58 year old that needs some reassurrance

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I have as I am sure many of you have, struggled my whole life to try to cope in a world that at many times had some folks that came out and actually said I was worthless. But, I know that I am not worthless, because I have (at least I think so) have overcome and understand a lot of things in life better that a lot of the NT folks do.
I would love to correspond with others about their own life experiences.
I have not been officially diagnosed with Aspergers, but I know that I am and will be bringing up the subject with my doctor in the near future, and see able being diagnosed by properly trained and knowledgeable professionals.
I excel in computer related areas, but have not been able to obtain a degree, which has as I know, has not helped me at all, because I have a strong tendency to learn things at my own pace and have learned more on my own than in any colleges/training/schools that I have attended.
Hello to all, thanks for reading my thoughts.

Welcome to Wrong Planet

Hi! Welcome to Wrong Planet. You are not the Lone Ranger. I have been at this business of AS for 66 years now. So, couple that with some PTSD and you have a bad mix. Decidedly un-fun, by any measure. BUT ... I did have a fairly good career as an engineer. Relationships? Well, let's just say that they are a major disaster area.

Thanks aspie wolf for you reply, and kind welcome. Not to sound like some kind of cry baby, but it seems sometimes that I am more disgusted with the NT folks I deal with everyday then I used to be somewhat mad at there behavior towards me. I live in the Wash DC metro area and this area seems to be totally filled with what I define as "special" people, that is, NT's that are so conceited that they don't even do some things on their own job that they really should be doing because they think it is beneath them to do so. This conceited behavior seems to be an on going disgusting disease in the DC area, what can I say.
Once again thanks for replying.

Just offhand, that seems like an improvement! I mean, from anger to disgust, seems like less emotional involvement on your part, and more accepting of it as a baseline. And then, when someone acts in a mature or responsible way that's an act of grace and a gift. I guess. FI suppose that's the optimistic view. Maybe lightly play and experiment with turning the coin from disgust to humor and comedy? That mature adults are seemingly acting in such a junior high fashion.

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I learned C++ programming (command line style) from '98 to 2000, and really got pretty good at it. But when I tried to find a job in '99 and esp. 2000, Wow, these "human resource" rule-bound goody-two shoes just rule the world, and the only thing they look at is years of corporate experience and I mean the only thing. If someone new is going to go into computer science, I really encourage them to be careful and talk to as many different people as they can.

And, Yes indeed, Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Good luck, dude. I'm about to turn 59, and for the last year or two I've had an official diagnosis. Not that that's made any significant difference in my life yet, but it shifted my psychosocial foundations.

I've become aware that, while autism in infants and children is beginning to gather some support, autism in adults is still seen as wierd. And I'm becoming accustomed to telling people that it's not autism that's shameful, it's ignorance of it.

+1 and double-ditto.

Welcome to WP, vjf!

I feel exactly that same, I'm disgusted by NT's behaviour and have always felt worthless but now I've identified the cause and that I'm not actually worthless it's because of their ignorance in which I felt like that it's made me feel a whole lot better

Good for you! That's been one of the prime advantages to me of learning about Asperger's / Autism Spectrum.

Welcome vjf. I'm another late in life self-diagnosed Aspie. I know what you mean about all the attention being on children and their parents. It's like us older folk are invisible. So I guess its up to us to make ourselves and our struggles known.

This site has been a great support for me and I'm sure it will be for you as well. I look forward to getting to know you here at WP!