Twelve years of bullying and exclusion during my tenure in the public school system basically destroyed any friendship creating ability for me, as well as trust in other people. If I had a little bit of social skill, it was killed. Now that I am at university it is a little better, because I am now interacting with a different group or type of people than before, but it is still extremely hard for me to have any sort of proper interaction with anybody. To overcome this condition, I firmly believe that a person like me should have support from when you're very young, before schoolgoing age. Now at 25, I am who I am, my entire life is built on this AS foundation, it has shaped all the decisions I've ever made and it's extremely hard for me to change direction at this point because of all the commitments I have made and have to honour. I feel incredibly hopeless.

Thanks for your insight iamanders, you hit the nail right on the head. It's exactly like you say, people with AS, could write PhD on friendships and still not be able to apply the knowledge in their own life. The way I feel is like almost being an observer rather than a participant in life, other people live life and partake in friendships, love, relationships, etc. and someone like me simply watches from the sideline, not partaking myself. I can very brilliantly describe everything that other people are doing, I even understand it better than they might do themselves, but there's a barrier between knowing about it and doing it. It's so frustrating, because I know from my own experience that I understand human social dynamics very well, yet cannot apply it. I crave just friendship with someone, but my relationships with people remain surficial and empty .