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thementat
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02 Feb 2012, 11:25 pm

I've been seeing a psychologist for about a month and a half and he said I'm likely to have AS. He told me that this is actually not his area of expertise so I asked for a referral to another psychologist, as AS is likely to be my primary issue. The other psychologist is a child, adolescent and adult psychologist and he agreed with the first psychologist diagnosis that I have mild AS. Though mild, it does explain a lot about certain things in my life and why certain things are so hard for me.

So far, the new psychologist takes interest in friendships I had/have (or don't have) and my difficulty creating new friendships and social interaction. I'm not sure whether this is AS related, but part of the problem is that I don't find a lot of people I'm interested in being with. Does anyone else has this issue?



goodwitchy
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03 Feb 2012, 12:53 am

thementat wrote:

So far, the new psychologist takes interest in friendships I had/have (or don't have) and my difficulty creating new friendships and social interaction. I'm not sure whether this is AS related, but part of the problem is that I don't find a lot of people I'm interested in being with. Does anyone else has this issue?


Yes. That's one of my problems too....besides being shy, especially with strangers (except online).

Congratulations on finding a new doc. 8)


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pschristmas
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03 Feb 2012, 1:17 am

thementat wrote:
I don't find a lot of people I'm interested in being with. Does anyone else has this issue?


Yes. I generally find that most people don't bear a lot of attention over the long term. I imagine I don't, either, for them. There are very few people I can spend a lot of time around and not be bored or stressed and desperate for an escape. Being alone is much more interesting and relaxing -- generally, I don't even think about people who aren't physically around in more than the most fleeting of ways. I have to consciously make myself keep in touch with friends and family. Actually, I've grown to like FaceBook more and more for this reason exactly -- I tend to think about people more and not forget them.



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03 Feb 2012, 3:20 am

Yes. Even if I am enjoying someone, I am still clueless about how to act so it makes me nervous and I am waiting to mess up. I wish I could go back to not being so clueless because I had no awareness and I was a kid then so I never worried about messing up. If someone treated me like crap, I still talked to them.



fleurdelily
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03 Feb 2012, 4:40 am

thementat wrote:
.
friendships I don't have, and my difficulty creating new friendships and social interaction. I'm not sure whether this is AS related, but part of the problem is that I don't find a lot of people I'm interested in being with. Does anyone else has this issue?


yes. that's me. I don't have friends, though I occasionally take an interest in a person, but kind of like they're a subject, not a person, then tire of them, as I can't reciprocate, and they get confused and don't know what to make of someone like me.... just destined to fail at friendships. Growing up, I felt like I should have friendships, and I didn't want anyone to know that I didn't... but mostly, I want to be alone with my thoughts. I do get lonely, but I need my space. If I were schizoid, I wouldn't care... it's the caring, or feeling like I ought that is torture.

It's a conundrum.

Welcome, btw.


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thementat
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03 Feb 2012, 7:29 am

Thanks for the feedback. For me, I guess I'm alone and lonely. But...... I can get fine by being alone though in recent years it becomes more and more boring and I feel like I'm missing out on things. I can also relate to a few things that were said such as being clueless - yes, even on the rare occasions that I'm interested in a person, I don't know exactly what do to with it. I can't talk too much before I've "exhausted" myself and sooner or later I might say something weird.



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03 Feb 2012, 10:25 am

The trick seems to be to find people to do things with, rather than just talk to. Mutual interests can fill in the gaps for clumsy conversationalists.

Make sure to remind your counselor that you have problems to solve beyond just friendships. Some counselors who have AS clients will tend to focus too much on socializing to the exclusion of other useful skills, such as self-regulation, organization, self-advocacy, etc.

Congrats on the diagnosis. It's always useful to have a name for something. Helps you define the problems better, so you can solve them--and gives you the refreshing knowledge that other people have had the same problems before you. Not that life with AS is particularly difficult; but the difficulties do tend to be different for AS than for NTs, and if you don't know how to handle them, they can totally drive you crazy.


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thementat
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03 Feb 2012, 8:39 pm

Callista wrote:
The trick seems to be to find people to do things with, rather than just talk to. Mutual interests can fill in the gaps for clumsy conversationalists.

Make sure to remind your counselor that you have problems to solve beyond just friendships. Some counselors who have AS clients will tend to focus too much on socializing to the exclusion of other useful skills, such as self-regulation, organization, self-advocacy, etc.

Congrats on the diagnosis. It's always useful to have a name for something. Helps you define the problems better, so you can solve them--and gives you the refreshing knowledge that other people have had the same problems before you. Not that life with AS is particularly difficult; but the difficulties do tend to be different for AS than for NTs, and if you don't know how to handle them, they can totally drive you crazy.

Yes, I agree. Unfortunately, I also don't have a great deal of areas of interest and they also do not overlap with other people interest. And yes, I definitely have other issues other than socializing. Fortunately, organizing and clumsiness are not included - I'm pretty good at them.

However, life with AS do seem difficult, at least for me. And after realizing certain things in my life recently, I do realize window of opportunity is narrowing down as I grow older. I'm still young - 35. However, finding people to be with gets harder with time as people my age are two busy with kids or their significant other.



MindWithoutWalls
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03 Feb 2012, 8:41 pm

Callista wrote:
Make sure to remind your counselor that you have problems to solve beyond just friendships. Some counselors who have AS clients will tend to focus too much on socializing to the exclusion of other useful skills, such as self-regulation, organization, self-advocacy, etc.


Excellent advice. I'm reading a book that, while it doesn't cover everything, is turning out to be rather helpful. It's called Living Well on the Spectrum: How to Use Your Strengths to Meet the Challenges of Asperger Syndrome / High-Functioning Autism, and it's by Valerie L. Gaus, PhD. I got it from my local library. My girlfriend found it for me. It has a lot of information to help in many areas of life. You might want to check it out.

Congratulations on getting a proper diagnosis!


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04 Feb 2012, 12:54 pm

For me it usually doesn't have anything to do with the person. I can talk to, in a way, several people (not all at once) but if it is a topic that makes no sense to me, then I just sit there. But if is a topic I understand, I can join and sometimes seem normal. I hate the fact that my AS isn't noticable enough that people see it. If they did, I would feel more confident that they can take it into consideration.

Sorry, I'm starting to get off topic. But to answer the original post, it depends on what they are talking about, not who they are.



RiverRawr
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05 Feb 2012, 2:33 am

thementat wrote:
Thanks for the feedback. For me, I guess I'm alone and lonely. But...... I can get fine by being alone though in recent years it becomes more and more boring and I feel like I'm missing out on things.


I've felt that way all my life, really.