My db is nearly 40 years old and has always been different. We've never lived together as my dm left his dad when he was about 5 years old and he stayed with his dad.
He therefore had a traumatic childhood along with severe excema/asthma/nutallergy, all of which he still suffers greatly from as an adult.
His odd behaviour has always been put down to his childhood, depression and incredibly low self esteem.
However, since teaching a few kids with aspergers and reading about it, discussing it with my sister who did grow up with him and my dm, we are pretty convinced he has apergers.
Things include as a child:
learning and knowing off by heart the make and model of all cars and being obsessed with number plates.
collecting dinky cars and not playing with them - still has them boxed today.
Taught himself to play the bass guitar and can imitate any piece of music he hears and yet cannot read a not of music. Excellent player with no lessons ever.
Saved every bit of pocket money he got whilst we all spent ours on sweets
When his dad bought him a chocolate bar he took it back to the shop to get the money back in order to save it.
Above average intelligence but not a good attender and left with no exams.
Lots of food issues
As an adult:
Never had a long term relationship with a woman and is not gay - he says he has too many problems he has to deal with before being able to deal with a relationship
poor hygiene - sees it as pointless as any girl should accept him for who he is and it wastes time
used to self harm a lot
long walks on his own
he became a Jehovah Witness about 10 years ago and is incredibly active
He beliefs 100 per cent and has a set answer for everything
only works parttime so he can devote his time to the JWs
never attends family functions
rarely uses the telephone - always texts
only friends are fellow JWs
has masses of JW books and spends his time studying them
has only ever had very menial jobs with no desire to better himself
his GP refered him to a psychiatrist as he was worried about himself when he was working as a fork lift truck driver (best job he's had). HE was paranoid about lining up boxes and worried himself as he was so obsessive.
The Pscyh could only see him during work hours and db wouldnt go then so nothing came of it.
Still has food issues. Examples include he cannot eat food that has touched other food. When he came to my house to eat he brought a tin of meat balls to eat rather than what I'd spent hours preparing and really didnt realise that it might offend me.
He now works as a van driver and loves this job as he has minimum contact with others.
Thanks if you've read this far.
Is this just low self esteem or aspergers?