posting for the first time after replying to a few posts...

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...my bad. Netiquette isn't one of my strong points, I'm afraid. A belated hi to everyone on the forum. I'm a 47-year-old male guitar teacher living in Toronto who writes what some might refer to as music (drone, experimental, no 4/4 "beat"). My AS traits include: stress in large social gatherings, executive dysfunction, in recent years Tourette's-like motor tics, the need to de-stress in a quiet, solitary, familiar setting, finding it easier to verbalize my thoughts rather than type or write them down, and--in a more musical vein--absolute pitch. I'm married to a woman 11 years my junior who's doing her doctoral dissertation on outsider music, and we have a 12-year-old daughter who was diagnosed as Aspergers eight years ago. As often seems to happen, when the child psychiatrist started to list her symptoms, my own childhood suddenly came to mind. I see a psychiatrist biweekly to help me make sense of the world, and I'm happy to say that the self-knowledge of having Aspergers and knowing how to more effectively deal with it has greatly increased my quality of life and also my wife's and daughter's.
And now, at the risk of sounding (even more?) pompous and self-congratulatory (yhbw ), I'd like to share with you that one of the most valuable things I've learned is that it's quite possible to have AS and be generally happy and contented with your lot in life. That's not to say that I don't stress out at all; I still do, quite a bit, in fact. It's just that I feel better armed with strategies that enable me to work with what life brings my way. I don't mean to be callous, as if I'm expecting people to find happiness and there's something wrong with you if you find it hard to attain. That's not what I mean at all. I know that Aspergers is something of a grab bag symptom-wise, and that each of us has his or her own challenges to face, and vastly different goals and directions in life. It's just that I've seen a lot of posts here from younger aspies who are struggling, and I'd like to hold out hope for them, for whatever it's worth.
I'm going to try to be consistent in being involved with this forum, as time allows. However, as I mentioned, I have executive dysfunction, and prioritizing is a constant challenge even with calendar and productivity apps on my smartphone. To reiterate somewhat, I'm a real human being with Aspergers who wants to help.

Cheers.

welcome to la casa aspie nostra, tomatowine
i hope you have total gratitude to have your family, you have what lots of us wish for but can't attain for various reasons.