Another Newbie

Post Reply New Topic

Hi to all! I’m Chuck and I’m 54. I had never heard of Asperger’s Syndrome until about 2 months ago when I discovered it by accident on the internet and took the Aspie Quiz and scored 125. I’ve known since my teenage years I was a bit different from most and I’ve come to describe myself as being at one end of the Bell curve or the other on just about every aspect of my life. Now it seems I have a name for it.

I’ve done a lot of research but I’m still trying to get my head around it. I’m poor at feeling/expressing/recognizing my emotions and recognizing the emotions of others. I’m poor in social situations, missing a lot of stuff, and I’ve given up on a relationship. I do have a few good friends. I love my routines and recognize patterns everywhere and everything in my house is lined up somehow.

One of my special interests, amateur radio, got me some friends in high school and led to a successful career in electronics. I was fortunate to find a job where I was able to work alone 90% of the time as I would not have made a good team player. When I get into something, I tend to become the expert and want to do it my way. Not good for teams! I was able to stick around long enough to qualify for early retirement when they closed our department. It didn’t bother me much since I had always considered work as just a way to earn money to do the things I really wanted to do.

I would likely not be able to receive a clinical diagnosis of AS as I don’t seem to meet some of the official requirements such as Executive Function problems. Many I strongly meet though. I’ve found the Attwood and Gray “Discovery of Aspie” criteria fits me quite well. I consider myself at this point to be an associate member of the aspie club.

The biggest thing I’m trying to sort out is my seemingly non-aspie childhood. It’s simply impossible to have all these traits as an adult and none as a child. I think they may have been masked. From age 4 to 14 I had close by neighbors who had boys my age and I was simply part of the social group. It was more like a big extended family that grew up together instead of just friends. You were accepted “as is.” I didn’t have to make friends. And besides in those days, to put it bluntly, you were either normal or you were ret*d. I was smart kid so I was clearly not the latter.

I was introverted and very shy, and when you add that to being happy with routines and smart, I got along easily in school which I know is atypical for many aspies. My parents were quite strict and I got the correct way to act socially beat into me, quite literally. My memories are rather fuzzy, but I believe I ran afoul of the correct way to act socially many times. I also did not have meltdowns, but I tend to turn things inward. Meltdowns would not have been accepted either.

At 14 we moved to the Midwest and I started high school. I found out I didn’t know how to make a friend and had none the entire year. No one seemed to share my interests there. If you weren’t into sports, and I wasn’t, you were not included. Fortunately we moved back to California for my sophomore year and I discovered they had an amateur radio club where I made some friends through a shared interest.

Enough for now. I have plenty of stories but that’s the highlights. Nice to find WP!

Nice to meet you, Chuck.

To WrongPlanet!! !

Hi Chuck,

welcome to WP.

It's not that unusual for aspies to get along well in school. It's just that a lot of the time, the only stuff written about aspies at school is negative.
When I was at primary school (age 5-11) I did fairly well. I was higher-average academically, the teachers liked me and never had complaints about me, I even had a friend who i'd met through kindergarten. Things only started going horrible the years I was at intermediate school (age 11-13) as I realised that I was different, lashed out, tried to avoid school etc and by high school, I was in a depression and dropped out.
Besides, these days there are quite a few alternative education options and some with AS do well in those rather than mainstream.

Not everyone with AS has Executive Function problems. I don't think thats a part of the official diagnosis requirements, but it is listed as a possible sign of AS or something that can occur with it. Atleast, thats what I read.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy posting here.

Hi, Chuck!

Welcome to Wrongplanet!

I hope you enjoy posting here!

Welcome to Wrong Planet!