My older brother has full blown Asperger's, like as hard as one can have it, if that makes any sense. Not only was he terrible at social situations, but he was also violent. He went undiagnosed or treated until either middle school or early high school. But once he was diagnosed my parents' attention was totally on him and they just assumed I was fine. But I clearly wasn't and only recently (I'm 28) am I starting to really get the issue. I saw your TEDx talk and that really helped me. I guess I never really understood Asperger's even though it was a big deal in my family because of my brother, but your explanation of it makes it a lot more clear. I don't know if it's possible that it just rubbed off on me from my brother or if I have it too, but your description of what your childhood was like matches mine pretty well. Always being alone, never feeling like you fit in, everyone seems to hate me and I never know why, being terribly awkward and goofy. I guess I just went under the radar because I did my best to appear normal and I enjoyed playing sports and normal stuff like that. But mostly I just kept my head down as best I could and acted like everything was OK. I didn't really self-evaluate until after college when I had the opportunity to reinvent myself (as much as I could). I still see those things in me but for the last few years I have been trying to work on fixing them, and I think I have made quite a lot of progress. My trouble is that I don't really have anyone to help as you did, so I guess I'm missing that element, but now I know what I need to look for. Your explanation has helped me look at it from a new angle, so perhaps I can improve still.
So my question is this: do you think there would be any benefit for someone like me to get professional help and/or treatment? Or am I already kinda doing what I need to be doing?
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My older brother has full blown Asperger's, like as hard as one can have it, if that makes any sense. Not only was he terrible at social situations, but he was also violent. He went undiagnosed or treated until either middle school or early high school. But once he was diagnosed my parents' attention was totally on him and they just assumed I was fine. But I clearly wasn't and only recently (I'm 28) am I starting to really get the issue. I saw your TEDx talk and that really helped me. I guess I never really understood Asperger's even though it was a big deal in my family because of my brother, but your explanation of it makes it a lot more clear. I don't know if it's possible that it just rubbed off on me from my brother or if I have it too, but your description of what your childhood was like matches mine pretty well. Always being alone, never feeling like you fit in, everyone seems to hate me and I never know why, being terribly awkward and goofy. I guess I just went under the radar because I did my best to appear normal and I enjoyed playing sports and normal stuff like that. But mostly I just kept my head down as best I could and acted like everything was OK. I didn't really self-evaluate until after college when I had the opportunity to reinvent myself (as much as I could). I still see those things in me but for the last few years I have been trying to work on fixing them, and I think I have made quite a lot of progress. My trouble is that I don't really have anyone to help as you did, so I guess I'm missing that element, but now I know what I need to look for. Your explanation has helped me look at it from a new angle, so perhaps I can improve still.
So my question is this: do you think there would be any benefit for someone like me to get professional help and/or treatment? Or am I already kinda doing what I need to be doing?
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