Diagnosed today, diving straight in...

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Hello peoples,

I'm 36 years old, living nr Oxford. Got a diagnosis of Asperger's today (I'd only suspected it for a few months), and thought I'd dive right in and say hi, rather than my usual lurking. Hi.

Hopefully I'm in the right place, and nobody's going to say "hey I'm near Oxford, let's meet up at some noisy pub with a big pack of my random friends."

So I'm feeling a bit flat and odd now. The diagnosis was from a nice young junior psychiatrist who appeared to be about 17 and was consulting a photocopy of the diagnostic criteria, and had to pop across the building to confer with the senior doctor. So I'm worrying that I might have talked myself into a diagnosis I don't really deserve. And on the other hand I'm failing to remember what the point of a diagnosis was in the first place - it does feel like "just a label" now. Bleargh.

Anyway, my current obsession is researching my surname history. And I have a sub-obsession (one of my overambitious flights of fancy) to see if artificial neural networks can be trained to recognise my surname written in pre-1700 handwriting, so I can get my computer+webcam to scan through old wills to help my research.

And hopefully I don't seem quite as odd to you guys as I do everywhere else?

cheers...

Welcome to Wrongplanet, Woodenboy.

Welcome to WP!

You don't seem odd at all, and it's really nice to meet you.

Lots of people are interested in their surnames, and I think your "sub" obsession sounds like it might have some useful applications.... if you could get a modern computer to "read" pre17th century manuscripts it would be incredibly useful for modern historians. I'm interested anyway.

My very favourite surname of all time is MacMoyre, or Murry, (and variants thereof). I realise I'm a terrible nerd, and nobody else is interested, but basically the Murrays (etc) are descended from the "Keeper of the Book", an hereditary Irish title, for the lucky guy who got to defend the Book of Armagh, which contains a copy of one of St Patrick's letters... the one where he writes an absolutely scathing attack on a British "Christian" King who kidnapped Irish converts and sold them as slaves. The last Keeper of the Book to actually have the book was in the 1700s, and under the penal laws that were brought in at the time she (and many other Irish) became all but destitute, and she sold the "Book" for £5... and was able to keep her family from starving to death. Fortunately a Catholic Bishop managed to get the money together to buy the book, and it now resides in Trinity College Dublin, an often overlooked manuscript kept in a glass case near the more famous book of Kells.

Oh, and as far as I know, I'm not descended from the "Keepers." I am, however, descended from some disaffected priest who stole it, then repented, and gave it back. (This incident is why they decided they needed a Keeper in the first place.) Back in those days priests were allowed to marry. They were not, however, allowed to run around the country with holy relics, as my dissolute ancestor discovered.

Anyway... the above diatribe should help you understand, surname obsessives are welcome here!

Hi WoodenBoy, welcome to WP.

Don't worry about having such a young psychologist; in fact, they are probably more thorough than older ones because they haven't learnt to go with their 'gut feeling' and instead rely on silly things like official diagnostic criteria... (also, they double-checked).

I think if you're an adult, you kind of have to 'sell' yourself a bit to get the diagnosis, because most people by the time they're 20 have learnt at least a few social skills through trial and error and subsequently, may be considered too social to have AS. It doesn't make you a fraud to point out where you fit the criteria.

Welcome to WP, WB

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome to WP

Welcome cheers to the Wrong Planet neighborhood, WoodenBoy.

HEY! I'M PRETTY CLOSE TO OXFORD! MAYBE WE COULD MEET UP SOME TIME AND HAVE SOME BEERS! OH! AND I'VE GOT A LOT OF REEEAAALLY COOL FRIENDS YOU'D LOVE TO MEET!! !! !




Sorry. Couldn't resist.

I'm in the U.S. I could have a beer while thinkin' about ya though.

Welcome. And no, you don't seem odd.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!!

welcome

Thanks for the nice welcome + comments + reassurances everyone.

Will see you all around, I hope.

Hello WoodenBoy, welcome, enjoy your stay on the Wrong Planet!