Newly diagnosed

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Hi everyone,

I'm new on the forum, have been recently diagnosed with ASS. Not sure if it's exactly the same as Asperger's...
I'm 27 years old, live in Belgium and work in debtor administration, which means that I have to make a lot of phone calls to companies who have overdue invoices from other companies... In the beginning it was hell, because I'm quite shy and not used to talking that much... Now it's better but I still get anxiety when people get angry or don't give me the chance to say anything... But I applied for this job because we have a script that we can follow for the phone calls and the software program we work with is quite straight forward... So there's a lot of structure and repetitiveness, which I prefer... The mail box can be al lot more difficult though, because obviously the mails people send are often not that clear and straight forward...
I also have a diagnosis of dyspraxia, which means that unlike most Aspies, I'm a really slow thinker and not good at analyzing things... I think I also have a bit of dyscalculia because I always get numbers mixed up, which doesn't really come in handy at my hob...
My autism is probably most noticeable in my lack of social skills... I really hate small talk and I just suck at it... To be honest, most of the time I'm not that interested in other people unless they have the same interests like me like music (mostly indie pop/rock, movies (with depth and a good story, not the Hollywood blockbusters), books, stand-up comedy, dogs, exotic food, politics, psychology, philosophy, the economy... My social life is pretty much non-existent because I barely have friends... Somehow I always end up getting left out, probably because I'm too quiet (especially in groups), because I'm too much stuck in my own head... So most of the time I'm stuck at home because I have no-one to do the activities I'm interested in with, like going to concerts of my favorite bands, going to the movies, to a stand-up show... Or I do activities I don't really care for with people (who I don't really care for) just for the sake of "doing something social"... Do any of you have some kind of advice to improve my social skills/life because I'm just sick of the way things have been my entire life...I'm already a member of an organisation for younger (and other) singles, but even there you have these seperate groups of people who get along better with each other than with other people... I also have some people I get along with better than other people but I still don't belong to any group, I'm floating somewhere in between...

Have a nice weekend,



BlackStar

Welcome to WP! Are there any autism support groups in your area?

What does ASS mean? I'm from Belgium too and I've never heard of that
acronym

Hey BlackStar welcome.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

I actually meant ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), I actually used the Dutch acronym...

There is a support group in my area who organizes all kinds of activities, but unfortunately most of them take place in towns that aren't that nearby... At the end of this month I will probably attend one of the activities, I'm nervous already...

ASS is a broader term (equivalent to the ASD acronym), under which Asperger's falls.

Anyway, welcome to the forum.

Hi, welcome! You can float with us. My main socialization is with my three dogs. They are always happy to be with me. Do you like animals? Are you allowed to have a pet where you live? Once in a while I will take the dogs to a dog park. It's an hour away or I would go there more often. It seems easier to talk to the people there because the conversation usually centers around the dogs.