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New here, my name is Jett and I am an artist, a painter. I was diagnosed formally with AS some years ago.

It was very difficult to live over half my life without a reason, a way to tell someone, an explaination, or even a word for as to how I could have a very high IQ and yet not be able to do the social interactions without fear and difficulty... why loud noise was not something I could be around... etc. etc. etc. blah!

I was really frustrated explaining to NTs (family/partners) who expected me to do things I could not do, that "I am not like you, really... I am not like other people," and thinking they could understand.

But I knew since I was small, I was not like "them", I had no idea why or what exactly was the reason but I knew I absolutely was not like them.

I really felt maybe something was wrong with me, questioned myself as to why I could not just do what everybody else did and seemed to be enjoying to boot. Really I spent years getting others to run into gas stations for me. Now I do it myself but if I go to the same place too often and the clerk gets to familiar with maybe a "Hey, have not seen you for a while," I will stop going to that station completely.

It is getting much to close to having to try to carry on a conversation with a total stranger.

In any case, being diagnosed with AS was a strange relief, although it has not made the rough stuff easier, it has given me an answer to the questions I have been asking myself my whole life... the big one especially, "what the hell is wrong with me?! !" And just knowing there were other people like me out there somewhere.

There really were people like me, and I felt so much less alone than I had for my entire life.

And for a while after I was diagnosed, all those things in my life that I could not explain to myself, so many memories of things in my childhood, teens and onward fit and made total sense now.

It has not been an easy road, it has been really hard sometimes and still is... but I would not change a thing, because although "really I am not like other people" I would'nt have it any other way.

So finding this site is again a relief, I have read so many things and I'm like, whoa... I do that, that, and that too, and... so do they.

Looks like I have a lot more reading to do, and believe me I will non-stop relentlessly like I do anything else that causes a spark in me.

But I just wanted to say hello and formally introduce myself before I began... so... hello.

(My apoligies for the ramble, I do tend to do that when left unchecked ... )

Hey Jett! I'm sort of an artist too, although I do sketches whenever I feel like it (meaning in class).

The diagnosis, as you've found out, doesn't help out with the rough stuff (except for convincing some friends and family members), although it provides mental relief for getting those big questions and laying them to rest, relax, and have a cup of coffee.

Welcome to WP!

I am the shy green eyed autistic lab pet. We are bound by our neuropathy in unexpected ways, yes? Do you have an enhanced sensory modality (and perhaps and eidetic memory)? I am artistic too. Because of my deficiets - previous sentence - I sometimes feel faint and need to lay down; sometimes I do not feel well. But, I am grateful I am as Aspie......bittersweet. I am mostly non-verbal. Oh, hi.

Welcome to WP!! !!

OK, Your in. but a Dx does not an aspie make. Same deal here, found this great place, I understand, but I have yet to match a pair here. The range and mix is awesome. When little children let me color in their book, they have to fix it, I have no musical talent, and here I met the first person, other than me, who said, I do not like music, it is just noise.

I do live in constant surprise at the insights, this mix is my tribe.

Welcome to WP!

You will find the following to be even more the case after you talk with some people from WP.

Welcome to wp, nice introduction. I love art and have done since I was a child, but mostly pre raphaelite.

Welcome to WP!

Tim

Thank you all for the welcome, it is appreciated.

Hello lab_pet, yes I do feel that strong connection here, unlike anywhere else. And I do have a exceptional memory but I would be hard pressed to call it eidetic, if it does not keep my interest, it is less likely to be stored adquately. Also, yes I have an extreme sensitivity to sounds in particular.

Nice to meet you.
(Oh, I too am not nearly as verbose real-time either, as a matter of fact it is like night and day, online/RL.)

Thank you for the welcome, and yes, that is the truth and I totally concur, diagnoses does not an Aspie make, and that we are as diverse as any other group. But if I have ever been sure of anything in my life it is that I have AS. From the time my mothers friend (who had an autistic son) said "Is your daughter autistic?" and my mother replied "No she has above average intelligence" looks at me "'J" put your arms down".

To her stories of how as a baby I never ever cried nor made a single peep, and my father would return from work and she would be crying and say "She's ret*d, she barely eats and never makes a sound".

Until I just began talking in sentences.

Tip of the iceberg, but I will not bore you with the subsequent details of all my experiances.

In any case I spent years in the DSM books looking for a name for what I was, but unfortunately it was not in there yet. I had considered autistic often, but remembered what my mother had said about intelligence and had the same lines of thought about autism as she, that autistic people had low IQs. I found out later I was wrong while speaking with a doctor at the Mayo Clinic (I live in the Mayo community so My reg Dr.s are there) who out right asked if I was ever diagnosed autistic.

Testing began, diagnoses was made and I began to research. I found that I could be a poster child for AS, it encompassed every "odd" eccentric behavior and obsession I have.

So although I totally agree, a diagnoses does not make AS, a lifetime lived in a bubble of autistism related issues has been rather convincing to me.

Peace...

Welcome - I think most of us knew we were different from an early age, at least I always considered myself so.