Hi. I just found this site. I am 30 years old, and I recently moved from the "self-diagnosed" to "officially diagnosed" category when I saw a psychiatrist who said that she was fairly certain that I had Aspergers, which I considered to be good news (I saw this psychiatrist after visiting with a speech therapist who picked up on some Aspergers/AS symptoms but wasn't really able to offer an official diagnosis). Her perspective on it was more or less "If the label helps you, embrace it; if not, throw it out." Right now, I'm leaning toward embracing the label, but I haven't really figured out a way for it to be useful aside from simply having something to look at and say "Oh, that explains a lot" (of course, that's still pretty significant in its own way). If it provides me with some form of community, I would like that very much (I knew a few people in college who I think may have been Aspies, but this wasn't something I ever discussed with them).
I was diagnosed with ADD at around age 10, but the possibility that I might have Aspergers was never raised when I was younger. I had social and academic problems in school, and there was a sense that there was something that made me different but nobody could ever quite figure out what it was. Within the past few years, I investigated Aspergers, and I started to think that I had some characteristics that fit that profile. I was in the self-diagnosed/unsure category for a long time and only made moves toward getting an official diagnosis fairly recently.
I'm a fairly recent college graduate (MA and BA in English), and to a large extent, it's the difficulties I've had finding a job and a new "niche" that led me to seek an official diagnosis. The shape that the economy is in doesn't make finding a job easy, but the whole job/career search thing has always been kind of a nightmare for me whatever the economy is doing. I've held a few jobs, but I didn't like any of them that much and I certainly wouldn't want to return to any of them. I'm not very comfortable interviewing for jobs, and working with people who aren't on the same "wavelength" as me presents problems. Ideally, I'd like to find something where I do mostly solitary work and only briefly interact with people. I'm having difficulty finding much of anything to do with my MA in English. The standard thing that people with that degree are expected to do is teach English, but I don't feel like that's much of an option for me (I had a couple of grad school classmates who had horror stories about teaching in the public school system). I'd like to find work as some type of writer, but I'm having difficulty finding very much in the way of writing work that pays (I've tried Elance and couple of similar sites, but I couldn't really find much to do there). I'd also be open to finding some type of IT/Programming job, but I'm not very enthusiastic about the idea of going back for another degree. I wouldn't rule out the idea of continuing my education further (I had more than one professor tell me that I would probably be successful in a PhD program), but I'm feeling a little too burned out on the whole college thing to even consider that right now (also, the local college I attended was a small one without much in the way of PhD programs).
I live in a fairly small town that doesn't have much in the way of an Aspergers/AS community. I'd like to eventually move to a bigger city (Austin, TX is somewhere I'd like to live at some point), but I'm not really in a good position to do that right now. The psychiatrist I saw told me that Aspies tend to do a little better in big cities as opposed to smaller, more conservative communities such as the town where I live (I really wish some of the Aspergers/AS resources available in Austin were available here). I was born here and pretty much my whole support network is here, so uprooting myself and relocating somewhere else is kind of a difficult thing to consider at this point.
I came across this site after investigating online Aspergers/AS commnunites, which is something that the psychiatrist who diagnosed me recommended. I hope to make meaningful connections with some of the other members of this forum and possibly get some kind of advice on how to deal with the problems I face.
P.S.: If you asked me why I chose my forum handle, I chose it (partly unconsciously) to emphasize that Aspies/people on the spectrum are not easy to pin down and are just as complex and contradictory as everyone else.
I was diagnosed with ADD at around age 10, but the possibility that I might have Aspergers was never raised when I was younger. I had social and academic problems in school, and there was a sense that there was something that made me different but nobody could ever quite figure out what it was. Within the past few years, I investigated Aspergers, and I started to think that I had some characteristics that fit that profile. I was in the self-diagnosed/unsure category for a long time and only made moves toward getting an official diagnosis fairly recently.
I'm a fairly recent college graduate (MA and BA in English), and to a large extent, it's the difficulties I've had finding a job and a new "niche" that led me to seek an official diagnosis. The shape that the economy is in doesn't make finding a job easy, but the whole job/career search thing has always been kind of a nightmare for me whatever the economy is doing. I've held a few jobs, but I didn't like any of them that much and I certainly wouldn't want to return to any of them. I'm not very comfortable interviewing for jobs, and working with people who aren't on the same "wavelength" as me presents problems. Ideally, I'd like to find something where I do mostly solitary work and only briefly interact with people. I'm having difficulty finding much of anything to do with my MA in English. The standard thing that people with that degree are expected to do is teach English, but I don't feel like that's much of an option for me (I had a couple of grad school classmates who had horror stories about teaching in the public school system). I'd like to find work as some type of writer, but I'm having difficulty finding very much in the way of writing work that pays (I've tried Elance and couple of similar sites, but I couldn't really find much to do there). I'd also be open to finding some type of IT/Programming job, but I'm not very enthusiastic about the idea of going back for another degree. I wouldn't rule out the idea of continuing my education further (I had more than one professor tell me that I would probably be successful in a PhD program), but I'm feeling a little too burned out on the whole college thing to even consider that right now (also, the local college I attended was a small one without much in the way of PhD programs).
I live in a fairly small town that doesn't have much in the way of an Aspergers/AS community. I'd like to eventually move to a bigger city (Austin, TX is somewhere I'd like to live at some point), but I'm not really in a good position to do that right now. The psychiatrist I saw told me that Aspies tend to do a little better in big cities as opposed to smaller, more conservative communities such as the town where I live (I really wish some of the Aspergers/AS resources available in Austin were available here). I was born here and pretty much my whole support network is here, so uprooting myself and relocating somewhere else is kind of a difficult thing to consider at this point.
I came across this site after investigating online Aspergers/AS commnunites, which is something that the psychiatrist who diagnosed me recommended. I hope to make meaningful connections with some of the other members of this forum and possibly get some kind of advice on how to deal with the problems I face.
P.S.: If you asked me why I chose my forum handle, I chose it (partly unconsciously) to emphasize that Aspies/people on the spectrum are not easy to pin down and are just as complex and contradictory as everyone else.
