I want to hear from all aspies out there...

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when im around people I usually feel warm and my hands get moist and when I try to talk my tongue is heavy like I ate molasses and outside of the house the traffic is even worse to deal with. I do not rememeber directions well and i hate instructions that are not concrete. words like "some" annoy me. Dont ask me for "some juice" or "some sheets of paper" tell me exactly how much you want or I wont know what is enough to give you

this is how i feel: Being an aspie is like being a smart todler. your mind works but your body isnt old enough to articulate. so you walk funny and babble and people think you are stupid.

That make sense?? o,0

The image I have is of the human race as a herd of animals in a field, typically they all wander around as herd, all somehow linked together so that they move like an amorphous dynamic mass, however, occasionally individual animals do not have this innate ability to be part of the mass and either continually run back to the herd every time they look up and find that the herd has moved or eventually they appear as single entities in the same paddock but with no connection to the herd. It is the missing automatic synchronicity that make AS people not part of the herd.

wellll, mmm. For me, asperger's is like living in a foreign country. You can learn enough to get by in some social situations and to order food. but you are never fluent in the language, and it takes a long time to even grasp the local customs. Not to mention some of the customs are puzzling to you. Its hard to hide the fact you are a foreigner from anyone around you. You have a few friends that think you're cool, but most of the others think foreigners are weird anyways.

or, since i am a visual learner:

or maybe this

I don't have an image per se, and I have a hard time coming up with one that deals with everything, but this is something I was thinking yesterday as I was on errands with three colleagues (friendly) from work.
They were walking along and joking with one another (they've known one another for about six months and me for about two) and every so often I would say something, but usually it would be misunderstood, shot down, or just totally ignored. Not because they were mean. I think. Just because my comments and responses were so "out of left field" for them.
So I thought it felt like I was in a huge, soft, clear bag. I can see everything normally, and everyone who looks at me can see me normally. But anything I try to say either doesn't make it out of the bag or gets out so distorted and weird that it can't be understood by all of the people outside of the bag. I try to speak louder or clearer, but it doesn't work. Every so often I get frustrated and try anything to tear the bag and get out, but my hands just kind of slide down the side and the bag never quite tears.
And that's just the social side!

Having AS is like taking part in a race with your legs tied together. All the other people in the race aren't tied down, and can run normally. They don't understand why your legs are tied together, since you've only just begun to find out, halfway through the race, that it's actually freestyle, so your legs aren't meant to be tied together at all. This is a poor analogy, I know. Here's a better one:

I feel like there's always been a wall between myself and the rest of the world. Sometimes you can see through the wall to everyone else, and sometimes they can see you, but the glass is slightly warped. Other times, the wall is clouded over. Since it's infinitely high, you know that you'll never be able to climb over the wall to reach everyone else, and they know they'll never be able to climb over and join you. So you try to do as many things as you can with the semi-clouded wall, but because the glass is slightly warped, you find it hard to do the things that everyone else does, which stops their desire to bother with you. Now this one's just depressing.

For me, it is a matter of doing incredibly dumb stuff, even though I'm reasonably intelligent.

Well, since I've adopted a very laidback attitude towards life since my diagnoses 2 years ago mine will be a lot more optimistic then most...

Sometimes I feel like I'm alone in a crowded room. I do have a few friends (mostly NT's with one or 2 aspie traits, but not nearly enough to be diagnosed) and I'm very close to my family, but when they aren't around I am alone. Of course this does not bother me, my thoughts drift from subject to subject and I can be at peace. I might not have social stimulation all the time, but I don't need it. Solitude doesn't affect me the way it affects others.

Let's see my point of aspergers.

Imagine not having the right words to say. Imagine when you where at an lost of words and your mind went blank and you had nothing to say. Well it's like that for us that have aspergers all the time. That's why we don't conversate much. Imagine having the tv on at an low volume. You hear it but you don't comprehend what the person on tv is saying. That's what it's like sometimes for aspies. Lets say the anxiety you have when you get pulled over by the police or get into trouble with your parents. Aspies have that same anxiety when we are around people. We also lack emotions such as empathy, rage, greif, excitement, etc. Let's say normal people have a tank full of gas (feelings). Some people are more or less emotional than others but still at an half-tank (normal) or above. But for aspies we are like at an quarter-tank (below normal) going on Empty.

I didn't learn there was such a thing as AS until less than two years ago. I have just started to research and learn about it within the past two months. I don't yet knowfor certain, what I think about it.

I do know that I have always felt that most people just don't understand simple logic and cause and effect. I've met many who claim they do, including some who teach those subjects, but they truely don't understand. I discovered just last week that one of the very few people whom I felt understood the subjects is an AS. I discovered this the same week that I found out that Bill Gates is considered an AS by many. He is another of the few.

Hmmmmm 69 years of fighting myself to fit in and I find that I might have been better to listen to MY drummer.

Pops

It's funny you all mention it this way..and most of these analogies work.

But here's something funny I'd like to share-

I remember as far back as 4 years old, my parents would be bringing me to some "specialists"...I didn't know why I was there or anything...I just wanted to watch my cartoons and play with my action figures.

I had no idea why I was getting tested- and why I seemed to have so many problems making friends once I left pre-school( though it turns out, I wasn't really well- liked THERE, either...).

Well, once I found out about my ADHD, and AS- I told my Dad "now I know why you did what you did...it ALL makes sense now". Granted...I was 4 back in 1986, and people didn't know diddly squat about AS back then...so I was just considered "weird".

People- be glad you learned about your AS when you did, in high school. Remember- I didn't find out till AFTER high school had ended...and only got to really understand it after my girlfriend and I kissed for the first time, about a month ago.

The reason I say this is because you got tested for it ahead of time, and now, you can probably enjoy your teen years WAY more than I did, and understand WHY you have all the problems you do.

Like I said- I'm glad I found out when I did, due to how limited knowledge was back then, but in your case, it might REALLY help you from that point on...and be VERY glad your AS trait was something that could help you in school. Schyeah...mine KINDA wasn't....

Having asperger's is like showing up to something with your shirt accidentally on backwards. You feel kind of weird, and you feel like people are staring at you, but you don't know why. If it was up to you, you'd just say you figured everyone felt like that, but if they did, why are they all staring at you???

Good on you for what you're doing.

I gave a talk at work a few weeks ago. I posted a similar thread to this, asking for people to have their say. There were many excellent replies. Here's the thread:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt56820.html

I gave a powerpoint presentation. I think the slide that people liked most was the one that had a photo of a cat. Next to it was written: "This is a cat. It is not a defective dog."

Have fun and please tell us how it goes.

Helen

Last Crazy Horn's image is perfect for me. I still don't know why I'm weird, but my guess would be the timing issues and the desire to discuss politics or biology or history while everyone else wants to talk about music and movie stars.