Published on 12, July, 2020
There's another question that sprang to mind this morning.
What defines your autism?
I have noticed that most of the posts on the forum appear to be about our vulnerabilities.
So, is our autism defined by our vulnerabilities?
Certainly the sensitivities and communication difficulties can make us more vulnerable to stress and isolation.
Any positives anyone?
I'm still thinking about that one.
There is a lot of food for thought once we have obtained recognition either personally or professionally.
"What defines my autism?"
My inability to recognise irony --- a large part of British humour, my inability to take myself and life itself less seriously. My inability to decode and respond to interactive signals. I struggle with empathy yet "ironically" am tuned into the wants and needs of my dog and with animals in general. I put that down to having developed my own people auto-filter if I detect rejection of any sort. (Very self-defeating)
Good morning chap. I do consider my ability to communicate with animals one of my super powers. I much prefer the company of a dog to that of a human. I prefer to meet a random horse or cow on a walk rather than a fellow human because I can understand the former species (and vise versa) more reliably and with greater reciprocal benefit in 9/10 cases.
Unlike you, irony poses no challenge to me......but decoding and APPROPRIATELY responding to interactive signals is, and always has been, a fraught issue for me. I struggle with the fact that honesty and directness is invariably frowned up.
Perhaps I should move to the Big Apple (and yes, I'm being ironic!)