Every person with Asperger's Syndrome, (AS) is a person, not a syndrome or disorder or group of traits of symptoms. All that we are is not defined or explained by the fact that we have Asperger's Syndrome.

Each one of us is an individual. Often misunderstood, but, individual nonetheless. This is especially true of those who are diagnosed with Asperger's in adulthood. We have already, to a large extent become who we are going to be. There are no services for adults to speak of and no programs to help us enhance areas of ourselves in which we may be most challenged.

The ways in which Asperger's manifests in our communication, ways of thinking, ways of relating, daily interactions, or affects our wants, needs, desires, goals, talents, hopes and/or dreams are also highly individual.

Though there are common threads of experience we cannot all be accurately lumped into one stereotypically-described group. There is also the reality that there are stark differences in the manifestation of Asperger's between males and females. So much so that too many females are going undiagnosed because the professionals are too-often blinded to what they are looking for. They (many of them, whether they know or not) look for what they've seen more often than not, in males, and are all-too-quick to try to eliminate the reality and validity of Asperger's in adults and particularly women based upon arbitrary biases as to what they think Asperger's must present like. I personally experienced this, as have many others I've heard from in email.

A common myth, for example is that if one has Asperger's Syndrome, he/she cannot possess empathy. I know that I have empathy often. I sometimes don't when others think I should but then there are all the other times and situations when I do know it and feel it. There may be some discrepancy at times between my knowing I have and feel empathy and my expressing it. Also noteworthy here is the fact that even when I do express it, often, I don't express it in the same way that most Neuro-Typicals (NT's) might or the way that they are expecting me to.

I was asked in the past by a professional if I really thought I had Asperger's because I can think and I can feel. Okay, so, what does that have to do with anything? Where in the criteria for Asperger's Syndrome does it say that we can't or don't think and/or feel? A few years ago, in a group therapy situation, a professional kept badgering me about whether or not I was feeling empathic or

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