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Hello, I'm new here, as you can clearly see. Just wanted to say hi. I JUST discovered this site, so I was interested.

Anyway, it was actually just the other day I was having a session with my therapist, when halfway through the session, she suddenly brought up the idea of Asperger's Syndrome in Females to me, and we were looking at videos and such about it, and how I might have a mild case of it. She had brought it up because she remembered me telling her of my therapist before her mentioning that I might fall somewhere on the Autism Spectrum or whatever. Anyway, since then, I've done research and whatnot, along with discussing it with my mother, and I've come to a conclusion that I might very well have AS, or at the very least, a mild case of it.

Either way, reviewing the traits and doing an unofficial check list of sorts, I realize how I've seemed to have traits since I was young (of what I can remember at least). I'm not diagnosed, but my therapist told me, along with reading online, that AS in females can be misdiagnosed or not even thought of to be tested because of how subtle the traits are compared to men. I'm also diagnosed with moderate to severe depression, generalized anxiety, a dependent disorder, alexithymia, along with having symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Anyway, was looking on Wiki, and saw a link about this site, and figured I should join to find out more, and if I do have AS, to find out ways to cope and such other things. So, thanks for having me?

Anyway, general information: I'm 22 years old (just turned in June), I live in Wichita, KS, am going to a community college to get my AAS in Web Development, and am currently seeking a job and waiting for the fall semester to start.

Welcome.

Hi Tsuki,

Welcome to the forum... it's helped me to learn a lot about myself

Hello.

Greetings, Tsuki722! Good to have you aboard!

I know sometimes the newly diagnosed, or those still coming to grips with the possibility that AS may explain difficulties with which they've struggled their entire lives prefer to think of their particular case as "mild" - I know I did at first - when one has been brought up to believe that they're no different than everybody else (even though life experience has proven that not to be true), its difficult at first to appreciate and fully accept just how deep those differences really run and just how hard you have been unconsciously struggling all your life to keep them hidden.

Now I cringe at the use of the term "mild case" when describing High Functioning Autism or Asperger Syndrome, personally I find it insulting and condescending, as though because we are capable of developing more sophisticated coping mechanisms, that somehow sensory overloads, anxiety and panic attacks and long term hyper-stress levels somehow aren't as painful for us as they are for someone whose functional abilities are also impaired.

In many ways, I think these impairments can actually be more detrimental and difficult over the long term for those of us who appear outwardly (at first glance at least) to be relatively "normal," because the world expects more of us and comes down much harder on us when we can't live up to our parents', teachers' and employers' expectations. A lifetime of being berated, ridiculed and punished for invisible handicaps over which you have no control, and which no one around you will believe are real, takes a serious psychological and emotional toll.

I'll get off my soapbox. As you get familiar with the condition and all its idiosyncrasies and effects, I think you'll see what I mean. It took me a while to fully appreciate just how much AS had not just "affected" me, but literally played a part in shaping my entire personality from birth onward - that I am the person I am because my Autism makes me different than the people around me, every minute of every day. I see the world through different eyes than they do and always have, therefore my perceptions and reactions to everything that happens to me are colored by the alternate wiring schematic in my neurology.

I did say I was shutting up now, didn't I?

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Nice to meet you! Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Thank you everyone for the welcome! =D

And Willard, if you'll pardon me for any possible offense with the "mild case" thing, I just wasn't sure. And have been thinking about it now for days and such, and have been coming to terms with perhaps that with having Autism, was why I particularly struggled most of my life with most things. It makes me see things in a whole new light. Either way, I don't want to let it drag me down. But thank you for the support! =)

Hi. Welcome to WP