Comment by mlitsonata on Do you have High-Functioning Asperger's Syndrome? · 2011-04-19T15:22:53.440Z · LW · GW

I have not yet been tested for or diagnosed with AS but believe that I may be high-functioning and have learned to cope with or overcome certain aspects of it over time. I scored a 33 on the AQ test and I have a 146 IQ. As a child I was very very quiet with very few friends my own age. I have had two extreme periods of anxiety for otherwise common social situations with no clear reason.

For two years, while in Elementary school, I was so scared to go into class that my father would drive me to school every day (around the corner) and talk to me in the parking lot for up to an hour before I felt comfortable enough to finally get out of the car. I had to wait until all of the other students were in their classes, so I was always late. My parents, teachers and school psychologist believed that I was being bullied, but I wasn't. I just couldn't go in.

In my senior year of High School I became very ill with Mono. After that I developed severe agoraphobia but worked to push through it. A teacher was kind enough to come to my house every other day to bring me my work and give me tests. I missed several months of school, but managed to graduate. After a year I was able to push through the worst of it, but I didn't fully recover for five years.

I have an extremely difficult time in social situations but I have managed to learn how to work within them. I can read facial and body expressions because I have taught myself how to do so. I have learned how to give appropriate verbal reactions, although there are still some that I have problems with - like accepting compliments. I very often don't realize that someone is joking with me unless they say "have you heard this joke". I do like to be in social situations, I enjoy talking to people, but I can rarely start a conversation and I often have a hard time keeping it up. I do best when the conversation is between three or more people I can listen and appear to be in the conversation.

As a child my parents believed that I was very shy. I usually played alone, was very quiet and had few friends. So they enrolled me in an acting class in San Francisco. It was difficult but I enjoyed it. I think this helped me through some of the social problems that I had and helped me to be more high-functioning today.