Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi All!
I'm genuinely curious to hear what you think is the positive side of your diagnoses of Autism (or ADHD; or Autism and ADHD together). There's a lot of difficulties online but I'm also really fascinated by how differently we can see the world and the benefits of that.
Here's a couple of examples from me!
I don't get socially awkward very easily when there is clear justification for my actions. As an example, if my partner and I go out to eat and they receive food that they didn't order or doesn't match up to what they ordered (it could be they ordered crispy pizza with pepper and the dough isn't crispy and there are onions instead) they would feel awkward about bringing it to the attention of the server whereas I feel very, very comfortable with doing this (politely of course). The chef has broken the rules, this is not what we paid for and ordered, therefore they should rectify it and we have nothing to be worried about - therefore I don't worry. This also spreads to other social situations too.
I'm also very, very good at making quick connections between things and solving problems. I intuitively seem to find the relationship between things or find answers for problems. As a silly example, we needed to buy a new frying pan online that was the same size as our old one. However, we couldn't find our ruler or tape measure to check the actual measurements. But, I did have a lined A4 notebook. I looked up the standard sizes for the line spacings of the notebook and used the lines to the measure the frying pan which then gave me a very close approximation of the size. This took me mere seconds to come up with.
Please let me know yours!
An exceptional eye for detail, I have lost count of the number of PhD theses I have proofread for colleagues.
Hyper focus. When fully engaged in a task, I can forget to eat meals.
Lateral thinking and solving problems from unusual directions. Recently, my kids (adult) were at loggerheads, one was going to be away and wanted to do clothes washing on the day the other (also autistic) usually did hers. Neither was budging, so there was an impasse. I suggested that the one going away use the timer function to set up the machine the night before to start early in the following morning, well before the other would have wanted to use it, problem solved. I knew that the machine had a timer function, but had never used it myself. My wife, who had actually used the timer in the past, did not think of it.
Hi :) I have hyperfocus too and it can help a lot in science. Though I can get obsessed with small details … and it can take a while for me to get the bigger picture but when all the random details connect and start to link it is so cool. I think being direct is another positive (even though maybe not everyone likes this) - i wish everyone was direct and honest. This builds trust and makes everything so much easier.
Thank you for sharing, Martin! I'm completely with you on the lateral thinking and hyper focus. I have timers set up on my phone to remind me to eat and drink as sometimes I get so completely absorbed in something (be it work or a game or reading) I'll completely neglect everything else.