Are aspies on Wrong Planet worse-than-average?

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Knives1000 said he knew some friends with aspergers who drove cool cars, had jobs, a girlfriend and whatever and that the label of aspergers essentially meant that you speak intelligently and your thinking tends to be more logical -- it essentially entailed no drawbacks. That kind of lifestyle seems to be a dream for most aspies here who seem to be wallowing leading me to believe the average aspie on Wrong Planet is worse off than the average aspie in real life. This kind of makes sense because I suppose those who are worse off would be likelier to seek support from a support site and probably would post to it for longer periods of time, whereas those who are more well adjusted would probably spend significantly more time on special interest sites and probably be more involved in life in general.

So, I'm asking about this because I'm associating the average outcome of autism/aspergers with the outcomes of the people on here, and if I'm autistic, then that paints a bleak and dreary picture. However, if I'm more like an "average aspie" who's on here merely for discovery and learning more (as opposed to dwelling on the disability and ruminating), then I might just have a chance at a relatively well adjusted life if I put my nose to the grind stone and try hard.

I think it dangerous to use words like "average" or "typical" when referring to ourselves. Rather, it is quite normal for people to come here for their own reasons and to then either remain or to move along ... and I see long-term members here at all points on the spectrum.

Everyone's reason for coming on here is different, but the root cause is autism. I stay on here because no other site is as friendly to me as Wrong Planet (being an extremely young person). I'd say I'm more on the moderate side, but I'm still doing well in life.

Also, I can provide my experiences to other threads created by newer users, just to show how diverse the spectrum can really be. It all depends on the person posting.

I know plenty who are worse than average and they dont go anywhere near this site

I have got a life outside WP aswell.

I believe that statistically speaking, the typical person with Asperger's is under employed or unemployed and has few friends, struggles with relationships and in general lives on the margins of society. Those described by knives1000 would be the exception, not the rule.

My first question to knives would be if these peope are actually DX'd or just "aspie-like" in his eyes?

Statistics say that 80% are under or unemployed.

I was lucky to get employment in my area of special interest but I still have difficulties in socialization and other areas that make life dificult-and my personal life is also a shambles in the relationship department.

I am one of those worse-off dudes.

I'm not sure why you're asking the question. I don't see how you can answer it or why the answer even matters. I'm not even sure why you think people come here for "support"; I certainly don't and you can bet there are a whole host of reasons why people do that have nothing to do with support.

As for those with "cool cars" (whatever rocks your world ), girlfriends, jobs and no drawbacks, well that's entirely anecdotal. That's not to say they don't have these things, but who knows about the drawbacks? Most people keep their problems to themselves. I'm a very private person who is good at concealing my difficulties, so nobody would know what's going on in my life. Why should it be any different for anybody else?

I know we're younger than average--teens and twentysomethings are really overrepresented. You wanna compare an Aspie fifteen-year-old to the same guy at age thirty, of course he'll be doing better when he's thirty. So much more time to learn.

My brother works in a bank and knows some people there with Asperger's. It is possible to find your niche and if that's banking/ engineering or something else that gives you a big paycheck then those who have that as a special interest will excel.

I do think that support forums can bring all types of severities here. The most severe who may not be good at reading or have such bad social skills they can't even participate in a forum might stay away, or the ones who feel they don't need the support stay away. I went away for a while...then I got worse and came back. There are also parents who may be diagnosed themselves.

My functioning is all over the place. I have developed some good social skills but I still can only socialise for a few hours. I have days of under functioning and days where even without medication I can be productive. Some days I can cook a banquet and some days I struggle to make my usual favourite meals that take 30-60 minutes. Sometimes I need a routine and some I cans witch it around or be fine without it.

I don't know what's average or typical.

I do know that I have a good job I love, but also have LOTS of trouble socially at work, and tend not to keep jobs very long. I've mostly been self-employed, but also successfully.

I have a husband and 2 kids, and a (very) small but wonderful social circle who take me just as I am. I only finally learned to drive, having found a teacher who could teach me last year, so my car rocks!

I was told I has AS, and believed it for years. For a legal problem (arising from social stuff at work) I had to have a formal diagnosis a couple of weeks ago. I have Classic Autism. ... which, frankly, has shocked the bejeesus out of me, as I had genuinely thought I was on the milder end of the spectrum. Turns out, no so much, I'm just so bad at understanding social stuff I wasn't even aware of most of what I can't understand (I guess this is the 'unknown unknown').

My prospects at 37? I can't see returning to the hideous, lonely, terrifying situation of my twenties. I only see it getting better. I might have to admit that it's unlikely I'll ever be Prime Minister now, and I can blame not being able to bring 200,000 words of research in to a single PhD thesis was executive dysfunction rather than stupidity. Not perfect, by a long stretch, but then whose life is?

... and making sure my youngest daughter, who's a carbon copy of me, doesn't have to repeat all of the mistakes I made.

I think that it might help to stop making sweeping generalizations on the basis of limited information.

Severity levels here run the gamut from mild to moderate to severe. Some of us are average, many are not.