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Hello all,

I'm new member from Saginaw, Michigan, USA. In lieu my user nickname (Scytale), you can also call me DJ (my real first/middle initials).

I'm 37 years old (male) and was just recently diagnosed with AS. I never had any sort of mental health treatment as a child and only once before as an adult (very briefly for work-related stress). Until recently, I'd only heard of AS by name on a TV show but had no idea what it was. The context of the show hinted a connection to autism, but it never crossed my mind to look into it further. The concepts of high-functioning autism and an autistic spectrum were completely unknown to me then.

When I voluntarily sought treatment this year for depression/anxiety symptoms (after 3 years of trying to deal with it on my own), it never occurred to me that this is what they'd uncover. I was quite certain I had some kind of social anxiety or personality disorder. My therapist however suspected something else and picked-up on my AS-consistent patterns of behavior rather quickly--being experienced with it in his clinical practice.

Instead of telling me what it is, he merely told me the word and gave me a homework assignment to find out what I could about it. Doing my own research on AS was an incredibly eye-opening experience. So many aspects of my life that never made sense before suddenly started to make sense. I came across Dr. Juanita Lovett's book "Solutions for Adults with Asperger's Syndrome," which for me was extremely helpful. I could personally relate to almost every topic she covered.

This is all very new to me, yet the discovery has already changed me in a positive way. As I learn to live with AS, it's good to know that I'm not alone and there are resources like WP to let me interact with others living with it too (or affected by someone living with it).

That's all for now. Glad to be on board.

-DJ

welcome. We're mostly harmless..

Welcome Scytale!

Hi Scytale

welcome to WP.

I hope you enjoy posting here.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Hi Scytale welcome to the right Planet

To WrongPlanet!! !

Hello back to all who have replied so far.

[to pakled ] "Mostly harmless" you say? As I recall, that was how The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy described the Earth. Quite literally. The Guide's entire article on the Earth was just those 2 words, nothing more.

You have to bear in mind... that was the updated entry. Before Ford Prefect got his update accepted, it had said "Harmless".

PS. Welcome, Scytale!

Nice to meet you, Scytale.

Hi. welcome to Wrong planet!! !!

You're right lau. I forgot about that. Good catch. It's been so long since I last read HHG that I should re-read it again someday (as well as the sequels which I own copies of but never got around to reading).

It's actually quite a profound statement about keeping things in perspective. Few who live here would dare consider us (i.e., the human race) harmless to any degree, yet others would claim we're quite insignificant on the cosmic scale.