Who are you? (Adult Aspie identities)

It occurred to me when reading a post recently that adult Aspies sometimes seem to have spent so many years masking, mimicking & changing their behaviour to fit in that their "real" self has become subsumed by a "fake" self, or they feel they no longer actually have a real identity. I think that by reading accounts of the traits of other Aspies we can identify with some of them, and this can help to rebuild a sense of self. So I'm going to start with a list of Aspie traits that are "me" and I hope others will join in.

I have a an good long term memory, good eye for detail and pattern recognition. I have an interest in language and could read and spell well from an early age.I've always been clumsy with poor coordination and struggled to write neatly at school, and I still hate writing now but I like typing.

I have a history of struggling in work situations and moving on to another job when I can no longer cope. I have had times when I missed work a lot due to stress. I have never enjoyed meetings and work social events. I get frustrated if I get too many things to do at once. I don't like talking on phones. I don't like being observed, photographed or filmed.

I have never had a lot of friends and used to be a people  pleaser, while resenting the fact that other people took advantage of me. I am good in one to one situations but have difficulty in group situations and  find  it uncomfortable when there are several different conversations going on. I am often bored in social situations but can talk endlessly about a topic of my own interest. I have often "burned bridges" with family and friend relationships because I just don't see that I have anything in common with them and trying to continue just seems a bit of a strain on both sides. 

I am very sensitive to strong emotions in others and can be influenced by them. I have a high sensitivity to touch and cut the tags out of clothes. Certain smells really affect me. I hate people standing or sitting too close.

I hate the word "disorder" in  the term ASD and refuse to be classified as "disabled". My perception of autism is that it is a label which refers mainly to the difficulties created  for Aspies by social constructs, both  physical - busy roads, supermarkets, offices, public transport, etc - and relational - being expected to want to join in with small talk, group activities, etc. We do have different patterns of thinking, but everyone is different. When we're alone we're not autistic. We are unique individuals who add to the total of human experiences. I like Temple Grandin's observation - if it weren't for the creativity and innovation of autistic people, the human race would still be standing around in caves making small talk.

Parents
  • I think there is a deeper wordless part of me that knows but since most worldly activities haven't really involved listening to that part it does need freeing up.  The closest I come to a sense of a "real self", if there is one, is when I'm walking or sitting almost meditatively in the garden.  I suppose these are the times when i feel safe enough, which also amounts to saying that in many other circumstances i simply haven't felt safe enough to be myself.  At times it has genuinely felt as though I was being circled by sharks who had the scent of blood and were waiting for me to make a wrong move.  So it's as if I've always needed a strong, protective "top dressing", with the uppermost question in my mind being not, "What do i want to do?" but "What am i supposed to do in order to survive here?"

    The tree analogy appeals strongly.  In office work i always felt like an imposter wondering what I had to do not to be found out.  Over the years the mask built up and  when i finally left I kept getting mental images of massive branches and the whole upper part of a huge tree crashing down, withered and dried in front of me.  You could say that accountancy was the graft that never took.  

    What I had left was a stump.  But it was ALIVE.  And so much of the past few years has involved nurturing that stump and any new growth is seen as precious because it's real.  I'm still not sure I can put who I am into words though.  I simply see new green shoots and feel more aligned with myself.  i also have the vague impression of a very tall tree waiting to form.      

      

  • I'm intuiting that we're all somewhere on a process, and many of us in this forum / this thread are in various stages of rebuilding ourselves. Another image - putting on new clothes but wandering through a hall of distorting mirrors trying to find the mirror that allows us to evaluate our new clothes, recoiling slightly at some of the glimpses we catch.

    Maybe it's just me doing the recoiling; I've done things over the last few years that I would have called others an idiot for, and I still do some of them.

  • Yes, the hall of mirrors is another analogy that often pops up unbidden.  It's a theme that fascinates me as i think it's easy to become distorted by the demands of the world (both real and perceived).  

    I think I'm only now realising how idiotic some of my old behaviours were.  Unfortunately they were the best i was capable of at the time so i have to view them with a degree of compassion for my former self.  

  • I usually find if I'm put into an unsafe environment I behave the same each time however much I've learned or told myself. Disappointed

  • I'm mostly home-based now plus in some kind of recovery as well as readjustment in the light of my diagnosis.  I hope to survive a good while longer though in order to see my sons into a better position in life.  

  • I managed to survive long enough to deliver on my obligations.  Now I'm broken and a house-husband.

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