-Introduction into a fantastic place-

This might not sound like a normal thing to say about such a serious topic, but I'm excited to find this site! I'll explain in a few moments.

Currently I'm trying to take proactive steps to improve myself because there are problems which have sabotaged my life and threaten any future endeavors. Unfortunately I don't have access to professional help, so in effect I'm engaging in a personal project that requires self-diagnoses and treatment. This self-study has been difficult in a few ways. A number of noted conditions of have over-lapping symptoms. This makes pin pointing which one(s) you might have near impossible for the untrained. The other problem encountered is when I approached a number of sites dedicated to specific symptoms. I've founded these places not only clanish, but their overall mood was well.. let's just say "unproductive".

However when I came across this forum I imediately felt a good vibe. While I haven't seen all that the forum offers, it's clear that this is a place which offers a center for not only relating problems, but sharing support, strategies, imformation, and an overall sense of a vibrant community. Or in other words whenever someone visit this site, it's made them a little bit better.

As for me, my goal is to discover information which might illuminate the specific problems in my own life and thus be able to either conquer or at least manage them. It would also be nice to have a good community to hang out with.

That's it for a while! Thanks goes to all who have made this site possible!

Hi Fragment Shadow (or 'Hi dude/dudette', if you prefer),

I was very please with your kind words, as I feel we work hard to maintain this place as a welcoming one that genuinely understands all problems, even if society in general doesn't understand them. As you see, we have forums for a wide range of issues. Arguably, the most controversial is t he paraphilias forum, but if you take a look there you'll see that there is active and creative discussion occuring.

You never mentioned any of your own issues though. What's going wrong in your life such that you have arrived here? Im eager to hear about your life and such.

Take care,
Kevin

edit =- I forgot the part you wrote about seeking a 'self' diagnosis. I must admit that I have self-diagnosed myself as having Asperger's Syndrome, whereas my official diagnoses are OCD, depression, and anxiety. With regard to a self-diagnosis, 'choose' the disorder that describes you best. You'll find (in fact I think you've already found) that a lot of thsee disorders share many symptoms, and so it is therefore about which one describes you the best. Like, maybe you are 60% socially anxious, but 100% of your symptoms match up to Avoidant Personality Disorder (AvPD) instead; and therefore you should focus on AvPD instead.

I'll take "Dude" for 1000 Alex.

Thank you Kevin for your warm welcome. As concerning my own issues, I'd probably share a classification similar to you. My best educated guess would as a Aspringer's with either Avoident and or Borderline traits. These are about the closest 3 that I've come across. The problem is that while they pretty much describe my situation, I possess one trait that goes counter to each classification. While I don't feel comfortable yet relating the exact circumstances that I face, I can say that they have held me back in matters of individual development and independence that even most people here probably possess.

There are few reasons why I like your decision to include all of these diagnoses under one forum. First it doesn't force someone to only focus on one narrow set of issues that a forum dedicated to only one main condition. As is generally agreed, many people dealing with issues may have multiple overlapping conditions. Thus having a broad based community allows members to cross-reference and gain a more holistic or complete picture of what they're dealing with. Finally, it allows people of different diagnoses the opportunity to share ideas, experiences, and views. This is probably one of the most interesting and informative places I've come across on the net and I'm excited and feel privileged to be a part of it.

-FS

Cool - you're welcome, again, my friend. I suppose there's no real rush for you to start talking specifically about your problems. You should check out the Asperge'rs Forum here itself though, as it's one of the most active on the website. The other major Asperger's Forum on the Internet is arguably wrongplanet.net, but I have the feeling that it's mostly occupied by people who don't actually have Asperger's.

Take care my friend,
Kevin

The most common question I've had since trying to take a proactive look at my life is "what is your problem". The problem is that I'm not facing one major problem that had been diagnosed and treated, rather it's a slew of issues in the background. So recently I've been compiling an in depth list of them. However rather than waiting to complete a detailed essay before getting active in the community, I figured I'd just include the outline of issues that I'm dealing with. Besides I'll probably go into further detail anyway as I comment in other threads.

A Defensive Fear of Informal Socializing.
Too Emotionally Attached and Dependant upon others.
A hypersensitivity to other's impressions, thoughts, and emotions
Fear of Catastrophic Failure
Lack of Concentration with Restlessness
Periods of depression, Self-destruction, and Irritations
Lack of Intimacy and real relationships
Lack of Vision- ie Lack of Life plan
Feeling at odds with Humanity.
Fantasies and Daydreaming
Feelings of Powerlessness
Obsessive interests and communication on limited subjects
Physical Clumsiness in Sports growing up.
Difficulty in Verbal Communications.

As you can see my issues are probably all over the place.

Your symptoms... as listed above, make you a candidate for anxiety disorders as well as dissociative disorders...
I don't have the time to put all the symptoms together right now for an "on-the-fly" diagnosis (cuz I'm kinda in class)
But I wouldn't mind throwing around a few possibilities later...
I'm not as familiar with anxiety and dissociative disorder as I am with personality and mood disorders...

Heartage.
Hope you find what you're looking for.