Does this sound typical for an aspie?

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Does this sound more like aspergers, social anxiety, both, or other?

I do consider myself to be self diagnosed aspie as I can relate to what Ive read about aspergers. I don't concider this to be absolute though because I haven't actually seen what it is in someone (other than movies and I think those are exaggerated). So heres a little example of a part of my day and any feedback would be helpful.

I don't have any friends and have a 2 year old who I want to interact with other children her age. As much as I would like to keep to myself I want her to learn to interact with other people so Ive really been trying to get out. I brought her outside because some neighbors were outside chatting and a their children were all playing tag and hide and seek together. Most of the time I just kind of wandered along near the kids. Sometimes stood back a little against a nearby tree. I tried a couple times to walk over and interact (there was an exchange of maybe 10-20 words) then when I had enough of the weird silence and not knowing where and how to stand I wandered back over to the kids. And I went back and forth a couple times. The kinds of things we said were: Them: "Wow. Did you take your daughter fall shopping? Nice clothes" Me:"No. That shirt was from last year. But yes the shoes are new. But it wasn't really fall shopping"...***silence***... and .. Them: "Wow your daughter is getting big so fast. And louder! hahaha" Me:"Well she was loud to begin with but not so much with other people. So maybe shes just less shy" ****silence**** I also had no idea how to leave normally... I think we said bye to each person about 5 times... and kept turning around to wave.. and then I hid in my house..

Feel free to ask questions if it would give a clearer picture of things. Thanks.

That sounds like typical social awkwardness and literal response to small talk, and maybe a touch of going on a bit. I do that myself. But it could be either one, or both, or neither (just socially awkward or out of practice).

Have you tried taking some of the self tests out there? They can be pretty helpful and I've found that some of the questions reveal symptoms that I always dealt with but never knew they were related to anything. Here's a good test that's pretty long but very thorough!

http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php

Also, do you have any other AS traits? Things like sensory problems (irritation/aversion to particular sounds tastes or smells?) or dramatic meltdowns/outbursts. Any other problems communicating? Eye contact, mixing your words up, not knowing when to speak or stop speaking in a conversation. . . These are just a few things that lead me to my self-diagnosis. It's also a good idea when taking the tests to think back to your childhood and apply the questions to your earliest behaviors. Some Aspies outgrow or learn to overcome some behaviors as they grow up.

Hope this helps you a bit.

Wow I did that "quiz". 176/200.

Sorry to go a little OT.

This not sound social anxiety - at least, by your description, you don seem specially anxious/nervous about the social contact (if there is, seems more a result than a cause of you awkwardness).

Asperger/Autism, normal Introversion, or Schizoid Personality Disorder (combined with lack of training).

Thanks for the responses

Ive taken every aspergers test I can find multiple times. The results for my most recent attempt at the aspie test are: 131 of 200 aspie, 70 of 200 neurotypical

As for other AS traits.. there are some things that could potentially be linked to it.. Im picky when it comes to eating and have always been (Im picky about what I eat and how I eat it). I break down (I dont know if this is a meltdown) and get extremely stressed when trying to organize things that are disordered.. the mess is overwhelming.. And in grocery stores I feel overwhelmed by the people around me. I dont know if this is anxiety or a meltdown. I remember having problems with eye contact when I was younger. I remember getting comments about staring at people a lot when I was very young and in early teenage years I remember not knowing where to look. I dont remember if I did this while communicating with people or just when I was in a room with other people who I wasn't talking with. Now I have moments of not knowing whether Im looking to intensely or not showing enough attention but it isnt all the time. And my eyes do dart away when I walk past people on the street, though I do initially make eye contact. I dont know if this is normal or not. For special interests I do spend my free time learning about different things like physics, math, and nowadays aspergers. I dont know at what point thing go from normal interests to special interests but I suspect that mine are strong enough to be considered special interests.

So based on what Ive read about aspergers I am able to relate a lot of what I do to it. My family basically laughs at the idea that I think I have this because they dont think I do (though none of them have done very much research in this area, they just have a very basic idea of what it is). The fact that they don't think I have it makes me doubt it (which is not unreasonable) because I think its easy to convince yourself that you have all sorts of disorders and its important to get an outside perspective. But again, no one in my family has made the effort to look into it much.

I tend to be optimistic before trying to interact socially but it just doesnt work out.... so when I leave I get upset about the failed attempt.. I dont really know how to work around it or what went wrong... Im seeing a doctor about this but I dont know how to describe my problems to her very well.. I dont want to mention asperger because I dont want to lead her in the wrong direction if it is wrong and Im also dont know how much she knows about it and would like to avoid a situation like what I have with my parents (worrying about her making conclusions based on a limited idea of what aspergers is).