I have never told anyone this, but since everyone live away and can't cause me grief...
See
I'm in a major deppresion about the whole thing now (never been this sad)

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If this writing is blue you're going too fast!

Asperger's Syndrome

I have never heard of this before.

Just a month ago, my boss said either I was very shy or just awkward in social situations. She didn't understand my behavior sometimes.

This is just one of many examples. Here's a sample.

I thought I was agoraphobia or something, because I would rather stay at home alone than socialize with others.

My grandmother recently told me, that I never approach others to converse. Unless, someone approaches me, I just amuse myself. Grandma said she noticed this many years ago.

My mother said, as a child, I never got dirty. I never cried. It was like I was a doll. I brought her a bag full of butterflies once. I don't remember this, but can you imagine how long catching butterflies would have taken?

Wow, I am really starting to wonder. I may just find a doctor and get a diagnosis.

Oh no...not another one!!!

It makes all those hours spent behind the curtains watching for the first snowflake seem suddenly worthwhile... 8-[ 8-[ 8-[

I think I'll join that forum Mikal...thanks for the link!!!

If I look at the list of symptoms, I could checkmark many of them for me. But I guess, I'm just a guy who likes privacy and doesn't need a lot of people around him to be happy.

Don't let yourself feel downed with such diagnosis, Mickal. All people are different and some are a little bit more different than other people. But that's the thing that makes life & people interesting. Of course, it's more difficult when you're young and just develop your own personality. On one side, one want's to be unique, on the other side, one wants to easy mingle with the crowd. But I guess from your postings here that you're intelligent and already mature enough to make your way.

All the best,

Harald

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"Flying in space is risky business, but just staying on this planet is risky business too." - John Young, astronaut

Oh no, I looked at the list, and checked all 10!
My mother told me that I never cried, and when their friends came over, I was so quiet that they remarked that they didn't even know I existed.

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"It's time to receive our missions from The Head."

Ah yes, the English Teacher Strikes Back.

I am amazed at how closely this mirrors my experience with ‘Public School’ English teachers.
Being on the Honor Roll mattered not to them.
Having passed an aptitude test that showed I had a College Reading Level in the 5’th grade blew their minds.
They were all determined to find something wrong with me. O_o
Over the years, they persisted in trying to label me with a wide variety of conflicting mental disorders.
I can’t tell you the amount of money that was wasted on private psychologists who, within 3 visits, said I absolutely did not have the ’New Syndrome of the Month’.

It grew exceedingly stranger as the years in public school went on.
All of my English teachers were bent on singling me out for reasons I have yet to understand.
Perhaps my green eyes had some kind of spellbinding effect on them… (joking)

Thanks (?) to friends and classmates, I learned early on to not always raise my hand at every question in about the 3’rd grade.
I never acted up in class, always had the answer when questioned, and I was almost always questioned.

I never ran for or wanted to participate in the student council, the debate team, school news paper, creative writing courses, band, football, basketball, or volunteered for any other school related extra curricular activities.
As I told them time and time again when pressed to do so was that I have no ill will towards those who like to participate in those activities, but the activities themselves don’t appeal to me.

STUDENT COUNCIL
The student council had no real power (I understood why and agreed with the reasoning).
I didn’t see the point in being part of it as I had no desire to be a politician.
Besides, the students involved in it at my school were exceedingly self-centered and had a blood-is-pure-caffeine, in-your-face attitude.

THE DEBATE TEAM
As for the debate team, I’ve always believed that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I neither want to impose my own beliefs on others or want them to force theirs on me. Yes, I know it has more nuances than that ideally, but from the 5 school debates I watched, it always boiled down to semantics. -_-
Just like the Student Council, the students involved in it at my school were exceedingly self-centered and had a blood-is-pure-caffeine, in-your-face attitude.

SCHOOL NEWS PAPER
Have you read one? Sorry, bad joke.
Seriously though, journalism just doesn’t appeal to me.
Just like the Student Council and the Debate Team, the students involved in it at my school were exceedingly self-centered and had a blood-is-pure-caffeine, in-your-face attitude.

CREATIVE WRITING
The many stories I read about teachers stealing concepts and ideas from student‘s creative writing papers curbed my joining the creative writing course, as did my negative experiences with my English Teachers.
And yet again, the students involved in it at my school were exceedingly self-centered and had a blood-is-pure-caffeine, in-your-face attitude.
I simply told them I had no interest in it.
Of course, it was a lie designed to keep from offending them.
Truth be told, I had no problems writing creatively, and I continue to do so in my free time.
I’ve even put some RPGs I made up on the web at www.stinkythecat.com .

BAND
The first time I took band, they stuck me with a trumpet.
It was exceedingly painful to play and It wasn’t until my lip split one day that they finally allowed me to stop playing it.
When I went to the doctor for the split lip, he said I didn’t have the right mouth shape to play that instrument!
This was in the 6’th grade.
My parents had him write that down and sat down with the principal to talk about it.
Apparently my incident was the final straw that lost the incompetent band teacher his job.
Since the school did not offer piano lessons, something I was indeed interested in, I was exempt from band for that year.

SPORTS
Hmm…
Showering with other students at school.
Nope, not going to do it.
Not every kid should be expected to have no issues with that.
Besides, I was on a baseball team sponsored by the local businesses.
The kids on the football and basketball teams, some of which were even friends from my baseball team, didn’t give me any flack about my feelings.
Even they didn’t understand the coach’s’ insistence that absolutely no one should have any problems showering together….

