Hi. I'm very new to all of this.

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I'm new, both to this site and to having an Aspergers diagnosis.

For the past few weeks my new therapist has talked about it with me, said it was quite obvious to her, but let me thinking about it for a week before she officially diagnosed me. I'm sure the week I spent thinking about accepting the diagnosis was more of a way for me to deal with the diagnosis than it was to actually think my way out of it.

During that week I tried to objectively look at myself in light of the possibility of Aspergers. I also asked others what they thought about it. I discovered that I have done a really good job the past two years at catching onto social cues and interaction with others. A good handful of people told me that. Because I am not around people a lot, and when I am I have learned to mimic others, it was a bit less obvious to them than it was to my therapist and even me. I asked my Mother about how I was as a child, though I didn't tell her about the diagnosis hanging in the balance during that conversation. The things she told me matched right up, and not only that, but near the end of it, without a single mention of it from me, she said that she's thought for a long time that I have Aspergers. I haven't, nor will I probably ever, admit it to her. Just as I keep my other struggles private from her, I will this one as well.

Anyway, it's obvious that this is all very new to me, even a bit confusing. I also have PTSD and OCD, and though I have been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder since 16, right now my therapist and I agree that, whether or not I have Bipolar Disorder, may need to be reevaluated.

I just wanted to introduce myself and I hope to get a feel for how this site works over the next week.

Hello and welcome, Enterprise!

Nice to meet you! Welcome to Wrong Planet!

You don't state your current age, but it's common for Aspergians to develop 'coping mechanisms' as they grow up - it's one of the things that makes it a bit more difficult to diagnose AS or HFA in adults - we mask it well, because the mimicry has become unconscious second nature.

Also, asking the people you are around a lot how well you're picking up social cues is not really a fair test of your abilities - of course you learn to read people you're familiar with, but how do you fare when you're thrown into a social encounter with people you just met? You may not be as facile as you think you are and those missed cues are much more obvious to those who are just meeting you.

I do fine around people I'm comfortable with (I think), but I'm clueless around strangers. Just yesterday, I walked away from a brief encounter with a person I barely know and one I was just meeting and realized Doh! That person was trying to cue me to enter a discussion about X and I completely missed it!



If she is already convinced you have AS, you're not really keeping much from her by not admitting it. Besides, it's nothing to be ashamed of, any more than people with Dyslexia should be embarrassed that their brain wiring has a slight glitch in it. Stuff happens. My Mom thought I was nuts when I told her I was being evaluated for a form of autism and she even had friends whose family members were diagnosed with AS, but once she actually read up on what it meant, she agreed right away it was a perfect description of me.

Welcome to the neighborhood!

Thank you guys for the warm welcome. I am excited to be a part of this community.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome to WPea