Does this make me weird?

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Hey there. I'm Fletcher. I'm a girl, I'm gay, I consider myself genderqueer, I have aspergers, ADHD, and whatever the hell else is on my file.

I was ten or so when I was diagnosed with aspergers and I am now 16. When I hear about symptoms/signs of aspergers or high functioning autism I always hear the " bad social skills " and not being able to read non-verbal communication, although I don't look people in the eye ( because that's creepy who decided that was normal?) I don't have very many social problems. I read body language and peoples general " energy " better than most NT people. And I can pick up on peoples emotions in almost a psychic way, carry conversations, understand jokes, and know when people want me to stop ranting. I wanted to know if there are any other aspies like this, because while I have pretty " normal" social skills I...

- Suck at school. The only subject I've ever been good at is English. I actually had to start homeschooling in the middle of my sophomore year because not being able to understand geometry and chemistry became too overwhelming.

- I can talk to adults more easily than I can people my own age. I feel too mature for them sometimes.

- I can make friends, but not the " bestfriend " type. I'm almost emotionally disconnected to the friends I do have. I like them, but only sometimes, and in short periods of time. And I do better in group settings more so than one on one situations.

- I have a self harming history.

- Sometimes I feel like people are so simple that I if I wanted to I could manipulate them to do anything.

- I get very weird obsessions. For example if I find a show that I like and it's been on the air for a while with out me knowing about it i'll go online and watch the entire series in a day locked in my room.

- Ask me about how a feel about something and I can openly express my feelings about it. Ask me about me and I can't really tell you a damn thing. I feel like they're being too personal or that they aren't good enough of a person to be let into the inner workings of my mind.

- I am very blunt, but I can catch myself being too harsh.

- Rudeness/not respecting peoples property/ young children are my biggest annoyances in life.

- Visual thoughts are pratically non-exsistent in my mind. And trying to understand certain abstract concepts and sayings is close to impossible for me sometimes.

- I let people touch me, but I am extremely specific about who does. And some days I don't even want people sit too close.

- My facial expression does change, and quite often, same with my tone/expression in my voice.

So are there any other dianosed apies that don't have some of the traditional symptoms? Or some of the things I listed? Am I alone in this weird type of aspergers? Is this something else entirely?

( I do have other aspergers related things going on with me, but I didn't want to make a ridiculously large list.)

Everybody is different. One person experience one thing, another something completely different.

You're certainly not alone, though. I'm not very good at analyzing things, but just by a brief look on this list I can see that you share several traits with many others on this site.

Welcome to WP, by the way.

I had real troubles starting in 11th grade when I was taking physics, trig, and computer science. Three technical courses all at once was a wipe out. I've seen decided one technical course at a time, and that with prestudy, and then I tend to do rather well at it. (And interesting, looking back on it, I think there were precursors in 10th chemistry, but the teacher let me slide.) Overall, I tend to be more of a social studies nerd---psychology, anthropology, philosophy, history, etc.---those are the kinds of subjects I really like. And yeah, I remember all this pretty well even though I'm now in my 40s. I mean, when I was in high school, Jimmy Carter was still president, he was!

Okay, about the social skills, you know I have preached here at different times about sales job (legitimate sales) and political activism, besides being valuable in their own right, are good ways to learn social skills. I have also preached poker (but, as I say, please don't count on it as a way to try and make money). And I think my ability to feel along with a person, to be attune to what they are experiencing, also helps me be a better writer.

I think I try and 'excel' with social interaction and make it too complicated. For example, I tend to talk in paragraphs rather than sentences, that kind of thing.

And by the way, let me second it, Welcome to WrongPlanet!

I am very similar to you in a lot of ways. I think with many of the things that make me seem more "normal", I've just learned to do them, and they've become habit. Do you think that happened with you? I've consciously done some of them (learning to smile properly, for example) and others I've just slowly done without quite noticing, like getting better at small talk because I worked in retail so long. It may make it difficult for me to be diagnosed at this point, because I've come up with so many ways to make myself seem normal to get through every day life.

Some kids learn these things too, so think back pretty far. Even if this isn't how you dealt with it, Asperger's affects all people differently, and there are varying degrees of severity.

there are plenty of weird, eccentric, different people out there....


Everyone with Aspergers is so different, there is no right way to be.

Just be yourself be label " fletcher "


I can talk to adults /older people easier too.. older or younger seems to be easier...

usually people my own age are competing with each other. that's what I find.
but of course everyone competes no matter what the age...
Just sometimes they want to show off their new shoes or new car... and people follow the same trends... its a interesting world...


Ciao

I understand you are young, and I assure you I am not trying to be mean or smart ass. But to say you read body language and "energy" better than most NT's... how do you know that? how can you know what everyone else is thinking? And you're picking up on people's emotion in an almost "psychic" way? supernatural means are not a way to understand other people's emotions, and I would assume that you are experiencing denial over your circumstances and this is a kind of overcompensation.
You should rid yourself of believing that you have some kind of supernatural ability, that can lead down a very dark path. I have thought such things before, I'm only trying to help you. I'm serious, do not allow yourself to believe this. As emphatically as possible: I'M TRYING TO HELP!

I'm only a 12-year-old girl (a diagnosed aspie), but I actually have a lot of the symptoms on your list:

-talking to adults more easily than kids and feeling to mature for them (for me it's mainly because I'm very intelligent so I can connect with them on an intellectual level and, since I'm way younger than them, they wouldn't expect me to connect with them on an emotional level)

- Feeling like I can manipulate people to do anything (for me it's because i read a few of my mom's psychology books a few months ago and learned a thing or two from them)

-Getting weird obsessions. I actually watched nine complete seasons (including two movies) of a TV show on my computer over the course of a week.

-not having visual thoughts, I'm actually a pattern thinker and a verbal thinker (but it still helps me to have things written down or drawn out).

-I can also understand changes in vocal tone and facial expressions (though I will have trouble with the more complex ones)

- I can "sense" how a person feels (but for me, I believe it's a slight form of empathy)

I think that the things you listed and your lack of traditional symptoms are due to being a girl because most articles about asperger's are about boys with AS and boys display symptoms that are drastically different than girls. Also, every aspie is different so not all aspies have the traditional symptoms (me being one that doesn't).