Talk about yourself for a bit

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I'm James. I'm 16. I was diagnosed with Asperger's when I was about six. I was a violent lonely little kid, but I've learned, and now I'm just a calm, laid back happy guy. I love music, though I have no musical talent, listening is all I need. I like to read as well. I love learning about history and psychology, and I like to have philosophical discussions. Then just as much I enjoy just having a good time.

I'm 42 and recently self diagnosed. After going through life incapable of making friends, unable to develop any personal relationship I had pretty much given up on any happiness in my life. I thought I was the only one with these problems, the only one who had felt this pain.

A few weeks ago I saw a story on "Good Morning America" about a couple with autism who had fallen in love. After seeing the story I had an AHA moment. I did some research and after reading about asperger's realized I had found out why I was the way I was.

I felt such a relief, knowing I wasn't alone. Knowing there were others who have suffered through the loneliness and been able to overcome some of the difficulties aspies face has helped. I know that I have a lot to work out but at least now I have reason to believe I can do this. I can make something good come out of my life.

google "Couple Lives With Autism, Comfort of Each Other" if you would like to see the GMA story.

My turn to introduce myself!

I was identified as gifted as a kid, thought most people were idiots and never understood (and still don't, frankly) the appeal of the weekly drunkfest that my peers engaged in as we grew older, or other of their various cultural (!) pursuits (sports, etc). I'm now married and have 2 kids. My eldest daughter was diagnosed as having AS last year and since then I've read quite a bit about it and feel that had someone been looking, I'd probably fall under that category, too. As would my husband.

I feel way awkward posting here without an official dx, but am doing so anyway... I think maybe in an effort to feel proactive in some capacity as I wait for April 3. On that day, DH and I will be tested to see were, if at all, we fall on the spectrum.

Hallo!

My name is Anthony. I'm 18, I was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. I believe that was when I was 11. I have a horrible memory for dates and times.
I'm currently going to college for computer programming and repair. I am also learning German.
I like fixing things. It doesn't matter what it is. I see a problem, I almost have to fix it.
I can't stand to be in a church. I was raised as a Catholic, I was even an altarboy. I hated every minute of it.
I will not go to funerals. I would prefer not to be at my own.

I like alot of things including but certainly not limited to: Eating, fixing things(see above), chess, being outdoors, swimming, computers, electronics, mechanical concepts, and theoretical physics.

Hello there!

I'm Christine, but you can call me Christine or Cupcake. I'm 22, nearing 23 years old and I was diagnosed with ADD at age 7 and then with Asperger's Syndrome/Pervasive Personality Disorder (The hospital said the latter, but the clinic said the former. The line's not that clear anyway, so whatever.), Borderline Personality Disorder and Tic Disorder about two months ago while I was hospitalized.

The things I do and life makes more sense knowing that I am on the Autism spectrum, but my biggest challenge is feeling like my parents can accept me for who I am. Right now, I'm taking the semester off from college for extensive therapy, but I normally study Clinical Laboratory Science. I'm hoping to go back in August!

Some things I like are: Video Games, Spelling out my words, Spending time on the computer, Listening to Music, watching anime, reading manga/about Japan, making knitted dolls. I hope to be able to spread Autism awareness to the community because I want people to understand people like me better and I never want someone to grow up with unnecessary confusion, like I did.

My user name here is the same as I use on another AS forum. It is also the name I use on a certain virtual world. I'd use the name most people outside of the net know me as, but it's always taken already and I don't like adding numbers or other additional characters to my name because then it's not my name anymore.

I've been odd since before birth, but didn't know it until kindergarten. I'm left-handed. I drew my first picture when I was 4. My mother saved it, and I have it still. It looks like a car door from the inside. I suspect I added a wheel to the 'front' of it as an afterthought. I can't remember. I can remember sidewalk chalk art i saw when i was 4 though. And snapdragons.

I had a lot of trouble in school, losing stuff and forgetting stuff and failing algebra multiple times and not playing well with others. I spent some time in special education classes but mostly just spent that time playing chess with the teacher.

