Activity! & How did you get here? :)

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Well, it's nice to see so many new people joining us in the last few days, and coming to WrongPlanet. That's really something, we're up to 178 now and counting. I encourage everyone to post in this happy, comfortable environment, and of course, if you'd like to stay a lurker, that is perfectly fine too -- making sense of Asperger's isn't something easy at all, and you have to find out things for yourself. Discussion does help a lot though, so I assure you that "the water's fine" so you can "jump into the pool" (there will be no oil slick monsters as in Stephen King's "The Raft" here !).

I would like to ask, however, to whoever wants to answer this query:

HOW'D YA FIND OUT ABOUT WRONGPLANET?

For me, I came here from the ol' Aspergia.com community after Alex let me know he and Dan were setting up some dandies here, and what a doozy it turned out to be. Yay. And I originally found out about Aspergia from doing Google websearches on Asperger's Syndrome -- which I found after looking through some online psychology texts relating to personality disorders and stuff, and went off on a tangent.

One thing leads to another, such is the wonder of life. I was thinking of affixing a poll to here, but with the myriad possibility of answers, it wasn't the best choice (joke?) and I'd like to hear it in your own words!!

I found wrongplanet through Aspergia, and, just in time, too - since Aspergia was closing and I've come to really depend on these online forums . . .

The way I got diagnosed is that I've known all my life that something is wrong with me on a very basic level and I've spent most of my adult life trying to figure out what that was - I've been diagnosed with about every personality disorder in the book, bi-polar, generalized anxiety disorder, and tons of other stuff . . .
Well about a year and a half ago now I had a breakdown and so several of the people that I like to be around found out about my mental issues - and they were very nice and got me in to see my psychiatrist - well, after a year and being on enough medications to tranquize a horse and feeling not a whole lot better one of these people I like to be around hear an interview with a man with Asperger's and took me out to lunch and said 'I think I might know what is up with you!' so I read about it and it sounded so much like me - so I got assessed, and that is what it is . . .
I am honestly still in shock a lot of the time and am really isolating myself until I get used to this idea - but at least now I don't have a laundry list of diagnoses - this last one was generalized anxiety disorder, bi-polar I, and Asperger's syndrome . . .

I remember visiting a website from time to time with the name "WrongPlanet," over the last several months. It dealt with Asperger's Syndrome.

A heard that a Yahoo! Group mentioned this site, so I decided to join. I am sure I would of found this site doing internet searches soon enough.

I am very happy to be here. I will be as active as possible. My apologies for sticking with mainly the statistical aspects of the site, but after all our interests should be shown to each other.

Alex left a comment on my blog pointing me here.

I was on the Internet one day searching through Google searching and found WrongPlanet.net, pretty much by accident really. Once I joined up I thought this was a great idea and I have been here ever since.

I'm happy that this site was created and I am pleased that it is continuing to grow. I plan to contribute as much as I can to this site and hopefully share my experiences and interests with as many people as possible. And I do agree this should be a place that we can show our interests to people who we have much in common.

I came this way through aspergia. I've only known that I'm an aspie for about six weeks now, but with my discovery, and with participating in this forum, I think I've learned more about my self in those six weeks than I did in the previous 24 1/2 years that I've been living.

I found this place through Aspergia.

*waves*

I read a message about WrongPlanet on another Aspie messageboard. I decided to see what the site was like and I liked it therefore I joined. Like Scoots5012, I have not known I may be Asperger for a long time -I am not officially diagnosed.

Loy

My mom sent me a link.

I found this through a Hyperlexia forum. It's run by a girl called Andrea and it's called HASTeens.

I'm really glad to be here. It feels like I found home.

I came here via another site related to AS - I have forgotten its name! It seemed to be targeted at the relatives of people with AS! It is sad to say, but those actually intended for the use of people with autism are in a real minority! Well done Alex and Dan for heralding a change in this trend!

This place has proven addictive [In the nicest possible way]!

I have learned that there is such a thing as Asperger's Syndrome two months ago. This was quite a shock. Since then, I have browsed the net for every scrap of information that I could find on the subject. I found several websites/forums for aspies, but most of them were closed for onlookers. I would have to sign up and even post a message about myself to receive access (Aspie Hangout comes to mind). I was not in position to do this - too unsure and too scared. I was even unsure if I was an aspie, and I still don't know this. How did I get to WrongPlanet? I clicked a link, I don't remember where. I think that it was on the day of the press release. The forums were open for lurkers! I spent a couple of days reading posts, and they seemed so much in tune with my thoughts. So finally two weeks ago I signed up and sent my first post, scared like hell what the reaction would be. You know, I was as bad in online interactions as with the real ones. Now, it seems like I have found the "right planet". Maybe you won't believe me, but this is happening for the first time in my life - feeling of belonging. This is just fantastic! [Forgive my emotions, but why should I hide them?]

How did I learn about Asperger's? I always knew that I was somehow different from most people, and although I was aware since my teens that I had some traits "like in autism", I rejected this idea as nonsense. Two months ago I read a book review in Scientific American - about a book written by an autistic boy. The article mentioned shortly a "theory of mind", and that people are supposed to know it intuitively. Strangely, this "theory of mind" seemed very much like one of my projects for improving conversational skills, a conscious effort and a failure. I decided to investigate this. The article mentioned one of Temple Grandin's books. I browsed it on the Amazon. The book listed autism spectrum disorders, I googled them. I got to Asperger's and it felt like somebody hit my head with a bat. So, that's my story.

I have a book called 'the OASIS guide to Aspergers" - and they have an accompanying website for it - do a google search on 'OASIS' and "Asperger's" - they have a list online support groups, including Aspie Hangout. I was browsing around there, and found a link to WrongPlanet.net - and found out about this place. I *love* it and it's awesome to talk to other Aspies!

mentalman

dan told me about it whilst chatting on msn. we met via another aspie forum somewhere..

Through the link at www.autistics.org

Everyone in the psych world who ever spoke to me came to the same erroneous conclusion that I knew people via the internet, in the sense of being in contact with them, while I always made it very clear that I only read them. Very very strange. Part of me knew I needed to get in touch, but having a terror of mailing lists (specifically, of drowning in them ), I remained electronically isolated. I only recently learned of the usefulness of forums and web boards, and how they work. And then I found this place, and something happened [chorus of "I didn't do it!!"]. I'm glad it did; it's good to be here.

*piece of mind*

I watched a documentary about autism one time and I noticed that I shared a few of the symptoms even though they were much milder in me. I asked my mother out loud "I wonder if there's such thing as a mild type of that?". She shot me down right away and couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Years later after a very rough school life and after getting fired from a job due to my eccentricities I started to wonder what the hell was wrong with me.
Last year I looked up autism on the internet for the first time and eventually found articles on it's milder counterparts. I learned that I fit most criteria for asperger syndrome. I went to see my doctor and pretty much gave him an info seminar on a bunch of printed out material. He said everything seemed to match up and he referred me to a psychologist. Same deal...I stood up there and told her my history and how all the symptoms seemed to match. I more or less diagnosed myself and they went along with it. The psychologist pretty much said that autism is under heavy research and there's still alot to learn about it. I told her that I knew that.

So...in the past few months i've been running up info on autism, and all kinds of other conditions and disorders. I joined a forum that was full of NT parents who talked about AS like it was a curse. It was sickening and for awhile I believed that I had a major problem. Then I learned that many of the worlds most brilliant innovators have the same condition. Eventually I found this forum and here I am.