Aspies and HFA: coping strategies for might-bes

[specialknives]

A friend who suspects they have Asperger's Syndrome recently asked me about my coping strategies, and realising I have other possible Aspie readers I thought I'd make it open to all.

Comments

[erbie]

Thanks for posting this. It's very enlightening. I'll be following the thread to see if anyone else posts things you didn't.

[johnnydarke]

Socialising addendum: When meeting somebody for a drink/meal/etc., unless they're a close friend, try to ensure that there'll be at least two people present besides yourself...between them they'll keep the conversation going, leaving you free to contribute as and when you feel like it. No more long periods of silence!

This is the main point on which I disagreed with my psychologist; He maintained that my preference for medium/large social gatherings over small ones was strikingly incongruent with AS...I couldn't seem to make him understand that in a larger group there's no pressure on you to maintain a coherent interaction...you can easily walk away from a six-way conversation at a party without excusing yourself, but leaving abruptly in the middle of a one-to-one tends to upset people (luckily with an EQ of 5/80 this in itself tends not to bother me overmuch, but still...).

[johnnydarke]

btw, the AS community desperately needs a new...er...demonym? exonym? oh, sod it...needs a new name for it's members...

Aspie is not good. In fact I'd actually go so far as to say that it's about as appealing as a big piece of Ass Pie.