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Hi all,

In adherence to protocol: another newbie here. I'm in my early 30s and, well, I had to give my gender when I registered and had to chose from the either-or binary, but I actually identify as something more in-between or genderless than female. I'm still exploring it and I'm not in a hurry.

I always knew that I was different, but I didn't have the confidence to pursue a diagnosis until recently, and I was diagnosed with Asperger's earlier this year. To me, this was validating and liberating. I feel less obligated to bend over backwards anymore to fit in or to please the world. I'm not getting it wrong, I'm not broken, I'm different.

I tried a local Asperger's forum, where I stayed until shortly after my diagnosis, and that forum was great for finding info on professionals for diagnosis and on self-help groups if you want them, but it isn't very active and didn't feel like my kind of place after all. I'm hoping that I can find a few more conversations that are relevant to me, with my kind of people, on a forum as active as this one than on a smaller regional one. Even though - with this one, I'm a bit apprehensive because of its sheer size. I'll have to see how it goes.

Thanks for reading.

The Lamplighter

Welcome to WP
I was diagnosed in January this year and it is truly liberating and validating.

Hi helles! It is, isn't it?

I read the Asperger's myth-topic in - I think it was the general discussion section - and saw that one or two people disagreed that Asperger's was a different way of being or thinking and insisted it was a disorder. I subscribe more to the way of thinking that makes it a social model disability (versus medial model disability), i.e.: only a problem in relation to the standard modus operandi of social interaction (in its current form), not a disorder or disability in and of itself.

Though, as long as the standard mode of interaction remains as it is, I do think Aspie's can benefit from AS being treated as a disability up to a point, so they don't have to playact to the point of exhaustion and possibly illness (that's when I, personally, started seeking a diagnosis). But I don't think of myself as being broken. I'm quite content to be the way I am, and now that I'm diagnosed, the cognitive dissonance between liking who (or rather, how) I am and nonetheless not being a good fit for the world as it is is becoming less oppressive.

Welcome Lamplighter

Hi TenPencePiece! Thank you!