Whats your advantage? One of mine is the ability to do a very rapid data mine on a subject in under an hour on the Internet and sound like I know what I am talking about afterwards... Oh your into candle making! Crack a few wick jokes, wax eloquently and remember the info for ever, even though I cant remember where I left my keys!
but to superfocus you cannot work in a team they way it is seen these days, like in a close proximity having small talk along working, and it is sometimes hard to explain the need to work alone, until they notice that you superfocus when alone
A good question and something I am actively working on finding out (strengths rather than just areas of difficulty).
The ability to focus on a task or interest to minute detail. This can allow me to stick with something and see it through where someone else might lose interest or not worry about the ‘little details’. I definitely still overlook things here and there, but the small details are where I feel I have some skill (although saying this feels unusual, as I’m not really used to to recognising areas where I’m successful).
it can be so intoxicating that it makes you act without thinking how it looks like
I caught myself few times at supermarket following one girl to sniff in her smell, it was so0 intoxicating, good nobody noticed I'm acting even weirder than normally, that could be misinterpreted in so many bad ways and get me into trouble
Surviving.
Although a bumbling fool in normal life, when the *** gets real I seem to take the correct decisions in supernaturally quick time.
If you have to be involved in a vehicle accident, or other life threatening situation where the quick and right decision is needed, you really DO want me at the controls... Long may it continue!
I always felt a resonance to the words of this track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkMMUOp3Y4k
unsure if related to autism or not
but i dont have ulterior motives towards people,im just quite a "simple" person deep down.
i think so and hope so anyway. and unsure if an advantage as such, but it can help me feel a little better about myself at least
I would say my creativity is my advantage, although I have to be in the right frame of mind.
oh yes
or if oil is hot enough to start frying to avoid waiting until it starts throwing droplets of hot oil everywhere
or recognise colleagues at work by smell,, it's like predicting future, because smell precedes them you can tell who is about to turn from around the corner
When I'm on a mission I am determined so at work if I come across a problem I look into every detail that might lead to a solution even if it takes a while.
Strong sense of smell, can be useful at slight sense of gas or burning which no one else has noticed.
The advantage can be that professionals pretend to take notice of you far more. If so the disadvantage is exactly the same as the advantage except via a more convoluted process. ASD people can be the same as Jupiter is to a professional astronomer in a means to an ends way, or just a way to make a living. But to be fair there is that well known limit to how anyone can be understood where it is so difficult to know what goes on in another mind. I.E a universal kind of matter. Putting that aside i ask myself fairly frequently what any advantages are & am never sure. I think there are times when its unfair to be expected to be understood = advantaged by ASD, other times not.
This. I'm the same, approach things differently and an eye for detail that most people lack. Before my anxiety went crazy I worked in an office as a typist, had to proof read and check documents one after the other and I was in my element.
I have a really good and vivid imagination plus memory and I'm quick to understand how things work.
So I came up with a mental exercise to entertain myself mostly ''Sit down and think it out''
For example I take a toaster and I start thinking how it's build inside, how it's connected so it works, what materials are most likely used etc. Nothing to complicated, I'm not that good. And I even manage to come up with close aproximations to how the things are really made sometimes, if I miss some understanding than I google it up read, and so on
Unfortunately when I'm anxious and stressed my mind is try to apply that exercise to figuring out humans, and that's a nightmare labirynth
Heard a great phrase a while ago (not in an autism context): 'Masks all the way down'. True of everyone to some extent, but as a learned trauma response it maybe runs deeper in autists, and yet paradoxically with more authenticity. Not so much switched on as unconsciously reflexive.
Some days I'm masked so much I feel like a batman themed Russian doll!
Absolutely. It's a case of majority rule. I've often been met with blank incomprehension at precisely those times when I'm being more open and less guarded, possibly more confronting. So yes, we need coping strategies.
But still, even though they're in the majority, their lack of understanding could be seen as a deficit, our understanding and perception a strength. Whether that becomes more generally recognised is, of course, another matter.
Plus i've found that the sense of balance between the two worlds can shift dramatically once we realise we're neurodivergent and maybe also feel more validated within ourselves.
Personally, I joined the "collective madness" whilst suppressing rather a lot. I didn't see any alternative. And this meant layer upon layer of masking with an increasingly shrinking, crushed and damaged self inside. Recognising that I'm autistic and connecting with others like me (mostly online) has meant that I can at least free that damaged self up a bit and feel a bit stronger. And also recognise and appreciate some of our autistic advantages. The friction is still there, i agree, but knowing what's going on has made quite a difference and alters my relationship with the world. Sort of, they're the same but I am stronger.
And I agree. It doesn't make for an easy life, but it might make for a richer one.
But the problem is..... There's more of them than us so they set what's normal! That's why we need coping strategies because as I found out over many years, confronting strategies wear me out and just puzzle the NT's who don't understand what the problem is!