I was diagnosed as having an extra chromosome when i was 14 years old (47,XXY). There followed a flurry of other DXs. Depression. Upgraded to Manic Depression (Bi-Polar these days). Borderline Personality Disorder. Schizoaffective Disorder. Narcissitic Personality Disorder. Social Anxiety Disorder. Panic Disorder.

I had to repeat my junior year in highschool after which I'd had enough of highschool and I got my GED. My math score sucked, but my science score made up for it. However, I still managed to flunk out of university. I tried working various jobs for a few years, but got fired from every position - a combination of my difficulties with executive function and middle management's difficulty with an employee who saw problems and solutions they couldn't even begin to grasp. I've been drawing social security disability for nearly 20 years.

I think most of the stuff psychiatrists and their ilk have pinned on me in the way of diagnosis' isn't accurate. I never have agreed with the personality disorders or the Bi-Polar, and really, the Schizoaffective disorder can easily be attributed to alternative world-view. The more I've read about Asperger's, the more I'm saying, "That's me! Exactly." I have a diagnostic evaluation scheduled at The Emory Austim Center, May 19th. I am 42.

Art is my life. I was obsessed with 2D perspective drawing and later, painting from the age of 12 to age 25. M.C. Escher was my art god. Then I moved into an abstract geometric painting and design phase for a few years, latching onto digital art in the form of fractals around 1999. Now that my friends and relatives have no room left on their walls, I'm filling up their cupboards and coffee-tables with pottery, and their gardens with sculpture. I love steel. Rusty steel in particular. And reduction-fired stoneware.

Other obsessions are investigative journalism, Arthurian mythology, and machine-driven music.

For what these online diagnostics are worth...
Aspie Quiz Score: A:163/200 NT:40/200
AQ: 46
Eye Test: 20 (pure luck!)

I call myself Elliott Jumpshoe.

I am 33 years old. I was informally diagnosed with AS in 2007 when I was in Canada. I have yet failed to obtain a diagnosis here in the UK.

I am fundamentally incapable of holding down a job, living on my own, driving a car or having intimate relationships. I was sexually abused and bullied when I was a child. I was never able to deal with schoolwork - something for which I was derided and ridiculed all through primary and high school. I left school with no qualifications and have attained some meagre ones since then. The scholastic and working worlds make no sense to me.

I am a reasonably good writer. I am writing two books at present, but have no organisational skills to work towards getting them published. I can sovle Rubik's cube in one hand - I learned how to solve it on the internet, then taught myself how to do it one-handed. During the 90s and into the earlier part of the millennium, I composed music on my computer (a Commodore Amiga A1200) and won a couple of competitions. I can recite Lucky's speech from Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot (although I'm a little rusty). I'm a fairly good photographer (digital) and have made two slideshows of my work. I'd like to post them on Youtube at some point, though they're not great.

I used to be a model-maker, painting scale models of characters from movies and TV. I've kept pictures of most of the models I did.

My favourite book is Abarat, by Clive Barker. I know the names of all the islands of Abarat and the Hours to which they belong. I've read the first book five times and the second book four. I am eagerly anticipating the third book.

I would like to get my writing recognised somehow. It might turn out to be dreadful, but I'd like to know.

I am a 54 years old male who only recently figured out what makes me so different from everyone else. Ironically, it was my autistic step-son who provided me with the first clues. The longer I was around him the more I noticed how similar we were in so many ways. It was almost as if I was looking at an exaggerated version of myself. I already knew that i had ADHD but had always known that there was more 'wrong' with me than that. An investigation of autism and PPDs soon led me to Asperger's Syndrome and an Ah-ha! moment. I have not been formally diagnosed by a qualified physician but my wife, my therapist and myself are in agreement that I meet the criteria in the DSM-IV for a diagnosis of Asperger's. I will share more about myself later, as my fingers are cramping up from using the tiny keypad on my mobile. I am so glad to have found this forum and look forward to having many good discussions with folks who know where I'm coming from.

I'm Alexander. I'm 19 years old, and a student of English Literature and Creative Writing, which boils down to knowing how to write pretty stories and tell other people the highlights of said stories.

I'm working on a novel right now - two Autistic best friends solving obscure and grisly murder cases.

Recipe for disaster, no? Good disaster, mind you.

