not at camp. Every year I go camp, different camps, not just the same one, and I notice this stuff all over again, and I get teased for being this way. And I looked at the symptoms for AS, and it described me and my problems pretty well. But this year's been really difficult so far. I'd learned how to deal with all my little quirks, and so had the rest of my school, and I made a close friend who I knew I could talk to or blow up at, depending on how I was feeling. But then last spring my parents told me we were moving for a year. Now school's just so horrid. I find myself wishing I'd get the flu just so I could get out of having to deal with everyone for just a little while. It's just so confusing and new and different and ugh. I guess I'm just looking for people who know how I'm feeling and who understand. Does it sound like I could have AS?
I suppose it could just be being a teen, though. But it's just that I feel different from everyone else. And my school just makes it worse. It's my first co-ed school since first grade, and it's so chaotic and overwhelming. And I just don't know how to talk to anyone, period. At home, I knew everyone knew I was different, so they just ignored me.
I would have been able to cope for the next five years. But then I moved to the other side of the world for a whole year, maybe more. I hate things changing. And now I have to deal with new people and a new country. A new continent, even. Major, major overload. I can't talk to people, and I don't know what to say or what anyone's talking about and I'm very homesick and I can't even see my best friend. Is this AS or being a teen or what?
And I'm not talking to my parents. They just don't get it. The main way I know it's not normal to be this way is that they try, but they just can't understand how I feel. I need someone who understands how I feel and how overloaded I get. In English Class, I had to hide under the table one day before class because everyone was screaming and throwing basketballs and laughing and being loud and I just couldn't take it. Now I know that can't be normal for someone almost in high school. In kindergarten, sure, but not for an eighth grader.

No one here will take it upon themselves to diagnose you. There are always a lot of spirited and sometimes bitter discussions about self-diagnosis here. I don't think it matters if you have an official diagnosis. If you suffer you suffer whether you have HFA or AS or PDD-NOS (or not) . You know better than anyone else if you know you don't fit. You are welcome here at Wrong Planet.

hey ---------
I had to move from England to Australia so I know what it's like moving from one side of the Earth to another and having to start a new school. The way you describe yourself suggests you may be socially impaired and may have hypersensitive hearing and stuff, so you may have AS. Have you looked at official criteria? Either way, welcome to WP

I'm not looking for anyone to diagnose me, I'm just looking for people who feel the same way as I do. Even my best friend, though she cares and listens, doesn't really feel the same way I do about talking to people, etc. I just want to fit in somewhere

My move is more extreme than England to Australia
New York City to Hong Kong, China!
I think you see why I'm overloaded

Can you speak the language ok?

I go to an international school. But I'm the only new kid who hadn't already studied Chinese, so I'm still taken out every Chinese class. As if I needed something else to make me different

Welcome greetings to the Wrong Planet neighborhood, ----------. Hang in there, fellow-traveler, and let Wrong Planet be your home away from home.

Welcome to Wrong Planet.

Things like sensory overload and not socializing are REAL. A good psychologist with AS experience can help a lot. There are techniques that slowly decrease the problems. There are things the school can do to help, also.

If you can't go to a psychologist, there are things you can do on your own to help. Identifying specific problems can help a lot, because then you can deal with them individually. Things will get better.

Welcome home.

To WrongPlanet!! !

Welcome to WP!

(This is my new account, the forums had a problem with the name ----------)
I'm too shy to tell my parents anything. Therefore, the only person I can talk to is my bff.
Thank goodness for Skype!
But thank you everyone for welcoming me here. It means a lot, I'll tell you.

Thanks Aimless. I'm trying to come back a little, with it devouring my life. Oh, and I got Dx'd PDD-NOS a couple of weeks ago.

EaglesSayMeow: Have you taken the Aspie Quiz yet?

http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php

It's a pretty good starting point. The Quiz and these forums can help you understand how your brain is doing things, and then you can get more control over it. Little by little, a step at a time. There a forum here for posting you Quiz results if you want to.

Yes, I took it. I think I got into the high 160s, or low 170s?
Argh! I need to tell my parents. Curse my shyness.
I don't care about being diagnosed, it's just that my dad never understood this stuff when I try to explain it. Therefore, I guess that I hope that if he sees that it isn't just something he can blow off as me being me, he'll finally understand. I know my parents love me, they just don't seem to get it. Seems nobody in my family shows symptoms of AS but me.

Great. One of the good things about the Aspie Quiz is that it graphs the 12 categories. They are a little hard to figure out, but a lot of times it's helpful to see the pattern - for example, is it round but shifted to the right, or is it spikey. If it's spikey it may help you focus on certain areas.

It's great that you have an IRL friend you can talk to. You'll need her help, and you'll need to teach her things as you learn them.

Think about things in your life that calm you down or make you happy.

Many of us have Special Interests and when we do things related to them, or even just think about them, it calms us down. It's neurochemical, and is a very powerful tool.

Many of us also have 'stims' that calm us down. These are movements or things we look at (like spinning things) that stimulate the release of certain neurochemicals. Rocking out to music is basically a stim that everyone does. Stims are voluntary (not tics), and can be altered, so if you have a weird natural stim, you can convert it into something less disturbing.

There is a difference between a tantrum and a melt-down. Most kids (and lots of grown-ups) have tantrums. Melt-downs look the same but are neurologically completely different. They are the result of sensory overload, and what you need to do is be alone and do something that calms you down, like a Special Interest or stim. You can learn to notice the beginnings of a melt-down, and do things to prevent it.

You will need to involve your parents as well. The OASIS site has some really good resources:

http://www.udel.edu/bkirby/asperger/

And of course they are welcome here, too.