Living With Asperger's Syndrome

There are certain characteristics or signs that someone may exhibit if they have Asperger's Syndrome such as not being able to meet the gaze of someone that they are greeting, having difficulty with personal space recognition, demonstrating motor clumsiness and a decreased ability to function in social situations. Individuals with Asperger's Syndrome lack nonverbal communication skills, which can affect work life, school performance and interpersonal relationships.

Individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome often have difficulties when it comes to change or when it is necessary to transition from one thing to another. They may also have extreme sensitivities to sights, smells, and sounds and tastes adding to the difficulties in social situations in which these sensitivities could make it difficult to participate.

Communication is difficult for the individual with this syndrome because so much of what we express to one another is in the form of nonverbal communication. How many times do we communicate with each other with a smile, wink, and shrug of shoulders, facial expressions or hand signals? Someone with Asperger’s Syndrome is missing all of these nonverbal communications, which is like having a conversation with someone and losing your hearing halfway through the communication and being expected to know what was discussed.

Individuals with Asperger's Syndrome often show a high level of intelligence, have perseverative interests and shy away from romantic relationships, and general social banter like that seen at parties or around the office water cooler.

Individuals with Asperger's Syndrome typically have large vocabularies. They also may have difficulties with lying. People are seen to be boring, humorless and often accused of being too literal.

When listening to someone who has Asperger's Syndrome his or her tone of voice may appear to be monotonous and emotionless. They will also miss facial expressions, or body gestures from those that are listening to them so they are unaware of the fact that they are perceived as being boring. It is easy for someone with this syndrome to entirely misinterpret the meaning of a communication or completely miss something that is being communicated to them.

Individuals who have Asperger's syndrome typically have obsessive interest in things that have a great deal of detail and their interests can be all-encompassing to the point of seeming weird, nerdy or obsessive by others.

Sensory perceptions are usually different for those who have Asperger's Syndrome for instance they may hear high-frequency noises that others cannot hear. Hearing can also be distorted to the point of not hearing correctly what is being said and misinterpreting the words that were spoken. Visually sometimes it is difficult to distinguish objects that are in front of them and can be missed entirely by the person, this can make doing things like math difficult.

Social relationships like having friends, and romantic partners are difficult to foster because of their perseverative interests, literal interpretations, and rigidity and conservative personalities. Many individuals who have Asperger's Syndrome long for the experience of friends and romantic relationships.

Many individuals also have other disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder of the inattentive type, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), social phobia, or avoidant personality disorder and also suffer from depression.