I'm recently single-ified - after an amicable breakup with my ex, who went to college while I moved 203 miles to the west. Smooth move, Alex. REAL smooth.

I'm a Byronic Aspie, a literature obsessive and a budding pianist who somehow manages to forge flimsy social bonds with the 'in' crowd NTs at University. How long that piece of chicanery lasts, I don't honestly know.

Well, nice to meet you - any questions, feel free to ask

Hello everyone!
I'm Leah, 19 year old Aspie from Hawaii, going to university at the University of Montana. I'm studying Asian Studies as a major, minoring in Japanese, and I am toying with adding a second minor in either Russian or Women's/Gender Studies. I like to think of myself as a reasonably good poet and a half-decent writer. I discovered Wrong Planet through the recommendation of a friendly person on another website, and thought this would be a good place to discuss things only we can really fully appreciate on the autistic spectrum. Some of my interests include Art History (Russian and Japanese art especially, and Western art influenced by Asian art, known as Japonisme) languages, and the humanities in general. I have an almost laser-like focus on my interests, and may sometimes forget to eat and sleep when discovering new things.
As a young adult with Asperger Syndrome, I feel we are an often ignored part of what the media discusses about Autism and Asperger Syndrome, the stories I have seen tend to focus on children or older adults in their 30s. I hope to find other people my age on the spectrum here, so we can trade stories and I can know I'm really not alone when it comes to being a 20something on the spectrum.

I'm a 33 year old female. I was recently diagnosed with mild asperger's. I am married to a very understanding NT man, who appreciates me for who I am. I have 2 children, my oldest, a 6 year old named Jude, has moderate to severe autism, he is extremely intelligent & has found ways to cope with a lot of his difficulties. However, he still needs help in many different ways. We've never concerned ourselves with looking for a cause or a cure. We believe, in our family, it's hereditary. That covers the cause for us, and thanks to learning about Jude & what makes him who he is, I learned a lot about myself (even about my Asperger's). As far as a "cure", well we don't want Jude to be anyone other than who he is, we just want him to be happy. We are currently fundraising to get him an autism assistance dog, mostly because he really wants a friend & because he is not very safe. You can learn more about him on our website, but I can't put a link up because I'm new to the forum. However if you do a google search for "4 Paws for Jude" it should be the first one that comes up in the results. We also have a facebook cause "Help Jude Get a Service Dog", I'd love to have people show their support by joining our cause. You can also add me as a facebook friend, I'm the creator of the cause so it should be easy to find me. I hope to learn some while I'm here & maybe have something to say that is useful to someone else. - Colleen

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Someone linked this forum from another one that I post at regularly. I'm not diagnosed, but my kids have similar diagnoses. I have a brother who is probably more autistic and aspie. I'm not sure if I'm aspie, but I sure can relate, and have posted in a few threads.
I have been diagnosed with anxiety though. Like others here, I have a few good friends and don't get what is up with people with lots of friends. How do you be friends with lots of people? How do you keep track of everyone? Heck, I have trouble making friends at all, at least the kind of friendships I figure are "real" friends. So, it is nice to read the posts here and feel that others get my confusion.

I didn't have any friends at all when I was a kid, people seemed to find me annoying and weird and let me know that I was ugly (I had to wear my brother's hand me downs and I didn't look like I was a girl even though I am a girl). I get too detail oriented in my story-telling, and people get bored with me, so I've learned to talk fast and try to make just few points instead of going on about how the trees looked that day in whatever scenario, etc.
I am a proud geek now, Trekkie fan, Battle Star Galactica fan, and I like watching a show called "Bones". Is it just me, or is the main character in the Bones show just a bit aspie? I love science, a lot. I took Bio-Tech courses in college (genetics, zoology, botany, microbiology, anatomy, etc.).

Not your typical girl, but whatever, I'm not a girl anymore at my age anyways (35 and holding, for dear life, so to speak).

in honor of my 10,000 posts:

What I have are my reminiscences; most of them are worn like ancient prayer beads strung on the steel wire of my memory. Old cares and worries clack and rattle on the thread as I tick them off: this memory . . . perhaps fifty years old . . . charges this other memory perhaps from last week with the residue emotions. And then that one, brown as a cacao bean, which resonates from thirty years ago, but it will sensitize any sort of feeling that feels even vaguely like what happened back then. Beads clacking. . .

