Why I think I might have AS

Post Reply New Topic

That's right, you fit right in if you have the need to be physically stimulated all the time. My daughter and I are like that. We are very clingy to my husband-- I don't know how he can stand it! That would also explain why such self-destructive stimming tendencies.

Thank you so much to everyone who has replied to this thread. I appreciate tremendously the time and effort you have put in to reading what I wrote. It is fascinating for me to read about your feelings and experiences that are so similar to mine. You have made one weird woman very happy

I want to reply to every post because every one of them inspires me to say something! I hope I will get some time on my own later when I can write a lot. (I haven't told my partner that I have joined this forum so I am a bit secretive. I'm at work now and I've just made the browser text size very small so no-one can see! )

For now I will just answer this one:

The impression I get from this is that you, like me, have only one interest at a time. Each one might not last a lifetime, but when it's there it's all that matters and when it's gone it's gone! I call it "serial monogamy" (of interests instead of people).

My interest used to be techno music. I liked it hard, fast, very brutal and without any melody whatsoever. I loved the way it blanked out everything in my mind. I went around with big headphones on listening to it all the time. It made me a bit hyperactive but I didn't care because I was so happy in my world of constant banging noise with very simple rhythms that required no effort to understand and just went on and on and on. (I don't think I need to explain here that I enjoyed this despite the fact that I am usually very sensitive to the slightest noise, strange as that may seem to a "normal" person). I used to go to clubs and raves and when there was a slow bit in the music (even a 32-bar breakdown) I would start shouting at the DJ, "Get on with it!!" I started DJing myself at outdoor parties.

Then, suddenly, I found myself in a job where I got involved with a database and then all I cared about was databases and the techno music was left behind. I stopped hanging out with my rave-going friends completely (as I no longer had anything to say to them) and started looking for people to talk to about databases instead. Now I don't listen to any music at all but I think I might try listening to Bach or something like that because it is starting to feel a bit quiet without anything. I still work with databases but mainly I program phone systems. I like most aspects of computing now, especially open source software. I will happily talk to people about anything now - so long as it has something to do with computers!



It's frustrating, isn't it? I can see logical structures in my head that most people can't see, and I know they can't, so I try to explain things very clearly to them. But usually they don't even try to understand, and this bothers me, because I put a lot of effort into explaining it simply.

I imagine a lot of AS people like DBs because they are so orderly and logical. But the problem comes when people want to put lots of rubbish into the DB - they want to be allowed to duplicate information and even put contradictory information in, and they don't understand why I want to write constraints to stop them.

I'm happy now because the DBs I work with in my present job are populated not by people but by a software system. It's my idea of heaven!

I understand about the music-- I have a nonsensical affinity for hard rock music, screaming and everything. Nonsensical, because I, too, am sound sensitive, to the point of sometimes not being able to stand the hum of the overhead fluorescent lights at work. BTW, I'm a librarian.

This is interesting. I sleep with a duvet and two blankets on top of that. I hate it in the summer when it's too hot to have all the heavy layers. I just love sleeping under heavy blanketyness.