girldave

Thank you all so much for your replies! It means a lot. @robert7111a - she definitely has an awareness of pop culture. she seems to want to reject whatever interests her peer group, but I think this is partly a coping mechanism as she associates it with the kind of people who seem to reject her. Furthermore, whenever she has taken an interest in the past, she hasn't understood how to follow a trend properly. And I agree, I think if I felt this was a condition she had I would perhaps understand and treat her better. That's what I'm hoping anyway. @darkshine - thank you very much for the links! The first one was some really interesting reading, and confirmed my suspicions a bit more! @Isobel - I have quite a few AS friends who seem to be very similar to my sister. All of them are wonderful people, and I have noticed them to be some of the kindest and most conscientious people as well. My sister has the purest heart and soul, and I hope that she starts to realise just how amazing she is so she will have more confidence when interacting with people.

Hi there, I was wondering whether anyone out there had some advice for me about Aspergers Syndrome. I have quite a few friends with AS, but it's a very varied condition, and I would appreciate some advice from a wider community. I'm new to this forum, and after reading some posts, I felt this would be a safe place to launch my query. My sister is a lovely, wonderful and incredibly caring person, but recently I'm starting to wonder if her eccentricities and social awkwardness are more than just that. I don't want to go into too much detail and bore you, so I'll just list a few things that have led me to believe that she may have Aspergers: - She is very socially awkward and finds interaction with others very difficult. She doesn't get too stressed about it, but she has often said she would like to have more friends and people to hang out with and that she does get lonely. She currently has few friends at university. I'd say she sometimes has difficulty maintaining conversation with people she knows, and huge difficulties initiating conversation with new people. - She's quite naive, her actions and maturity seem to be closer to that of a young adolescent than a twenty year old. She loves cartoons in quite a child-like way, and her sense of humour seems quite young as well. - Her common sense is lacking somewhat. Last night I asked her to throw away spoilt yoghurt, but to stop it spilling over the inside of the bin, I asked her to dispose it in a plastic bag. Instead of using an old, supermarket bag, she bizarrely got a fresh, expensive, food storage bag that was too small to contain the pot properly. Little things like that are a regular occurrence. She'll leave spills out on the surface not out of laziness, but just lack of thought. Her bedroom is messy, but she calls it organised mess, and I believe her. - She has been diagnosed with dyspraxia, her movements are clumsy and she sometimes has a weird gait and has rigid gesticulations. - She's very intelligent, but her intelligence manifests itself mainly in the regurgitation of facts and opinions she has heard. She has an amazing memory, and loves quoting tv and films. If I try to quote something she knows already incorrectly, she'll have to correct me. - She has been called tactless by our mother. I think this is harsh, but there are times when she does speak without thought. - Her priorities are very different from the average 20 year old. She has no idea about current trends in fashion or pop culture. This is in no way a criticism, it's merely an observation. She is very keen on languages and drawing cartoons. She devotes the majority of her time to these pursuits. - Sometimes has difficulty understanding social cues when interacting with others. I think she sometimes has difficulty reading the atmosphere in a room, a particularly when working with people her age. She had a lot of difficultly living with her flat last year, got very angry about their sloppiness, refusing to accept that it was part of a fresher lifestyle. She didn't have to put with it obviously, but it was her inability to understand why students are like this that got me thinking. She sometimes doesn't realise when I'm not in the mood to talk about something either. Please understand that she is a very sweet and understanding person. She's by far and above the loveliest person in my life. The reason I ask now is that in a couple of months we will be sharing a flat together, just by ourselves. Little things about her personality that were hardly noticeable before are now irritating me, and I realise this is due to my fear of living alone with her. I feel as if I am going to be responsible for someone who seems to be maturing very slowly for her age, and this is of concern to me as I'm not particularly mature myself. I'm 18 months older than her. If I found out this was a condition that she had, I think I'd have more patience. But as it is, I'm snapping at her all the time and finding myself getting very angry and irritated with every little thing she does. I know it's nerves, but I'm not sure what to do. I hate treating her like this, I'm acting like a bully. She puts up with it, but I can tell it is really hurting her. I haven't spoken to my parents about my concerns, but I will if I felt that there was something to it. So any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you for reading this far!