I was born at the in the autumn of the first year of the last half of the twentieth century on the same day as Victoria Eugenie Mendenhall. In the post world war baby boom the maternity ward was forced into double duty and proximity dictated two children to be born in the semi private room- born seconds apart in the same hour.. moon in Aries, sun in Scorpio when the Virgo constellation was rising above the horizon of 37 N 97 W…

My family and her family were not in the same social circles and Vicki Jean became my mother’s template for what ever it was I lacked. I seemed to lack quite a bit for I heard of this paragon of the girlish virtues from my cradle. Goodness knows how she gathered the information of Vicki Jean’s progress, but mom thought it should be envied and even surpassed by none other than myself and was somewhat disappointed I had not risen to the challenge.

If I hadn't the characteristic 'round nose Rosie' of the Lundbergs and was the image of mother, I am certain Mom would have questioned the hospital about the children being switched. She was always of the opinion there must have been a mistake in the nursery , or a fairy spirited away her sweet baby and left an ugly charmless Changeling in its stead.

Vicki Jean and I met much later in high school where she was an accomplished pianist, the debate club president with high marks and wore her hair in a lovely bob. I was disheveled and needed a shower, shampoo and a good deodorant. As a favor to my mother, and only because of the accident of our birth, she played Chopin and though I recognized the Polonaise, when I had been given piano lessons the bigness of the music was too much for my immature emotions to handle and at the grandness of the moment I was helpless to do anything but grin uncontrollably, bridling and giggling and bobbing my head.

I was not like Vicky Jean at all. Few things got though to me, to my consciousness, but even that got through to me.

Grinning uncontrollably and bobbing my head was something I must have done a lot. Of course, that is not how I saw it at the time. At the time I was emotionally moved at her masterful handling of the instrument, I was hoping to show my familiarity with the music by vocalizing along with it, as to somehow join into the moment. Looking back with the eyes of being aware I am autistic I see how my appearance, my aroma, my vocalizations and my bobbing and grinning must have painted a truly different and disturbing picture than what I was hoping to project for both Vicki Jean and her mother. I must say I have noticed when people treated me with exaggerated kindness and phrases like “Well, we are really glad you came to see us, Merle, we won't keep you from the rest of your day” it was time to gather your things and walk out the door. After a while it became common place in social situations.

I have found my memories have several layers of understanding. Once for how I perceived life at the time of it happening, then again when my alcoholism had been effectively dealt with; and then again when I finally perceived my being Asperger’s Syndrome and looked back to write my memoirs from the perspective of being an autist.

More later,

Merle

hi.
i'm 34 years old and for all that time i've tortured myself, allowed myself to be tortured, for not behaving correctly.
it was only very recently when my wifes psychiatrist suggested i might have AS that i even considered there was anything 'wrong' with me.
i researched AS any oppurtunity that arose, did the AS quiz, looked up all the criteria and possible symptoms and with every piece of information i read a piece of the puzzle fell into place.

i'm married, my wife has 3 kids and i have 1. in the time i've been married things have gotten harder, its been more and more difficult to get any space for myself, my social interactions became more difficult. my patience, once limitless, is now non-existent and i have no drive or passion for life.

upon realising i have AS a weight was lifted from my shoulders and i regained some faith in myself.
i now have hope for my relationship with my wife and kids. a great deal (in no way all) of my stress and anxiety over my behaviour and thoughts has eased. my life makes a kind of sense, my interests appeal to me again, i had a 2 year phase of not wanting anything to do with them, my lack of free time made getting absorbed into them and relaxing impossible.

however, despite my lack of assertiveness i'm now determined to take some time for myself and slow myself down, to not be so impatient with my family, to be more aware of their emotional needs and feelings as much as i can. in return my family have been very understanding, especially my wife, who has issues of her own.

anyway, thats me.

I don't seem to fit into any of the categories here. On one hand, I'm pretty sure I don't meet anyone's diagnostic criteria for autism or Asperger's but on the other hand, so many of the experiences sound so familiar.

Not finding myself with much else to say at the moment, though.