Greetings :-) just registered

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Hello everyone! I'm a bit nervous writing this and it's taken me days to pluck up the courage to register and write this.

I am in my 30s and have spent the whole of my life in my native UK. I have a steady job and a girlfriend.

I never really did fit in at school and used to have a select group of friends. Unfortunately my lack of social skills meant I was on the radar of every teacher and headmaster (read principal if your American) and sadly every bully. It didn't help that by 15 I was six feet tall, about 120 pounds had ginger hair and big chunky glasses. By the age of 16 I started to think I had a human body but not a human mind. I used to say to myself "why am I like this?" I began to think how good it would be if I could fit into any group at all then get on with my life. I was even referred to the school psychologist, who diagnosed nothing out of the ordinary.

I got decent grades at school then drifted in employment. I decided on office work but soon struggled with the multi tasking and networking culture. I had a vicious circle of frustration and poor performance and ended up leaving lots of jobs in the late 90s

Aged 22 I went to university to study law - while keeping a part time office job. I ended up with a 2.2 in 2004. However, I soon found out that law is a place where soft skills can make or break you. I remember a class on image building and how important it was to wear the right suit. All I could think was "what I load of bulls**t! Just because you're sharp dressed and have a haircut that looks like it was precision engineered, it doesn't mean you know your stuff! What are you training me to be a lawyer or a model?" Furthermore one thing aspies can never be is an ass kisser - and that's our best feature folks!.
With hopes of a law career sailing over the horizon I began to drift career wise.

In 2005, desperate for money I ended up in a call centre. This was the first time I had dealt with the public. Believe or not they loved me! I got good performance scores, earned a decent bonus, made lots of friends and the boss liked me. This also helped my social skills no end.

It was it this point that I first read an article about Asperger's syndrome in 2007. Curious I took an online test, which came out borderline. It followed it up with my family doctor who was totally dismissive. He reckoned that if a had aspergers I would have difficulty striking up a conversation and would talk about the same subject all the time. And so I got on with life but my happiness was about to come to an end.

Emboldened by my success I took a promotion (which involved additional off the phone work) and became a union rep at the same time
BIG MISTAKE I know - now any way. I never set out to offend any manager but my mouth got me into trouble big time. I didn't help that my union boss was big on social networking. The friction reached breaking point and I walked away from the union and nearly my job also. I was fortunate that my head of department liked me and persuaded me to stay on. Life returned to normal until I got a new boss. It wasn't long before we hit it off on the wrong note. We were just cut from totally different cloth! Here we go again I thought. Another job to add to the failure list. Unable to cope I went off with stress.

However my head of department was no ordinary manager. Rather than just dispense with my services, she referred me to thecompany doctor. That meeting changed my life. He suggested I had aspergers after just 10 minutes talking to me! It turns out my head of department had suspected I was an aspie and asked him to look into it. I will always be grateful to these two people for this!

I still had to go through a rigorous series of test to diagnose this. A support worker had to ask probing questions about my entire life, then do the same with my parents and sister. My family were ok but weary about the whole thing. It left me feeling very awkward. Getting these test wasn't easy either. To illustrate the level of ignorance about AS that still exist in England - my doctor didn't even know that you could test adults for AS or how to obtain one. She had to ring for advice!

My work have been great since my diagnosis. That boss I told you about has an autistic relation so she's now a lot more easy going on me. I even regard her a friend I can confide in. I have my own desk, so I can have the layout and the screens just as I like them. My working day is also structured so I'm allowed to focus on one task at time. It was awkward explaining these sudden new arrangements with my colleagues but decided to tell them the truth - after all if the can't live with that it's not as if I can cure myself!

A colleague asked me how long I had suffered from AS for. I replied "I don't suffer from it. Life's quite good actually."

Like most aspies i do have a big interest - trains. I have all kinds of books and models of them. I've recently decided to make the most of this by pursuing an career on the railways preferably as a driver. I figure it's probably better for an aspie to pursue a career in their specialist subject and let the AS do the driving - in my case literally.

Goodbye for now. I haven't got a blog yet as my life is a bit dull. I'll start one as soon as i get that job on the railways because then I'll have lots to talk about.

I've read some of your post on this section already and hope to read more soon.

Man it feels good to fit in here! Take care

Welcome to Wrong Planet.

Welcome Jay

It's refreshing to read from someone with such a positive outlook on life. I related much with your story, and definitely understand the frustration of having the right work skills, yet still have to endure the struggles of networking. I'm happy to hear you had someone at work who could help you, and that you got there in the end.

As you read through the forums you'll find you will probably relate with more people on here than in your entire life. Everyone's quite helpful, and supportive here too, so I hope you feel right at home.

Wow. It seems as if you have had some problems, but eventually things have worked out for you. Congratulations! BTW I was 63 by the time I was diagnosed. That was really hard, as I had to recall a lot of my childhood experiences and those were decidedly NOT fun. Anyway, welcome to Wrong Planet and good luck.

Thanks again guys

Welcome!

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Welcome