Long time lurker, first time posting

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Hello Everyone,

I have been lurking here for the past couple of months. More often than not, I would see a post that I could relate to and wished that I had an account to reply with. It's just that choosing the right nickname is such a difficult task. But, I could not put it off anymore. I really want to join this community, so that I can share my "aspie" experiences with everyone here.

Introduction:

I am 36 years old and happily married. My wife was the first one to point out that I may have Aspergers Syndrome. After living with me for a few years and going along with everything that I wanted to do, no matter how crazy it seemed to her, she started to believe that she must have a mental problem. While she was trying to figure out what was wrong with herself, she put the pieces together and correctly identified that I am the one that actually has a mental problem. It’s funny how the "sane" person can start to think they are the "crazy" one, because the person with the actual problem does not feel they have any problems at all.

So over the last year, I have been doing research on Aspergers Syndrome and seriously considering if I actually have it or not. After a long consideration and piecing back the history of my childhood, I realize that everything in my life can be summed up in one simple word, one simple diagnosis. It explains everything. The way I behaved and the choices that I made can completely be explained by Aspergers Syndrome. And I do believe there is a Genetic connection to all of this. I come from a very large family. And on my father’s side, I have a lot of "strange" relatives that I can now look back on in a new light, and see that they just have Aspergers Syndrome too.

I have no plans to get diagnosed. I do not need it. As a child at the age of 9, I was pulled aside from the normal class and put into the "special" class for Emotionally Handicapped children. And during that time, I never felt I should have been in that class. I never felt I was like any of those kids. I was quite calm, but these kids were yelling, screaming, and throwing things pretty much all of the time. But looking back, even though I could be calm 95% of the time, it was that 5% of the time when I "acted out" and had a severe "melt down" over my own inabilities that got me put into the principal’s office and eventually into that special class.

It’s funny that all of these years, all of this time, I considered myself to be "normal". And no one, outside of my school teachers and my wife, has ever said anything to me that would indicate that I have High Functioning Autism. Instead I have a lot of memories of being scolded at by people like my brother along with the question "Don't you have any common sense?”. I guess that is why it’s called "High Functioning". Not even my own family could see that I had a real problem, even though it was my parents signed the papers to put me into that special class.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. And if you skimmed it, that’s ok too.

Welcome to WP!

Hello Aspie-B, welcome, and enjoy your stay on the Wrong Planet!

Hi Aspie B, I am using my cat's name. He dissapeared more than a year ago.

To WrongPlanet!! !

Who wants the stigma... but then again everyday stress without a buffer can be a killer.

sometimes I feel more and more like opting out of social situations where there will be allot of action like shopping or work. But the good moments spent enjoying non limited expectations around others that haven't a clue about the way the cogs are working in my head are often worth the over stimulating experiences.

When I think of myself as Asperger I feel rainman-ish. When I think of myself as the person who has done the things that I have done I feel like I am Tim allen from Home improvement with the cool as Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry thing kinda going on.

Its what it is, I guess.

Might as well be.

cheers.('8O')('8)')

I never thought about that. That’s a great idea. I wonder if I can change my name.
I'm sorry to hear about your cat. I have had a few go missing in my lifetime too.

The first one was Sylvester. I received him as a kitten when I was nine from my favorite teacher from school. To be honest, I thought was I put into the "special class" because at the time, I declared the perfect storm had occurred. My cat went missing, my favorite teacher left, and my parents went through a separation. Now I look back and realize I withdrew from society because I could not accept all of the change that was occurring in my life.

After learning about the Aspergers Syndrome, I happened to be seated on a flight with a lady who was teacher’s aid for Special Needs children. Until I met her, I still thought that I was put into the class for the reasons stated above. But she told me about her experiences with the Asperger's and Autistic children. Apparently they love routine so much, that if anything changes in the day, they will get excited and cause a problem. So they started to post the schedule for them to see every day. And without fail, if there was any change to the schedule, they would talk about that change all day. Also if a teacher gets sick, and the school needs to bring in a Substitute teacher, she said that it will cause complete and total chaos among the children.

Continuing that thought, I was reminded of a time at the age of 11, when the whole school takes a week off to go on a field trip everyday to the Nature. I remember going the first day, and I still remember the feeling that I had sitting on the back of the bus. I felt uncomfortable, sad, and lonely. I had no idea that the real problem is that I could not accept the change in the schedule. On the next 2 days I refused to go to school. I ended up going 3 out of the 5 days. After I accepted the change, I was ok on the field trip, but it was a memory that I could never forget or ever understand, until I met that stranger on the plane.

Ok, the 2nd cat I lost was Fenster. Fenster and his brother Woodster were found as kittens hidden along the side of a fence at my home. Woodster was killed by the vet, after he attacked her and drew blood. The vet wanted to know if he had rabies. He didn't.

I got another cat and named him Zack. Zack was captured with Fenster by a neighbor in an animal trap and taken to the city pound. It was too late when I went to the pound and found out that they had already been put to sleep.


I was so sad, that I adopted a cat that day. I could not choose a cat, so I asked them to give me the next cat scheduled to be put asleep. I named him Gusto.

Later my brother brought home another kitten and he was all black and we named him Beanster. He had very bad mange. My father accidentally ran over him as a kitten shortly after that.

A year or so after all of that I moved out of my home, and took Gusto with me. He ran away from my new home about 3 days after I moved. I have not had a pet since then.

Last edited by Aspie-B on 26 Dec 2009, 9:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

Aspie B

Good lord

maybe try a dog?

Had a couple of Dogs too. Parakeets too. The first parakeet was named Pete. After he died we got another one and named him Repeat.

I always pick out the dogs, but they always liked my brother more than me.