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"Autism is a superpower"

Rainbowgirl

I see this type of message everywhere, people talking about the amazing talents that autistic people they've met have and calling it a superpower. They act like being autistic just comes with these amazing abilities.

I appreciate putting a positive light on autism rather than a negative one but it makes me feel like something is wrong with me. I don't have a superpower.

I'm slow, I'm bad at math, my memory is so bad that I fear I may have amnesia, I only ever did average at school and I've been learning the same language for 4 years yet I can't hold a real conversation. 

I'm not really intelligent or talented. The thing I'm best at is just being really interested in certain things (I consider it a good quality of mine) but it's nothing that would be considered a superpower.

Does anybody else feel this way? Is this type of thinking actually damaging to the image of autistic people?

Parents

  • I think that the 'superpower' and 'next stage in evolution' stuff is nonsense. We experience the world in ways that differ from the norm:  because of that, we are, or can be, useful. We approach problems from oblique angles and find solutions that are not obvious. The world would be a duller and more primitive place without our input over the millennia that we have existed in the human population.

  • in reply to Martin

    I am starting to think that neurodivergence occurs amongst a species to ensure its survival. where every neurotypical person goes in the same direction off the edge of a cliff. the neurodivergent individuals go in the opposite or different direction. It makes sense from a natural selection standpoint.

    It makes sense to me this way.

    at the moment neurological typicals are fighting amongst themselves to assure mutual self assured self destruction. 

    Plus what to add that most of histories revolutionaries like nikola tesla, philo Farnsworth and isaac newton and even winston churchill where suspected to be on the spectrum somewhere. 

  • in reply to Blue

    Great response and a interesting theory Thinking 

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