Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello everybody.
I haven't posted in about a year, at the time I was deciding if I should get a diagnosis which I chose not to get. I am currently a uni student in Nottingham and it seems that it is very obvious I am on the spectrum, people either seem to spot it immediately or think I am weird.
I really need to improve my ability to interact with people. I struggle a lot in social situations and find people often act and respond to things in very confusing and irrational ways. I have searched for a guide to understand neurotypical people better. Things like body language, social interaction, how to respond in situations and understand them in general. However my searches have only resulted in finding a few guides explaining Autism for normal people but not the other way around.
Can anybody help me out?Thank you
I found books targeted at NTs more useful for understanding them. "Watching the English" by Kate Fox was remarkably helpful, or any of the dozens of books on emotional intelligence - ideally ones with case studies.
NTs aren't necessarily good at many of the social interactions and graces, so find the books teaching them how to behave and understand each other and you're well placed to understand how they'll expect you to behave.
Temple Grandin's The Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships looks interesting there, although a lot of her experience may not be generally applicable. That's what you get for being a diverse group.
The Autistic Survival Guide is a different perspective:https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Autistic_Survival_Guide
This is more a joke than any help understanding typicals:http://www.fysh.org/~zefram/allism/allism_intro.txt
Field Guide To Earthlings looks interesting, but it might be stuff we've already intellectually found out, but find it hard to act on. To paraphrase: Autistics are from Earth, NTs are from Earth, get over it.
this site has lots of free (but not necessarily legal) pdfs to download. I've found Tony Attowod, Luke Jackson on there. Lots are "clinical" type of research papers etc. Search for Autism, Asperger etc
https://www.pdfdrive.com/asperger-books.html
test
We are a supreme alien race. I mentioned a while back on another thread that we could be more aligned to the Nexus 6 replicant models from Bladerunner.
https://screenrant.com/blade-runner-2049-different-replicants-explained/
Thanks for all of the replies so far. I really like the title "A Field Guide to Earthlings"! But does that make us non earthlings? I am slightly surprised that resources do exist. :)
Ebooks would be really helpful, is it possible to send them through the private messaging system on this site? I find it far easier to listen to audiobooks or if not available use a screen reader on an audiobook than to read from a physical book. Thanks
sounds like a plan!
I have loads of ebooks, I can email them out.
A sample 24 pages of the book can be read here - http://www.afieldguidetoearthlings.com/preview.html
Autistic people often live in a state of anxiety and confusion about the social world, running into misunderstandings and other barriers. This book unlocks the inner workings of neurotypical behavior, which can be mysterious to autistics. Topics include the nuances of friendship, dating, small talk, interpersonal conflicts, image, learning styles, social communication, common sense, and white lies. Proceeding from root concepts of language and culture through 62 behavior patterns used by neurotypical people, the book reveals how they structure a mental map of the world in symbolic webs of beliefs, how those symbols are used to filter perception, how they build and display their identity, how they compete for power, and how they socialize and develop relationships. From the introduction: This book reveals psychological patterns of neurotypical humans, from an autistic perspective. I wrote it to help you understand them. You might read it if you are autistic and have to work harder to understand why people do what they do, or you might read it if you are neurotypical and want to understand an autistic person in your life, or you might read it because you are interested in new ways of looking at personalities and behavior.
might be worth a look
You can preview a sample of the book and read customer reviews on the following link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Field-Guide-Earthlings-autistic-neurotypical/dp/0615426190