Hey Everybody! :)

nbtxdude · Emu Egg Joined: Feb 19, 2012 Posts: 6

Hey guys and gals...

My name is Jeffrey and I was just officially diagnosed on Valentines day last week. I'm a 39 year old guy who has worked in both engineering and IT (never management - just a technical grunt) and am currently back in school to get a MS degree in Computer Science (my original degree was in Environmental Engineering, but that was a passing trend and I can't stand it anymore). Apparently I express most of the signs of Aspergers - clumsiness/balance/gait issues, no eye contact, no touching, completely clueless on how to read or talk to other people, good long term/poor short term memory, little empathy, and delayed speech development. I was described as high functioning as I've been able to survive without a breakdown in the NT world, but it is very tiring to maintain this facade.

For me, getting diagnosed gave me a great deal of relief. I've always considered myself a freak and kept wondering why I was "wired" so differently. My youth was difficult because it took me a long time to get my speech sorted out and I was bullied because I tended to ignore others. College was actually somewhat OK, but I kept myself with a small close group of people who I now think were also fellow Aspies. Work was hell. Relationships are a total disaster. Thus why I'm still single at 39 years of age and no likely prospects to remedy that (I'm not able to communicate appropriately while in a relationship).

What do I plan to do now? Try to get better. I have somewhat frequent bouts of depression that I have been unsuccessfully treating. My psychologist thinks that it will be easier now to treat it because of the Asperger's diagnosis.

On the rdos test, I was 157 Aspie and I think 62 NT.