It's still very early days, and whilst the discovery that Asperger's syndrome describes me to a T is comforting, encouraging and liberating, this new found Aspie identity takes some adjusting to.
In the last few years, I've often lightheartedly, but accurately, described myself as 'fundamentally antisocial'. Now I have a new label to describe that aspect of myself, and so much more besides. And, honestly, Aspie sits quite comfortably. I have a physics degree, for goodness sake, I've known plenty of people more socially awkward than myself. I'm not phased by the idea of AS. To me, Asperger's is not a negative, any more than left-handedness, it's just a different way of being wired. But I admit, I am struggling more with the notion of Autism or Autistic Spectrum Disorder. As well as a degree in physics, I have one in psychology (yep, the numerous degrees, some half-completed is seemingly a feature of AS), and I remember doing some pretty in depth reading on autism in the course of my studies. The bulk focused on classical autism, and whilst I always felt considerable empathy with descriptions of the difficulties of people with autism, it all seemed very extreme and disabling. I'm completely aware that autism falls on a spectrum, and I'm clearly high functioning/less severely affected. Yet I still feel a degree of discomfort with sitting under the same umbrella label as people with severe learning difficulties and extreme disabilities in communication. Perhaps this will just take some getting used to.
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