Am I neurotypical? = Am I normal?

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So, I've had several people comment that my obsession with "Am I neurotypical?" was 'weird' and that this obsession was pretty characteristic of aspergers, however, I possess MUCH evidence that I'm neurotypical and that such an obsession is actually... pretty neurotypical, actually. Ironic, isn't it?

See, most people obsess with the question "Am I normal?" or "Was what I did 'normal'?", which is why sites such as "Is it normal?" are pretty popular among NTs. Add in someone who's somewhat nerdy and intelligent, and 'neuorotypical' becomes the new word for "normal". So, if anyone in the future has a weird obsession with "Am I neurotypical?", they probably are, as "Am I neurotypical?" is semantically approximate to "Am I normal?" in a neurotypical's mind and "Am I normal?" is a pretty common NT obsession. Most NTs value normalcy above all else which is mostly why "weird" people are widely shunned, whether they be weird because of their nonverbal language receptive or expressive difficulties, or because of insufficient verbal working memory or because of seemingly contradictory personality characteristics.

Maybe you are neither Neurotypical or Autistic. Maybe you are a third catagory nobody knows about yet.

Maybe you're just weird (in a non-pejorative sense of course).

Sorry I've nothing better to say. I'm tired.

I struggle with this a bit, too. I don't know whether or not to call myself Aspie or not, as I kinda don't know what it is. I was diagnosed NVLD, with the person diagnosing me saying I was a little too mild for Aspergers (but I didn't like her terribly much anyway) I think she specifically cited lack of special interests, but she didn't know me and that's what people tend to think of me as, someone who rambles on and on about obscure 80s anime or something.

NVLD, or nonverbal learning disorder, is easy for me to accept, all the people with it I read about experience like 99% of the same thought process/difficulties as me, I know someone with it who's very very similar to me, and almost reminds me of me if I was allowed to take the path I wanted in life. Also, NVLD is very easy to scientifically explain. Right brain deficiency. Also, mine was determined by IQ testing. The IQ tests showed my nonverbal IQ to be like 80, but my verbal to be like 130 or something. Stuff is just broken a bit, and other stuff compensated and got super strong. So, there's a big gap in my verbal intelligence vs my performance. Basically, it ends up manifesting in almost the exact same way as Aspergers, so it could be that NVLD is a form of it and whatever, it's actually rarer than getting diagnosed with Aspergers, I believe.

However, Aspergers, I got an online friend I've known since 8th grade, diagnosed Aspie since childhood. I told him about the NVLD and all that, and him being the completely unsympathetic and unempathetic cool person he is (actually I do enjoy talking to him, as I know he'll be pretty honest with me) he told me "That type of stuff is only good for introspection." And this is coming from someone with like, "classic" Aspergers, ie, he pretty much couldn't function at all due to lack of empathy, etc, in elementary school.

I got diagnosed as an adult, more or less. When I was 17, and my life was already thoroughly screwed up, I'd been out of school for over a year, etc, so it didn't matter much. There was nothing anyone could do to help me with it at that point. I also didn't even believe or care about the diagnosis until I was 20, and started looking up stuff on my own time about it all, and it all made sense and explained everything dead on. But, it didn't matter, what would it do for me?

The other thing, too, I'm not really "nerdy" anymore, I wear preppy clothes, after adapting after getting dissed in high school for my beat-up bad clothes, I ended up buying 50c preppy brand tshirts from Salvation Army and stuff and overtime changing my wardrobe to that type of stuff. I've been told I look pretty good, and I got a wide amount of interests, and am actually pretty extroverted to a point. I'm very good at talking to random people in public, am probably more assertive than average when I choose to be, and I'm able to bond with people as friends individually reasonably well, it's just "fitting in" in groups that's hard for me, finding the dynamic in a small group like a house party. People will all be laughing and I'll just be like "uh...." My friend with Aspergers is the same way almost, he dresses well, looks good, and is overall a pretty "cool" seeming dude. He's got nerdy hobbies, but you wouldn't go see him in public and go "wow he looks like a nerd" or anything.

I'll quote from urbandictionary here,

No one is normal.

Some just tend to agree on things.

We call these agreements consensus.

And when Human being form a consensus with each other they start mimicing each other's habits like Chimpanzees.

The habits and beliefs that followed are called a culture.

Culture can be a great thing when shared by the people as a whole.

But the culture itself becomes a public persona, and like all persona it tries to make the subject stand out rather then blend in.

We often form a culture all by ourselves unique to our own position.

Cultures form what is called a "illusion of Asymetrical Insight".

Its a fancy psychological term for cultural bias and prejudice.

People make an extremely bad habit of attacking diversity rather then celebrating it.

It comes from a form of identity crisis, and can affect a culture as a whole.

We usually become the victims of this, and the ones who triumph become legenday figures like Einstien and Kim Peek.

We don't always triumph however, so we must learn to pick our battles and form a trust within our own community.

LONG LIVE THE ASPIE COMMUNITY!