The perception others have of a child or teen with AS

Part of what I am going to write has little to do with my own opinion.  The words for the most part are mine.
I have had the ability a few years ago to get my therapist notes from the man who diagnosed me with AS.  I have also had the ability to get the opinion of people I grew up with, but I also knew what some of the opinions were when I was a child or teenager.  If you refer to my blogs about mental breakdowns parts 1 and 2, you'll get an idea of the opinion others had of me.  I was scary, angry, and a person that my peers would vote as most likely to go nuts and do something awful.  Apparently my breakdowns as described weren't as bad as people would have expected from me by now.  The opinions of teachers and parents varied: Some saw a good kid, while others feared for my life.
I got to read the notes about who I was.  At first I was unwilling to talk, was seemingly angry all the time, always in a hurry, and very repetitive and obsessive in nature.  These were the opinions of my therapist.  However, as I grew older, it became clear from reading these notes that I knew I had to communicate my feelings somehow.  It appeared by doing so that my breakdowns became less and less frequent.  There was also notes from after the breakdown where I almost killed another student that indicated that I had no empathy or remorse for what happened.  Hell my parents believed I was only sad because I was caught and that I felt restricted from what I can do.  What my parents believed was only half true, as the latter was the true part.  Remember that people with AS have a tendency to lack empathy as they are younger, but learn this trait as they grow older.
The impression some of my friends and from that of my therapist is that I was pretty self-centred.  This appears obvious to most people when most of our conversations revolved around ourselves, case in point, my blogs.  It also appears this way when we seemingly show no interest in what others have to say to us when we are being talked to.  Eye contact plays a role with this as we may look distracted, but we hear what you are saying and may have tuned out what else was going on.  But if we tune you out, you will never know unless you ask us what were just told.  Obsessiveness and isolation is of course a sign to others that you are being selfish too.  That last part is just my opinion, with the reason that I may have had my ego bruised and don't want others to know it.  Isolation may be a comfort too when I have dealt with being around people a lot in the last little while and want to escape from it all.
Other students I went to school with expressed to some of my friends that they wished they could beat me up, or that they did not know when to take me seriously.  Constantly I would hear from some friends that others would say the following things:
"Why can you guys even be friends with such a guy?  he is a loser"
"I wish I could beat him up without him going psycho on me and killing me"
"Does that guy ever smile?  He doesn't even know how to take a joke from me, has no sense of humour.  I tried to joke about something with him and he glared right through me"
"I hate that guy.  He is so arrogant and thinks he is good at ____"
"How insensitive can he be?  I tried to have a conversation with him, but he wasn't taking me seriously"
I even experienced some of this at work recently, although the majority of people know when I am teasing or joking these days as I make it obvious.  Back then, I had all sorts of issues with making new friends, and these opinions did not help matters as I felt that people didn't accept me.  The main theme I found from all of those opinions was that people didn't know when to take me seriously, or just didn't care for me.
Growing up with AS can be extremely difficult for a child, and even their parents.  Parents will likely have to spend money in order to get their child to learn how to cope with life and how to communicate with others.  There will likely be time taken out of work because the child could not cope, or did something that got them suspended from school.  Back when I was in school, I was always blamed by the teachers for when fights started.  That changed when I was diagnosed, and my teachers became aware of what AS is.  Now some cities may even have an Autism Registry to help out children and adults with AS and other forms of Autism.  More and more people are becoming aware of Autism and more help seems to be given these days to those who need it.  It is only a good sign for the future for those with Autism and AS.