Adults with Asperger's Syndrome face a number of challenges. Not the least of these is dealing with a number of misconceptions that people believe to be fact.

These myths typically involve seeing the worst in individuals with Aspergers, such as presuming that they are weird, don't care and have no feelings.

This is quite far from the truth. Asperger's at its heart is an inability to express or to know how to respond with typical social means among other things.

Although people with Asperger's Syndrome might appear "normal" in contrast to people with infantile autism, they still have an autism spectrum disorder, and can be just as hampered by it.

People with Asperger’s Syndrome have many attendant problems that can make life difficult, such as depression, obsessions and compulsions and/or anxiety.

Because Asperger's is an invisible disability, it can also be difficult to be granted the right public support and help, and the environment might be less lenient than for a person who has a more visible functional disability.

The primary distinction is that individuals with social phobia do have the tools and skills to interact. The reason that they don't is because they are afraid.

Individuals with Asperger's, though. will not necessarily be afraid, but they usually do not have the necessary tools and skills or understanding to interact socially.

The original medical understanding of Asperger's Syndrome is based on the profile of abilities and developmental history of boys and men. Their adaptations and behavior can be quite conspicuous and as the male: female ratio for Asperger's Syndrome is 4:1; clinicians will have greater experience identifying the male expression and reaction to the diagnostic characteristics.

Girls and women who have Asperger's syndrome are different, not in terms of the core characteristics but in terms of their reaction to being different. They use specific coping and adjustment strategies to camouflage or mask their confusion in social situations or achieve superficial social success by imitation or escaping into a world of fantasy or nature.

What is different about Aspies is that other people's feelings and thoughts can confuse them because they expect others to think and feel like they do. Those with Asperger's are often surprised when they discover how they have affected another person.

Aspies generally do not know how to demonstrate their feelings. Even though they can see that people they care about are hurting, they don't know what to say or what to do. This inability to respond has nothing to do with their own feelings, though.

Asperger's is not something that someone can catch or can be spread like a virus. And study after study have proven that vaccines do not cause Asperger's Syndrome.

It cannot be caused by trauma or neglect, and it cannot be cured with therapy or a change in lifestyle or attitude. Current research suggests it is not even the result of brain damage and is in fact, at least in part, genetic.

People with Asperger's are just born that way.

Even though most adult Aspies learn to control or hide their symptoms—allowing them to appear "normal"—their struggles remain. The struggles to connect and know how to respond socially are some of the greatest hardships of those with Asperger's.

Trying to appear "normal" can be exhausting, and adult Aspies will sometimes have breakdowns if they have not been able to take a break from being "normal" or are physically tired or unwell.

Because individuals with Asperger's often struggle to form close emotional relationships, people assume that Asperger's makes them aloof and uninterested in other people's lives. However, this is wrong on so many levels.

Many individuals with Asperger's often describe themselves as feeling desperate to make connections. They just don't know how to do it. Other people simply misunderstand the cues and the body language and assume that the Aspie is not interested in being social.

And once the Aspie thinks he has developed friendship with someone, that can be easily lost when he has a meltdown or does something his new friend considers weird. It's hard to continue a friendship with someone who doesn't understand and is willing to accept the differences of an Aspie.

Although many adults with Asperger's have trouble initiating romantic relationships and forming close emotional relationships, they can and do date, fall in love, get married, and have children just like everyone else.

For Aspies, however, it is important to find a partner who is able to be understanding of their condition and the idiosyncrasies that come with it. It is also important for them to make an effort to see things from their neurotypical partner’s perspective.

Individuals with Asperger's tend to have rigid routines and dislike change. For instance, they might be very particular about how they have food arranged on their plate, their items set up on a shelf, the uniformity of grass blades in the yard, etc.

The DSM-IV criteria for Asperger’s Disorder and autism are identical, requiring the presence of at least one symptom from this category. The most commonly seen symptom in Aspies is an all-absorbing preoccupation with an unusual and very narrow topic (e.g., trains, dinosaurs, names of stars, maps, TV guides, airline schedules, etc.).

A person with Asperger's will usually know the topic inside and out and want to talk about it all the time during social interactions. Although this symptom might not be easily recognized in children—since strong interests in one topic are so common—it might become more salient with age, as interests shift to odd and narrow topics. The topics may change every year or two, but the intensity with which they are studied remains the same.