To Sibyl

Sibyl, I believe that you want to be a part of this group, and you are in fact a part of it.  No one can "eject" anyone from the house (except maybe our iron-fisted but never ham-handed dictator), people can only remove themselves.

I also believe that you may have a long-standing habit of reacting in an angry or defensive or aggressive manner in response to people you think are acting badly toward you.  Your misperception of how people are treating you may arise from an Asperger-like outlook.  Your (angry, defensive, or aggressive) response, however, is not an inherent quality of the condition, as I understand it from a layperson's perspective.

Does your mental health provider offer counseling?  You might want to discuss how you can be more successful on discussion boards.  As another option, I propose an experiment.  I am not a counselor (although sometimes people call me "counselor"), but you might find the results interesting.

Here it is.  For three days, post at least three times a day (or more).  The guidelines are as follows:

1.  The posts can be on a new subject, or in response to someone else.

2.  The posts should be positive in tone.  For example, say what you like about a movie, or a book, or an author.   Talk about something that happened in the world that ended well. Tell about something good that happened to you today.  Tell about something that pleases you.  Send a link to a funny article, or a video about cats, or baby goats.

3.  If you perceive a slight in what someone else says, don't respond to it at all.  Just let it go.  Of course people are generally entitled to respond to anything on this list, but don't respond for these three days, for the sake of the experiment.

4.  Don't talk about Asperger's, or any autism-spectrum disorder, or participate in anyone else's discussion about it.  Again, people are entitled to talk about it on this list, but don't do it for these three days.

5.  Before you hit "send", review your posts to make sure they meet the guidelines.

If you are interested in doing this experiment, please say so, and also say whether you will accept gentle reminders about the guidelines.  In return, anyone who speaks inappropriately to you during the course of the experiment will also receive a gentle reminder that an experiment is in progress.  I hope you will try it, because I am interested in the result as well.

Maryann