The story of my bouts with public school English Teacher gets even stranger.
One time I was absent from school for an extended period with the mumps.
About two weeks into it my mother was summoned to the school for a parent teacher conference with my 9’th grade English teacher.
Apparently, I had an evil twin attending class in my place using curse words and being extremely disruptive…

Before I had the mumps episode, the same teacher gave me an F on a report I had spent a week meticulously preparing.
My parents went with me to the principal to question my grade, and sure enough, after review by the other English teachers, not only did I get an A, I inadvertently qualified for submission in this contest they had going on where the winner would get extra credits and get to read it to the whole school.
Since I came in third I got the extra credits but didn’t have to read it at the assembly.

After the mumps episode, My folks took me down to the local community college for the GED test.
First try, I aced it, and thus ended the roller coaster ride of public school.

It seems to me that the English Teachers I had in public school were the ones with the mental disorders.
Whenever I, always with respect, declined to peruse things they suggested that was not part of the curriculum, they couldn’t cope with it.

From what I’ve read about these broad, inaccurate statements from teachers about your friends and the way they think you cope and deal with situations, I agree it’s totally bunk.
The way I understand it, your personal life is none of their business unless you volunteer to make it their business.

Your best bet may well be enrolling in a Private School, as your odds of dealing with a crackpot are greatly diminished.

If you are curious, I am 28 years old.

My folks have told me I was always well behaved as a child, and I only cried when a situation warranted it; ie: physical injury, or cranky from lack of sleep or hunger (as an infant).

When they had guests over, I didn't interfere, but that may be attributed to having fun in my room playing with my Legos and such.


Edit: Apparently, "Legos" is not a word in my spellchecker...

After re-reading my long post I'd like to add that if you or your parents are truly concerned about this syndrome, by all means, seek out a licensed professional for an evaluation.

When I was <3 years old I was extremely quiet and liked to play alone, ate very little, etc., my parents had a psychiatrist over who said I had depression because I didn't have anyone to play with, and that I needed a brother. So they had one. I still hate social events though, and prefer to be alone. I hate being in a crowd. For some reason I become extremely self-conscious. Which is why I prefer hobbies that don't require someone else, such as reading or browsing the net or playing games.

Joe The Dude:

That's almost exactly me. Except I didn't have those horrible teachers. Oh, and I cried a lot as a baby.

The only extra-curricular activity I'm currently involved in is the school yearbook, and only because I'm in charge.

School council? A joke. No power, full of bubbly, idealistic, "let's do something fun for the school," annoying people.

Don't have a debate team, don't have a school newspaper...

In fact, most extra-curricular activities at my school are sports-related. I'm convinced that the majority of the yearly budget goes to sports and gym. Whatever happened to schools teaching you things? I'm there to learn, not to run in circles for an hour. Needless to say, I'm not on any teams.

Thankfully, band isn't mandatory, either.

Speaking of music, people always seem to think I'm insane for disliking popular music. Hip-hop? Hard rock? Pop? Rap? No thanks! I can't stand it! Then when I tell them I generally only like classical music, it's like I have leprosy.

I swear, these people... it'd just be nice to exist in a place where the knee-jerk reaction isn't criticism or ridicule.

Ah well. I'll never have to go back come June.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Ask your parents to get you a second opinion. Ask them if they really think a single evaluation years ago was definitive. My guess is without a physical test like DNA evaluation or a particular blood test, any single opinion would have a very wide margin of error.

My neighbor's grandchild has the syndrome. She knows a lot about it. She tells me persons with it are very intelligent.

We all have different things in our genetics or other biological life influences to deal with. I come from a long genetic line of depressed persons on my dad's side. All of the relatives I know of on his side including him became alcoholics. But with this knowledge, I have more tools to deal with the disease. I know what I'm at risk for so I don't drink. I recognized my unusual depression symptoms and have been on successful drug treatment for years.

So knowing about any diagnosis, should it turn out to be true and it may not be, doesn't change who you are. It just gives you more insight with which to live your life happily and successfully.

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The real news, including science news corporations may not allow on stations they own. http://www.democracynow.org/

From the first link.
I don't think this sounds like a bad thing to have. It's like an elite club. 8)

Here's another website.

I was always told what nice manners I had "for speaking only when spoken to". :-?

I was diagnosed with that... More often referred to as "Asperger's Disorder", but as far as I'm concerned, it's the guys obsessed with categorizing these things who have the disorder. :roll:

(Yes, I've been through Medication Hell too... Some psychiatrists don't get "If it ain't broken, don't fix it".)

Edit: Mickal... It really is not a big deal. Technically, I would say "Asperger's Syndrome" is more a way of categorizing a relatively socially inept personality type than an actual disorder... Not sure about the organic causes of it, but it seems to me that trying to "fix" people who have it is a waste of time at best, and tyrannical at worst.

(emphasis mine) AHHHHH!!!

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"It's time to receive our missions from The Head."

Hmm... Is it just me, or is it the case that "Asperger's Syndrome" = "geekiness"?

We may have to change the forum's name to Bad Asperger's Bulletin Board - the true BABB. :wink:

LOL!

My situation seems to be almost exactly like Joe the Dude's... Except that I like sports, I just don't like the idiots that populate Phys-Ed classes. :roll:

The biggest problem with "Asperger's syndrome" "mild autism", "geekiness", or whatever the heck you want to call it - at least in my experience - seems to be other peoples' reactions. Jerks, be they "normal" or "Aspergerish", will hate you the moment they see you. Throughout my time in school, I've been insulted, attacked (I mean "physically attacked", as in "strangled, punched, kicked, and thrown bodily over large distances with no provocation whatsoever), teased, and generally looked down upon. And I've seen this happen to other kids, dozens of them.

You know what? It's always the ones at the recieving end of things, the "geeks", the "nerds", the ones who other people think have "issues", who are my friends.