Hi everyone! I'm a 22-year old male with Asperger's. I never received an official diagnosis, but I've talked to two different psychologists who said they were pretty sure I had it, and I've taken a lot of different diagnostics tests, and I always have 85-90% of the symptoms. I would love to get an official diagnosis, but according to the people I've spoken do, diagnosing A.S. in adults isn't very easy. I'm joining this forum to be able to read about others' and occasionally talk about my own experience with A.S.
I can manage my symptoms pretty well now, but I had a rough road to get here. I was always considered to be "different," which caused me to get picked on and criticized a lot in my youth, as I had nerdy interests and trouble socializing. As I entered college, I spent probably hundreds of hours researching what was wrong with me, as I realized I wasn't thinking normally. I went from thinking I had general depression to social anxiety to an avoidant personality to just being shy, but when I began reading about A.S., I saw that I had all but a couple of the symptoms, so I talked to some psychologists, and while they didn't give me a formal diagnosis, as I didn't want to spent the time or money getting one, they said they were pretty sure I had it.
I started to turn to drugs and alcohol to shake the symptoms, and I ended up getting hooked on a lot of things, getting dangerously skinny, and after several close encounters with the law, finally got a D.U.I., which convinced me to straighten up and deal with my symptoms the correct way. Since then I've reduced my drug and alcohol consumption from a multiple times per week to once every couple months.
Since then, I've spent hundreds more hours researching A.S., and I generally manage my symptoms pretty well. It can be a pain to manage, because my way to manage it requires me to always think before I speak. For example, I don't share my unique interests, because I know if I start talking about them, I won't stop haha, and when someone asks me about one, I just give a brief sentence or two.
I live a fairly normal life; I have a degree, a good job, friends, and enough money to enjoy life. The only thing I'm really having trouble with having A.S. is dating, so I'm going to start looking for an A.S. dating website or something, because through my research and experiences, I've been able to have a fairly normal social life, but I'm having extreme issues with dating, but hopefully that'll resolve itself over time.
Look forwards to being on here!
I can manage my symptoms pretty well now, but I had a rough road to get here. I was always considered to be "different," which caused me to get picked on and criticized a lot in my youth, as I had nerdy interests and trouble socializing. As I entered college, I spent probably hundreds of hours researching what was wrong with me, as I realized I wasn't thinking normally. I went from thinking I had general depression to social anxiety to an avoidant personality to just being shy, but when I began reading about A.S., I saw that I had all but a couple of the symptoms, so I talked to some psychologists, and while they didn't give me a formal diagnosis, as I didn't want to spent the time or money getting one, they said they were pretty sure I had it.
I started to turn to drugs and alcohol to shake the symptoms, and I ended up getting hooked on a lot of things, getting dangerously skinny, and after several close encounters with the law, finally got a D.U.I., which convinced me to straighten up and deal with my symptoms the correct way. Since then I've reduced my drug and alcohol consumption from a multiple times per week to once every couple months.
Since then, I've spent hundreds more hours researching A.S., and I generally manage my symptoms pretty well. It can be a pain to manage, because my way to manage it requires me to always think before I speak. For example, I don't share my unique interests, because I know if I start talking about them, I won't stop haha, and when someone asks me about one, I just give a brief sentence or two.
I live a fairly normal life; I have a degree, a good job, friends, and enough money to enjoy life. The only thing I'm really having trouble with having A.S. is dating, so I'm going to start looking for an A.S. dating website or something, because through my research and experiences, I've been able to have a fairly normal social life, but I'm having extreme issues with dating, but hopefully that'll resolve itself over time.
Look forwards to being on here!
