Not quite sure how to...

[typeone]

Hi everyone,

I'm an 18 year old college freshman who has recently noticed a rift between myself and others. Originally, in high school and prior to, I found myself making friends easily, albeit with nerds and the what have yous. But everyone seemed to like me and I found it easy to be nice and friendly to everyone. Recently, however, in the last year or two, I have found it increasingly difficult to make new friends. I find myself wanting to talk and behave with these new people as if we have been friends for years. I'll make remarks or personal jabs that result in the end of conversation or some snarky, unfriendly comment back. I am not sure if this is a symptom of something or rather just an awkward teenager who doesn't know the proper procedure on how to make new friends.

Along with this befriending ordeal, I have also found myself obsessing (as many would describe it as) over a specific person or topic for a period of time, whether it be short or extensive. I find this impacting me daily when I see a pretty girl or someone that I think I could be best friends with. It usually follows the same pattern. I see/overhear the person, I connect with that person remotely, I then fantasize an entire lifetime of situations and misadventures, marriages and betrayals, and then they disappear, leaving me a slightly bit emptier than before, but with a crazy fictional scenario in my head.

This obsessiveness has also taken over my day to day from time to time. Finding a new show and watching it 6 or 7 times in lieu of homework or going out. I spent my high school years watching sitcoms and movies while most other people were doing homework or going out to dinners. 90% of my time after school was spent in my basement.

This, I know, is a lot for an "Introduce yourself thread", but I suppose this is the best way to introduce myself. Hi!

 

[typeone]

I should add that I have not been diagnosed with anything and have yet to seek any sort of diagnosis, but have been thinking about it, not for treatment, just something to explain behavior and maybe an introduction into a community better suited for me.

 

[SusanLR]

Welcome typeone.
I was homeschooled for highschool and while others were out dating or attending school events, I was happy at home working on my hobbies and taking care of my pets and yes I remember tv game shows and sitcoms took up a large part of my time too.

I was only diagnosed a couple of years ago in my 50's.
It really didn't change anything, especially by this age, but, it did explain why I lived my life as I did and the problems that it presented.
I'm glad to find out if for nothing more than self knowledge.

 

[Nitro]

 

[Streetwise]

Welcome 80 to 90% of people who post for the first time do what you do

Hi everyone,

I'm an 18 year old college freshman who has recently noticed a rift between myself and others. Originally, in high school and prior to, I found myself making friends easily, albeit with nerds and the what have yous. But everyone seemed to like me and I found it easy to be nice and friendly to everyone. Recently, however, in the last year or two, I have found it increasingly difficult to make new friends. I find myself wanting to talk and behave with these new people as if we have been friends for years. I'll make remarks or personal jabs that result in the end of conversation or some snarky, unfriendly comment back. I am not sure if this is a symptom of something or rather just an awkward teenager who doesn't know the proper procedure on how to make new friends.

Along with this befriending ordeal, I have also found myself obsessing (as many would describe it as) over a specific person or topic for a period of time, whether it be short or extensive. I find this impacting me daily when I see a pretty girl or someone that I think I could be best friends with. It usually follows the same pattern. I see/overhear the person, I connect with that person remotely, I then fantasize an entire lifetime of situations and misadventures, marriages and betrayals, and then they disappear, leaving me a slightly bit emptier than before, but with a crazy fictional scenario in my head.

This obsessiveness has also taken over my day to day from time to time. Finding a new show and watching it 6 or 7 times in lieu of homework or going out. I spent my high school years watching sitcoms and movies while most other people were doing homework or going out to dinners. 90% of my time after school was spent in my basement.

This, I know, is a lot for an "Introduce yourself thread", but I suppose this is the best way to introduce myself. Hi!

 

[pjcnet]

Welcome to ASPIESCentral, loads of new members start with long introductions and quite a few suspect they're on the autistic spectrum, but are not completely certain, there's also a lot of self diagnosed aspies here. A large part of this community's purpose is to allow members to share their experiences, feelings and knowledge so we can support each other, in fact often it's very useful for members just to get things off their chest by discussing it with others and this is in fact encouraged. You will also find that this community is friendly and non judgemental.

The information given isn't conclusive enough to make a definite assumption as to whether you're on the autistic spectrum or not, but some of what you mention makes it sound like you have an increased chance. Not everyone who finds it difficult to make friends is an aspie however and even though your obsessive behaviour could be partly caused by you being an aspie, it's also not unusual for a young man of your age to get over distracted and perhaps even somewhat obsessed by a pretty face and this could just be a normal part of growing up.

I would firstly try taking a free online test such as the Aspie Quiz, it's not an official diagnosis, but as long as you answer the questions honestly and you are true to yourself it can be used as a good starting guide. When I say honestly I mean don't let yourself be biased by answering questions in a particular way because you consciously or subconsciously want to see a particular result as you would only be kidding yourself. That said all Aspies are different and some traits will be more prominent than others while a few traits may barely be visible at all, the test allows for this however, so even if you answer some questions against what you'd often expect from an aspie the final test result could still conclude that you are very likely an Aspie.

Please feel free to keep us all updated and you are always welcome to share your experiences Etc.

Best of luck!

 

[Streetwise]

Hi everyone,

I'm an 18 year old college freshman who has recently noticed a rift between myself and others. Originally, in high school and prior to, I found myself making friends easily, albeit with nerds and the what have yous. But everyone seemed to like me and I found it easy to be nice and friendly to everyone. Recently, however, in the last year or two, I have found it increasingly difficult to make new friends. I find myself wanting to talk and behave with these new people as if we have been friends for years. I'll make remarks or personal jabs that result in the end of conversation or some snarky, unfriendly comment back. I am not sure if this is a symptom of something or rather just an awkward teenager who doesn't know the proper procedure on how to make new friends.

Along with this befriending ordeal, I have also found myself obsessing (as many would describe it as) over a specific person or topic for a period of time, whether it be short or extensive. I find this impacting me daily when I see a pretty girl or someone that I think I could be best friends with. It usually follows the same pattern. I see/overhear the person, I connect with that person remotely, I then fantasize an entire lifetime of situations and misadventures, marriages and betrayals, and then they disappear, leaving me a slightly bit emptier than before, but with a crazy fictional scenario in my head.

This obsessiveness has also taken over my day to day from time to time. Finding a new show and watching it 6 or 7 times in lieu of homework or going out. I spent my high school years watching sitcoms and movies while most other people were doing homework or going out to dinners. 90% of my time after school was spent in my basement.

This, I know, is a lot for an "Introduce yourself thread", but I suppose this is the best way to introduce myself. Hi!

One of the reasons for diagnosis is if you're not autistic whatever help you need will be geared to what your diagnosis is,for instance if you weren't socialised as a child your symptoms would look like autism but the difference is your neurology ,so you could be treated as someone who is what we call neuro typical, that's just means your neurology is typical or in the majority
I for instance suffer from panic disorder which neuro typicals can also suffer from and some of the symptoms would resemble autism but not enough

 

[Haiku]

Hello typeone, people in this thread have given you some good advice. I'll reiterate the point about taking an online quiz. I recommend the RAADS-R (you can Google that term and find it). While not diagnostic, the RAADS-R is a real screening measure that professionals use (or should use...) as a first step. If you score high, that doesn't mean you have ASD; it often gets confused with ADHD, anxiety, etc. But it does mean that you should get evaluated.

I have experienced -- actually, I just started grad school, so I would say I am currently experiencing something similar to you. So, while this fantasizing behavior and difficulty making friends isn't necessarily indicative of ASD, it could be. It could also be something I mentioned before -- ADHD, or anxiety, or even something else.