Here is a surprise. I agree with most of the above [the rest was a personal value judgment that others may agree with or may not [depending on who you were talking about:-)]. For the rest of it, in the end, we sink or swim unless obviously seriously handicapped and then you won't find them on any forum.

Aspergerger's or Aspie's for short [I have corrected my original typo spelling mistake I was too late to edit] learn coping skills very quickly. Their big problem is difficulty learning anything they are not especially interested in. In other words, general learning problems even though they often are highly intelligent. Sounds illogical but heck, 'illogical' describes half of life and half of human history.

Espies are at the small end of Autism spectrum disorders and believe me, Wrong Planet Net.com is full of troubled youth more than genuine espie's. There there too, but mostly are the older members. Easy for me to spot the difference in a second. Autism wasn't even known about until not that long ago. I wasn't diagnosed with asperger's until 10 years ago and only after a slip-up from my mother's sister about visits to a Collins st. child psychologist when I was very young and then through visits to one myself after I had found that out. Explained why I had spent my whole youth as a misunderstood loner and unliked mostly. I was terrified of everyone, I thought [I really did] come from another planet. People, especially kids pick up that something is different, they fear that and people avoid what they fear [kill if it was allowed]. Normal human response.

We are not single minded except in extremely rare cases and they make it into the newspapers or docco's [obsessions with train timetables etc,] but we do tend to get into intense detail [handy for punting] and obsession with any subject or hobby we become interested in [I've had many], to the point that would physically exhaust anyone else while we are just cruising happily along. Can be very disturbing for someone living with you. Unusual traits and skills are par for the course and ditto lack of them. I can't remember numbers or letters unless I write them down, It is not uncommon for me to take up to 5yrs. to remember my phone number, pin. number or rego. number, yet because I went through an obsession with history at one stage, I can quote dates, times, places and obscure facts like a machine in any area of history I was interested in. Weird ah ? Anyone ever noticed how many times I edit some of my posts changing one word here or there? Another weird obsessive trait. Thank heaven there is now an editing time limit !!!

No problems with love [I've been married 3 times through good old fashioned love]. Seriously Autistic [or any other well known disorder] people though are rare as hens teeth and movies make it look far worse than it is. Ditto with docco's. They both portray worst case scenarios because it sells. Anyhow, not the place to say more. My original post about it was after a booze-up. I was horrified when I got up realizing what I had said and that I wouldn't be able to edit it out. There are sites available to anyone interested in Autism futher.

What disturbs me though is it is becoming a bit fashionable to have a 'gifted'
aspie child or to use the fact their kid is just a little f.... brat to claim 'he must be autistic' [and deserves special treatment and 'consideration' ..... puke!]. I'd like those parent to experience the real deal themselves for 24hrs. without the coping skills. See how ****** trendy it is after that !!

Cheers and if anyone treats me with any 'special' consideration now, I will just have to track you down and kill you:-)