What is your first name? Dee
Age: 49
Location: Upper Midwest
Hobbies and Interests: Motorcycles, Music, Classic Films, Science and Computers,Linux and FreeBSD (actually, all the *Nix's)
Why are you here? Recently diagnosed after a meltdown at work
When were you diagnosed?(skip if you don't have a disorder): One week ago
Favorite subjects:
Year/Grade:
Favorite music: Jazz (especially 50's/60's), Classic Rock. Also really appreciate good TV theme music, love Quincy Jones, Henry Mancini, Van Cleave, Nelson Riddle.
Books: George Orwell (I think I've read everything he ever published), American Pastoral by Philp Roth, Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Poe, and most all of HP Lovecraft
TV shows/Movies: Movies - American Splendor, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, American Grafitti; TV - The Invaders, all Star Trek Series, The Prisoner
Instrument: Double Bass
Do you like sports? Football (college and pro)
Family: Married with one child
Clothing: Whatever my wife buys me
How did you find this website? Google search
Job: Engineer
Plans for the future? Would like to go into business on my own some day, maybe after retirement
Any comments? Had really lonely childhood and adolescense. Did not go to one single party or after school event at anytime in high school, no friends (not even geeky friends). After two hospitalizations and a year in a group home, I got fed up, read Dale Carnegie and some books about body language, and just started observing other people. This is before anyone in this country knew anything about Asperger's, but I of course knew my biggest problem was with social skills. Lo and behold, after really studying hard, I actually started picking up friends, got a college degree and a job, dated, got married, bought a house, etc., etc. People who know me know would have a hard time believing there is anything neurologically different about me.
Fast forward 25 years. I work for a corporation that's been turning over executive managment like crazy for the last two years, and I have had six different bosses in last 18 months. That would be stressful enough for anyone, but recenlty after going all Michael Bolton on some office furniture, I finally decided to go seek some help. I had always suspected I might be on the spectrum, but I was really shocked by the test results. (48 AQ, 17 EQ). My therapist picked up on my fake eye contact (I look at people's noses, always seems to work), voice modulation, etc. that untrained people would not notice.
I really like my family, work, etc., don't want to lose any of that.