Hi everyone I just thought I'd introduce myself,
I only just joined AFF this morning but have been concidering it for a while, I'm going through the process of getting an offical aspie diagnosis & finding it pretty frustrating even thow I have support in this area.
Basicly my mother has thought me to be an aspie since I was a child but never sort any kind of diagnosis, I had teachers at school who thought the same thing & friends as well & I myself after much research also beleive I am & most recently after witnessing me on a very bad day my current job-network lady (if you are outside Australia this is someone who's job it is to help you find employment) was watching me very intently & without me ever saying a word to her on the subject asked me if I'd ever thought I may has aspergers...I was suprised but pleased & she is currently helping me seek a diagnosis my 1st apointment being just the referal from a doctor is tomorrow morning.

There are many many many things that have made me self diagnoise & seek an offical one & I could go on for pages listing symptoms but don't really see the point I'll just say some , I have trouble with eye contact & find it quite disturbing, I HATE small talk it's frustrating in the extream & scoically I'm really not good with meeting people even out of the people I know there are only a handful I can speak comfortably with thow I have no actuall trouble speaking I tend to speak to formally, I have ticks or stims like flapping hands when I'm in a croud or feeling uncomfortable & these are many but I have mostly lernt to control this over time or so it in a small way that most people don't notice however if I am really distressed & that may be very rare but I tend to lock myself away in a room & have a bit of a vocal stim (a noice I make in my neck that seems to lessen pain of any kind physical or mental).
There were MANY more of these examples when I was a child but the older I get the less I seem to do them as it seems to puts people on edge, examples from my mother are that as a child I would walk around the kicthen table for hours on end untill it would annoy the crap out of her & she'd make me stop, at this point I would go outside & walk around the house in circles..I remember this well & may walk around my sofa now if I am extreamly stressed & alone it seems to help me think I also remember in primary school I would walk around the praimater of the school playground all of lunch time on my own running my hand along the fence as I liked the feeling, Both my mother & myself also think my scoical habits as a child point to aspergers like I would NEVER play with my brother unless it was something really interesting like stolen fireworks(they are illigal hear & my brother would steal things like that I myself was far to well behaved to do that lol)also at family gathering I would NEVER play with the other kids but would sit with the adults & join their conversation & often would know more about the subjects than alot of the adults, I think I was lucky in this case that the adults of my family found this fun & never questioned it & never tried to make me scoicalise with the other children if I prefered the adults company this was fine with them.

I have had friends & quite a few & some VERY close however these have always been few at a time thow they change over the years & meeting new people can be close to impossible with my total lack of small talk I'm mostly concidered to "Intence" to them it seems, however for the past 4 years I have become almost totally isolated & well was pretty much "shut down" completly I am only now coming out of my shell a little.

hmmm I might finish this up lol once I start typeing I tend not to stop & it's usually more than people can be bothered to read even in instant messages lol below I will post my score from that online aspie test thing thow I know this is just a guidline & may not mean much at all but what the hell.

Your Aspie score: 180 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 16 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie

hmmm can't seem to upload the pic as I saved it on my PC & it has no URL. I'll need to read up this is my 1st time ever useing a forum of any kind.