Do you sometimes just HAVE to tell somebody something?

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If someone had reacted like that when I was trying to help them, I wouldn't have helped them. JS.

But yes, I often have times when I have to tell someone something.

I don't so much feel the need to tell people things, but sometimes I really annoy my dad by wanting to ask him things at inconvenient times. For example, I often send him links to funny pictures or articles that I find online. Later on that night or the next day, I will go to ask him what he thought of the picture/article and he will get very angry at me, telling me he hasn't looked at it yet, go away. If I catch him at a particularly bad time, he will start swearing and hitting things after I leave the room. I don't really think I deserve that kind of reaction, it's not like I do anything to offend him.

Another thing that I used to do a lot when I was younger (but have learned not to do anymore) was insist on explaining something repeatedly if I felt that I was not being understood correctly. There is one particular incident that stands out in my mind. I was about 8 years old at the time, and I was with my cousin and my grandmother. My cousin wanted to call her parents to tell them something, but when she dialed the number, she got a strange answering machine message that she did not recognize. She dialed several more times, and the same thing happened. She started freaking out, wondering if she somehow didn't know her own phone number, or if her parents had changed their phone number, or something. I suggested that perhaps her parents had purchased a new answering machine, and hadn't had time to record a personal message yet. It seemed perfectly logical to me (and it turned out later that I was right). For some reason, my cousin and grandmother either didn't believe me, or didn't understand what I was saying. So I tried to explain myself again. They saw that I was starting to get frustrated, and began to laugh at me, which made me even more angry, which made me try to explain again. When all was said and done, they were laughing at me so hard they had tears running down their cheeks, and I was angry and in tears. And later when they found out I was right there was no apology whatsoever.

So I get how frustrating it can be when people have these kinds of reactions and all you are trying to do is tell them something.

I get so excited I can't hardly contain it. I feel like I'm going to split apart with my discovery or when I figure something out. My friends and family are used to it, but it does feel like my head might explode because of the energy around it.

If I don't tell someone about something I am excited for, I start vibrating and shaking, the longer I hold it in, the more I shake. It gets pretty crazy sometimes.

Rather sadly, I've learned the hard way to keep most of this stuff to myself.
I discover loads of really beautiful, small things and sometimes they're just so exciting I want to show them to someone else (family, usually), but the "so what - is that it?" reaction is pretty difficult to bear. Or the "are you sure you're feeling Ok?" stuff is even worse.
They don't see it or get it, so I enjoy it in silence (and with some frustration).

I don't get noticeably excited (though on the inside it's quite a rush), but I do keep feeling I've got to say this or that thought when it comes into my head. It often turns out that the thought wasn't all that relevent or important, but the compulsion to say it doesn't understand that yet.

Maybe it's just being so sick of having to think carefully about every damned thing I say that does it. Take away a person's immediacy, and what's left isn't likely to be accepted. I think immediacy is one of the ways people judge whether they can trust each other or not. If somebody looks like they're carefully contriving everything they say, they might be a fake. You don't know a person till you've heard them come straight out with their immediate thoughts. But I don't know whether realising that has any big effect on my need to "say it."

Yes. But in this case, it sounds like your dad was the one being rude.

Seems to me that calling you a rude b***h was over the top. Does your family always operate at high intensity?

Yes they can be rather intense.

I have to say everything that comes into my head when I'm with people I'm comfortable with and then I just go on and on and on until my brain has a kind of 'white-out' and I get confused and feel as though there's something really important that I have to get to the bottom of. I get quite manic with this at times and I also feel guilty if I don't tell everything that I feel I should. It's kind of OCD-ish with me, I think. Drives me and everyone in earshot mad...whatever.

That intensity must add an additional layer of challenge to dealing with your AS. I know when things get that intense around me I either shut down or boil over.

Yes. I get the strongest urges sometimes, but I have, for the most part, gotten better about "filtering" my remarks. Not only with speaking, but with many other aspects of my life, as well.
Impulses, impulses.

All of the time.


It's especially awkward in group conversations (In which I rarely speak) when I finally think of something to say but everyone else has moved three topics ahead, so I just say it and they look at me like I'm crazy.

Your dad sounds very cranky. Just curious, did you catch him doing anything "private"?

Most people are not like that, even if what other people tell them are nothing they're interested in, they at least say something like "that's nice", "oh good for you". I hope you'll eventually live with one of those nice people.

My dad was talking to my mom and had changed topics from the whole video chat issue. BTW I had a nice person in my life once my Psychology teacher that would do as you described that's nice and such. Sadly it became an obsession and I'd go to her office daily but it got to the point I much rather stay on campus and interact with her than my parents.

Yes. Shutdowns don't work. For me that involves leaving the situation or running to my room in tears leading to GET IN HERE! WE'RE NOT DONE TALKING YET! and the like. They don't understand ANY of my Aspie traits at all which is sad. Hopefully as someone else mention I can find a nice person in my life later on.