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Anachronism
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

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Joined: 12 Jan 2005
Gender: Male
Posts: 171
Location: Colorado Springs, CO

13 Jan 2005, 11:56 pm

Hello,
In my internet travails, I came across this site. It is nice to see so many like-minded people.

So here's my story. I am 24 years old, and diagnosed with Asperger's 3 months ago. Prior to that, I had an ADD diagnosis with sensoryt integration disorder and "unspecified" social difficulties.

The ADD diagnosis gave me enough in the way of accomodations to get through school. I'm also lucky enough to be very intelligent (~160 iq). I found being a know-it-all garnered me a certain level of respect that I couldn't get otherwise, so learning was always very important to me. Well, that was one of the reasons. I have always been obsessed with knowing EVERYTHING about any subject of interest, and can learn effortlessly, which I am sure I share with many people here.

At this point, I live on my own, and have a job I am very succesful at that involves training and generally being a "guru" on mortgage lending guidelines for a large bank.

However, my life seems to be defined by the loneliness I feel. Friends have always been few and far between, and I recurringly feel that I am an outsider to the rest of the human race.

I don't want to get into a big angst-ridden sob story, as I am sure my tale is very similar. So I will abridge it to say that it has only been recently where I have had the wonderful enlightenment of finding that I was not the only one to have the challenges I face.

So, Hi and stuff.



Astro
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

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Joined: 1 Jan 2005
Gender: Male
Posts: 64

14 Jan 2005, 8:17 am

Welcome!

Quote:
...my life seems to be defined by the loneliness I feel. Friends have always been few and far between, and I recurringly feel that I am an outsider to the rest of the human race....it has only been recently where I have had the wonderful enlightenment of finding that I was not the only one to have the challenges I face.


I'm a relative newbie here too. It has been amazing to see that we are not alone! All through life, most of us have felt alienated. Without the Internet and groups like this, we could very well have gone through life thinking that we were just freaks.



sparkplugloy
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

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Joined: 23 Jun 2004
Gender: Male
Posts: 316
Location: South of France

14 Jan 2005, 10:21 am

Welcome Anachronism,

I hope you will enjoy this site. I have been a member for a while now.
I see some common points between you and myself. I was diagnosed as HG, dysgraphic and ADHD in 2001. I am self-dx'ed with visual dyslexia and have a formal unofficial diagnosis of AS.

Quote:
I have always been obsessed with knowing EVERYTHING about any subject of interest, and can learn effortlessly, which I am sure I share with many people here.

You do. I have this need to learn as many things as possible about my current interest, and as long as I am interested, I understand and memorize date very easily.


_________________
Nicolas (spark).


Postperson
Veteran
Veteran

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Joined: 9 Jul 2004
Age: 66
Gender: Female
Posts: 4,023
Location: Uz

14 Jan 2005, 10:26 pm

Well congratulations on the career success, I think that's one of the hardest things for us, to find stable long term employment.

When I was doing office work I found that work was quite social, since one was forced make allegiances/friendships in order not to be seen as a loner, one was then asked to the pub on pay night, and on further acquaintance, out to lunch or dinners/nightclubs and some of my colleagues lived nearby me so I had a reasonable amount of social life through work.

Perhaps you've refused invitations or others accept that you are a loner and just leave you alone. The office politics where I was working was pretty deadly so it just didn't work and wasn't socially acceptable not to become involved with others at work, so....uh well it's mostly the singles who do the social stuff but maybe you should let some of your collegues know that you're interested in any drinks/social events that are going on.

Welcome the the world of AS and this site.

PP