Hello, I am new to this forum! My name is Luke

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Hi,

As I am new too this forum I thought I will tell you a bit about myself. I am now 29 years old (I will be 30 in July this year) and I have been diagnosed with AS since I was 11 which is quite early in comparison to other aspies I know personally. I come from Liverpool, England and I have lived here all of my life. The fact that I had quite an early diagnosis was in many ways a blessing to me as it meant that good provision could be made for me as I progressed though school, so I passed my GCSEs with good grades, went on to do my A-levels and eventually studies Physics at the University of Liverpool from 1999 to 2003 and I got a respectable 2:2 degree from thier.

I had developed many special interests from an early age one of the first intrests I had developed when I was around about 5 years old was an interest in central heating systems and in every house I went too I would ask to look at the boiler for the central heating system and I was absolutly facsinated with them and at the time I thought it was normal behaviour (of course it is for an Aspie!). I was also interested in streetlighting fixtures around the same time and I quickly moved on to an interest in aircraft and I was going to Liverpool Airport at least once a week with my Dad from when I was about 7 onwards with occasional visits to Manchester Airport too.

My aspergers like in many other cases has brought both its advantages and its problems but overall I have considered myself to overcome many of the negative aspects of the condition. I have a very good memory and I can concentrate very well on particular tasks. When I am travelling around I notice things that many NTs would not notice instinctively including the exact detail of roads, road markings, buildings, power and telephone lines etc. and I consider some things that most people would consider to be eyesaws to be facinating features of the landscape (e.g. wind turbines and power lines) - is that a particular AS characteristic. The main negatives is the the AS means that I do not understand body language in the same way an NT would, I do suffer from slight motor clumsiness (although I think that has improved over time), I can sometimes have a very clutted mind to the stage where I am thinking so much about a particular topic I cannot concentrate on anything else (including in some cases everyday essential tasks like dressing myself etc.) - does anyone else on the spectrum have that sort of problem? Also I have tended to suffer from anxiety and over worrying about things sometimes although that has improved since I have been on SSRI medication and some of my lack of understanding of social cues can tend to make me vunerable in certain social situations (e.g. if I was out in a pub or bar on my own).

Although I do think that my social skills have improved immensely over the past 10 years or so since I was in University and just before I left University I started to attend a social group run by a company called Autism Initiatives in thier office in Crosby (in the north of my home city of Liverpool) every Thursday night and here my social life took a very big step forward as I managed to form friendships on a level that I had never before achived in my life including a very close friend (who has AS like me) and even a girlfriend (and I had not had many of them before then!). So I think it was really good for me that I was mixing with other Aspies it did really work miracles for me - has anyone else had similar experiences?

I have now been in stable employment for 2 1/2 years, I work as an admin assistant/receptionist at a housing association in Liverpool as I thought that kind of work well matches my routines and I am really precise at that sort of job, I answer the telephones and sort out the petty cash among other things.

Anyway I could write a whole book on my experience and having AS makes me waffle sometimes, so I have tried to keep it as concise as I can - please feel free to ask any questions of my experience and of course tell me what you think!

Luke

Welcome to WP!

Hi Luke, welcome to WP!

Sounds like you're doing very well for yourself. I'm glad you were diagnosed early--that probably helped a lot.

My mom suspected "mild autism" from when I was five or six, but back then, at least in my area, there was no such thing clinically. Things were very difficult for both of us--me because I dreaded all social situations, especially school (grade school was AWFUL) and her because she was the only one standing up for me. As a result, she was constantly locking horns with people (especially school administrators) who thought I was "abnormal" and that the bullies who victimized me were "just being normal kids."

With her help, I have learned to adjust/adapt. I now am making up for never talking at all when I could get away with it to sometimes talking altogether too much. Thankfully, my coworkers and friends don't seem to mind.

I've only told a few people I have AS, partially because I am self-diagnosed and not everyone takes that seriously. One of my professors guessed it from the day he met me because one of his family members has AS.

A Physics degree--impressive. What is a "2:2 degree"? Sorry--I'm in the U.S. and our degree designations are different. My Bachelor of Science is in Psychobiology; my Master of Science (just graduated beginning of May) is in Applied Criminology. I am working at a fast-food restaurant while looking into teaching jobs and some other Crim-J related positions in my community.

Again, welcome to WP! Glad you found us.

welcome.

Welcome greetings, fellow-traveler Luke, to the WP neighborhood.

Greetings Luke, I'am your father. (only kidding).

Welcome to the forums.

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

Hello again - for that guy who was asking what a 2:2 degree is well in the UK we have a system of degree classification based on classes, with a First Class as the highest class of degree , then an Upper Second Class (2:1), Lower Second Class (2:2), then a Third Class and an Ordinary Degree. I believe that the US system is based on Grade Point Averages or GPAs is that correct and thier was a report not so long ago in one of our newspapers that the UK might drop the current degree classification system and move to a system more akin to that operating in the US.

Anyway nice to hear your experiences - and your welcomes for me to this forum. One question that I might like to ask is that my brain seems to be thinking almost constantly sometimes and sometimes I have a tendancy to think about a single topic all the time which sometimes makes it difficult for me to concentrate on anything else which can make it difficult to concentrate or to motivate myself on anything other than the topic I am thinking about and sometimes I really feel like I need to give my mind a rest as it constantly needs "feeding" - does anyone else on here have similar experinces?

Luke

Welcome to WP - your special interests sound great!

To WrongPlanet!! !

Greetings, Luke. and welcome.

Welcome here.

Welcome to WrongPlanet, and welcome to my 60s time warp.