I don't understand people, and I would like to have some rules of thumb or way of evaluating situations with people so that I can function better. I presume other people in this forum have had similar problems, so I would really appreciate their advice.

Situations with people usually go one of two ways. Either I don't know what to say, so I end up nervously babbling or clamming up. The babbling is not good because it doesn't make a good conversation, and the silence is not good for the same reason. And with the babbling I feel a lot of regret later for being so stupid. It would be nice if in the silence I could make intelligent observations and understand something of the people and interactions going on, but this is precisely what is missing. I can't make sense of people. WHY?

When I read about Aspergers, I thought, "Wow, there's a name for people like me." I have numerous reasons to hink the pattern fits me, despite decades of struggling to overcome, but I won't bore you with too much talk about me-me-me.

How do you classify people or interpret what they are doing to make sense of how you should respond? External responses. It will be hours, days, or often years before I get an inkling of why something I said was "wrong." Yet my first strategy was to say nothing and avoid everyone because I didn't know who to trust. That results in a lot of loneliness. I don't have a framework for dealing with people. Non-human animals are simpler, but the complex social behaviours of humans seem to be beyond me. Help! What have you learned?