Who?

My name is James, I’m a 35 year old man, and I live with my wife and two young children in the UK.

I have Asperger Syndrome, but have not been formally diagnosed with it. I don’t need a formal diagnosis to tell me what I already know. Once I made the connection, it was obvious. There is no getting away from it.

Until recently I didn’t know what AS was. When I was growing up, there was no formal diagnosis for AS, and unsurprisingly to me it was never suggested that there was anything wrong with me. Why do I find this unsurprising? Well, as a child you strive to fit in. You take whatever steps are necessary to be normal.

I’ve always known I was different, but I’ve never been able to put a finger on just how. As a child it didn’t matter. I just thought I was a bit academic in my outlook, which I put down to both my parents working in science. It didn’t matter that my peers didn’t seem to see the world in the same way as me. I just thought they weren’t looking.

Does it matter to me now?

No.

And yes.

I can’t avoid my AS these days. It’s become one of my special interests. I have a compulsion to understand it. I understand a lot now, and I make more connections as the days pass. I hope this blog will allow me to get some of it down on paper. Perhaps some of these words will be of help to someone looking for some insight.

My realisation of AS hasn’t really changed me. I’m me, and always will be. I just understand me more these days.

I hope you find this blog useful. If you do, drop me a note.

Oh – one final thing. James is a nom de plume.  As I’m not officially diagnosed, and I’m publishing some fairly personal stuff, I feel it prudent to protect my identify, and also those of my close family, who will apear in the posts from time to time.