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Communication in difficult situations

Lana55

Is it common for autistic adults to communicate indirectly through analogies from music, pictures, or jokes (such as https://www.facebook.com/pagefordelusions/) when they try to express themselves in difficult situations that can't be conveyed well enough through direct communication? Don't autistic people tend to be rather direct, instead?

By difficult situations I mean vulnerable situations, such as talking about romantic feelings or those related to a very bad meltdown. 

I'm asking because there's a lot of room for interpretation and ambiguity during indirect communication, which leaves me wondering if I'm "reading the signals" correctly or just imaging things. I have a rich imagination and that makes things hard to believe sometimes.

Parents

  • I am forever being accused of being blunt and direct.  And people who want sympathy shouldn't come to me (spoken word anyway, I am a lot better in writing).

    However ... I also speak frequently in analogies, and quotes from here, there and everywhere.  Often others (NTs!) think my analogies are harder to understand than the thing I am trying to explain, and don't understand the relevance of the quotations I make.  Ho, hum.  But there again I can't understand them either!  So called 'body language' is in my opinion overrated.  It is entirely inappropriate to judge someone autistic by their body language as in many cases we can neither exhibit it nor interpret it.  And many NTs can't either!

    I have also learned that if something can possibly be misinterpreted, it will be.  And if I misinterpret something, it is my fault (according to NTs that is!).  If I am misunderstood, it is also my fault (according to NTs).  And this is perhaps why I will go ahead and do something and not try to explain what I am doing or ask 'permission' first.  In the words of Grace Hopper, it is easier to ask for forgiveness than get permission.  Or in my case it is simply easier to do something than either ask permission or forgiveness.

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  • I am forever being accused of being blunt and direct.  And people who want sympathy shouldn't come to me (spoken word anyway, I am a lot better in writing).

    However ... I also speak frequently in analogies, and quotes from here, there and everywhere.  Often others (NTs!) think my analogies are harder to understand than the thing I am trying to explain, and don't understand the relevance of the quotations I make.  Ho, hum.  But there again I can't understand them either!  So called 'body language' is in my opinion overrated.  It is entirely inappropriate to judge someone autistic by their body language as in many cases we can neither exhibit it nor interpret it.  And many NTs can't either!

    I have also learned that if something can possibly be misinterpreted, it will be.  And if I misinterpret something, it is my fault (according to NTs that is!).  If I am misunderstood, it is also my fault (according to NTs).  And this is perhaps why I will go ahead and do something and not try to explain what I am doing or ask 'permission' first.  In the words of Grace Hopper, it is easier to ask for forgiveness than get permission.  Or in my case it is simply easier to do something than either ask permission or forgiveness.

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