Aspies For Freedom

Hello everybody. Before i first read the Wikipedia article about Asperger's syndrome i thought i was just a strange person and that there is no special explanation for the way i am, but after reading the article i was surprised at how much the typical person with AS is like me, and after reading some topics on these forums i saw more and more similarity with me. But there are some important details which don't match, for example as far as i could see being almost obsessed with a special interest and always talking about it was a very significant part of the syndrome, but i don't think i have any such interests and i don't talk to anybody about anything if it's not really important. Maybe the closest thing to a special interest for me is playing OGame because i think about it a lot and get nervous when i can't play it. Anyway the other important detail which i'm missing is the ability to speak normally, i have seen in many places that the normal development of speech is also a sign of asperger's syndrome, does this mean i have something different? It's not that i can't speak at all, but i speak very slowly and can't pronounce the letter R. I also can't speak english (which is not my mother tongue) you can see that i'm not too bad at writing it, but when i try to say something i just keep concentrating on how to pronounce things and the end result is complete jibberish. For now i have only written about the two reasons because of which i doubt i have AS, but almost everything else fits perfectly, i will just write a list so that this post won't become too long for anybody to read (partially summed up from the aspie-quiz questions that i feel are especially true for me):

-Difficulties making friends
-I prefer to do things by myself
-During brakes at school everybody else goes out of the classroom to chat, i rather just sit there and play games on my phone
-I find it difficult to figure out how to behave in various situations
-I am not comfortable in most social situations and with new people
-My image and social identity are not important to me
-In conversations i need extra time to carefully think out my reply, so that there may be a pause before i answer
-I find social chitchat difficult, tiresome and/or a waste of time
-I find it easier to communicate online than in real life
-I tend to say things that are considered socially inappropriate
-I prefer to avoid eye-contact
-Sounds: when somebody says something to me i hear perfectly fine, but i do not understand so i almost always ask the person to repeat. I also get distracted by the sounds of clocks and similar.
-Do recently heard phrases, tunes or rhythms tend to stick and repeat themselves in your head? at this one i was totally surprised because sometimes songs just start playing in my head, even if i hear a single familiar sound effect, i just start hearing the song even if i haven't heard it in months.
-I prefer cold weather over warm weather
-Stimming: of course, i always move my feet or fingers or play with a pen, i never imagined this could be a part of a syndrome of course i also pick my nose, but that looks almost like a joke question
-Do you enjoy watching or playing with water? How did they know this?
-I love to collect things, but to other people my colections could seem a bit weird, i collect balls from ballpoint pens, electromotors from toys and my cat's fallen off whiskers
-I love to make lists, diagrams etc for the fun of it. Wow, that's exactly like me, i also like to make microsoft excel charts of things.
-Do you find it disturbing or upsetting when others show up either later or sooner than agreed? That's the thing that annoys me most of all.
-I'm very gifted in maths and physics as long as it is something practical and interesting, i even got a schollarship for gifted students in the top 2% of the population . But i also find it very hard to learn things which i'm not interested in, i don't know to what extent this is normal and to what extent this might be a sign of AS or a similar disorder.
-Are you somewhat of a daydreamer, often lost in your own thoughts? sometimes i just start thinking about something and completely forget about the outside world, i even missed my bus stop because of this a couple of times.
-I have poor balance, e.g. difficulty riding a bicycle, skating, standing on one leg. Interesting, i didn't think this was connected in any way, but this one also describes me.


and some other things which i have noticed here in the forums which are just like me:
-ugly childish handwriting: i write in all caps like a 6 year old child
-i am clumsy with a very bad balance and motor skills, i suspect that this might also be connected to my problems in passing my driving exam because i can't get used to looking in the mirrors when i need to
-the possibility of it being hereditary, when i was reading about AS special interests i immediately thought of my dad who is totally obsessed with trains and just like the AS profile he keeps talking about them even when everybody else is bored, but this might be just a coincidence.
-hating shopping for clothes: nothing more to add, i just wear old clothes until they are too small for me or get torn, my yearly clothes budget is probably around 50€
-http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthre...757&page=1 wow, i do that too, if i see somebody i know in an unusual place or an unusual time i just hide behind something and hope i haven't been noticed
-http://www.aspiesforfreedom.com/showthre...095&page=1 incredible, this is almost like talking to my clones over the internet, i will stop quoting topics now because basically every one i open looks like i wrote it and this post is also so incredibly long that only rare individuals will manage to get to here



as a conclusion i would like some of you to share your thoughts on whether i have AS or just something very similar. or you can ask questions in case i haven't been clear on anything. again sorry for such a long post and thanks for reading

so what are the main differences between HFA and AS?

so then the only major difference between AS and HFA is a speech delay and that means i have HFA?

i'm not sure at what age i started talking, i just talk a bit slowly now and can't pronounce some sounds

well i'm certain i have no problems with spatial thinking because i got rated very good at that on an IQ test i took some time ago (i got around 130 overall) and one of my hobbies is making houses out of paper which sounds much simpler than it seems, but you have to imagine and calculate all the houses' walls' dimensions and angles and transform them into twodimensional images on paper which you then cut out and fold into the right shapes.

i saw on the wikipedia article that people with NLD are bad at remembering images, i think i'm average at that, but i do have problems remembering some names of objects, people and places.

i also can't see why a person with aspergers couldn't have a slight speech disability, if it would be a 1 in a million chance there would still be 6000 people like me in the world . i don't think i communicate much less than other people for some deeper reason, i am just quiet if i am not interested in the discussion or do not have anything to add. sometimes i remember something good to say, but the conversation has already passed on to another topic

and if it plays a role i am currently 20 years old

hm, this forum needs EDIT buttons, i of course meant that making houses out of paper sounds much simpler than it is (not than it seems)

i think i might have both aspergers and dyspraxia, i found this on their website:

"There may also be overlaps with conditions such as ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), Asperger's Syndrome..."

"Others may have articulatory dyspraxia, which causes difficulties with speaking and pronunciation."

lately i have also noticed something very strange, sometimes i feel like i'm half sleeping and everything i see loses contrast and i feel less aware of my surroundings which can last up to a quarter of an hour, has this got anything to do with AS or could it just be low blood pressure? it could just be the blood pressure because it's a very similar feeling to when you quickly stand up from a chair and feel a bit dizzy.

i'm asking this just because many of my symptoms which apparently had no connection at all to AS (like ear infections) have been described by other members of these forums.

and by the way, it's not like being unconscious, i just remembered it because it's happening right now

hm no, because i'm usually fully awake when it happens and i don't experience anything too weird like strange sounds and feelings, i just do not feel as aware of my surroundings as usual.

it's probably just low blood pressure and probably has nothing to do with my mental condition

it would be interesting to know

but if i started a poll on a regular forum asking people whether they have music playing in their heads and nobody did they would all think i'm a nut

maybe they would be right it depends on your definition of what a nut is i guess