People with Asperger's who have multiple friends

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they're probably just higher functioning than you.
remember that it is a spectrum, you may be down with me somewhere below them on it.

I had quite a few "friends" growing up through elementary school/high school. Started out in kindergarten when all you had to do was have that cool toy to be the popular kid. Carried through elementary school where as long as you played sports, you were probably going to have people who wanted to play with you. Then high school happened, it all changed. Within 2 years I went from being one of the "popular" kids to having a couple classmates that I BSd with and all my former "friends" would barely acknowledge me. The molding of social hierarchy began to take form in high school and I was totally oblivious to it, looking back I can honestly say I didnt even realize I went from having a few dozen "friends" to a couple people I only talked to during class. The turning point was hearing about the big party the kids in my grade were having, but that invitation was never given to me and I overheard why. I was "too hyper". Pretending that I never heard that, over the course of the next year I pretty much withdrew myself from socializing outside of the BS I did with a couple classmates, I was getting pretty used to doing my own thing again and it never bothered me. Then, the group of my grade heard that I had access to alcohol(I had never drank any, I just knew where to grab a couple beers)... how quickly I went from being hardly acknowledged to being invited to every party my grade had. It didnt take long for me to realize what was going on, but I felt this was my chance to start being one of the "cool kids" again. Without hesitation I jumped into the booze& minor drug use scene, now my hyperactive nature which originally caused me to be avoided was now fully embraced as we drank ourselves silly during our hangouts over the next few years. For the first time since elementary school, I felt like I was being treated on equal footing as my peers which felt pretty nice even though I knew this was only happening because I was helping supply alcohol to the parties. Little did I realize that all the while, the social hierarchy totem pole was continuously being climbed and I remained in position, being totally oblivious that the others were "moving up" without me. Towards the end of high school and even for the years afterwards I was still a part of a group that I considered my friends but I started to finally see what was going on... It was and remained a continually jockeying of social status, fueled by ego boosting at the expense of whoever could be deemed as not up to par relative to each individual. The "friends" that I had spent so much time trying to please and entertain growing up were using me for just that, while acknowledging that my near inability to express my true emotions meant that i was essentially a "free shot" for any semi-insulting jab they could throw at me to try and boost their self esteem...

So I moved on , back to my original ways of going at my own pace not feeling that I HAVE to please people just for their attention, allowing me to be genuine and if people dont want interact then... Oh well Moral of the story here without trying to sound gloomy on the idea of friendships, is that Its not about how many friends people have that matters... Its about the quality of those friendships. It is cliche I know lol, but it is honestly true. What I have found is that a lot of these people who feel the need to surround themselves with a bunch of people to enjoy themselves... struggle to do just that, ENJOY THEMSELVES. If you enjoy being yourself, then sure enough somewhere down the road you will encounter somebody who enjoys your company and can be a quality friend. 1 quality friend far outweighs a dozen social acquaintances, a dozen quality friends? That is an exuberant social life!

Relating to the original post... I was one of those people who had multiple "friends", and I wore a heavy mask that I got tired of hauling around. To this day, my ideal social situation is a 1 on 1 indepth interaction, 2-3 if I am feeling outgoing. Everybody is different, perhaps there are some people on the spectrum who hardly get drained from large social gatherings... IMO odds are they are wearing a mask though, as I feel most people if they are being honest, regardless of what they are labeled wear a mask around the ones not in their inner circle... The ones labeled "NT" are just natural masqueraders.

Acknowledge your hobbies, and look for people who enjoy those same hobbies. True friends are those who you can enjoy silence with and in my opinion the best way to enjoy silence is to engage in your favorite hobby(s)

sorry for not breaking up that iceberg of a paragraph