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!
OK - so this is an ass-about-face way of thinking about this.....but no change for me there!
The BEST thing about KNOWING I am autistic / AD is that I have an explanation for all the things, feelings and thoughts that I DON'T do well !
All the strengths and superpowers that I have and always had....didn't really need any sort of "explanation"....they just "where/are" and that was/is glorious.
However, when I reached my 40's, I was becoming endlessly frustrated, angry and preoccupied with trying to understand why I wasn't "achieving" what I considered to be my full potential. I tore myself to pieces trying to "correct" my autistic nature....because I didn't know I was autistic.
So.......the best thing for me about being autistic...is KNOWING I'm autistic. Calmness and contentment achieved.....Golden!
Thanks for sharing, Number!
I resonate with that so, so much. I'm so early on in my journey but there are so many things in my life that I had beaten myself up for and labelled as me being uniquely being 'messed up'. There was a lot of self-hatred as I couldn't understand WHY I couldn't do things that everyone else could. Now, things are starting to make so much more sense. I'm staring to build up more self-compassion and understanding. I feel like I've stopped butting heads with myself so much and started accepting and working with myself. It's nice.
I agree! It was completely coincidental as well. I just so happened to bump into someone who mentioned their diagnosis of ADHD and Autism and symptoms, and I came away from the interaction intrigued as some of the things they mentioned were things that I had difficulty with. I had already realised just before I had AHD due to speaking to someone else. I don't know how long I'd be in the dark for without those interactions and my drive to look into things. Thank you I'm sorry you had to wait so long but I'm glad to hear that you are in a better place now.
You can be very thankful that this awareness has happened for you at this tender age. I had to wait until I reached an old and leathery age to "wake up" and stop "beating myself up."
I am pleased for you.