Intelligence Vs Autism Spectrum

I do think that inbuilt genius exists. But that it can sometimes only appear when there’s love there. I was c grade at maths and got treated a bit like I was useless and unacademic. But when I got to Uni and was writing about things I loved that was when I demonstrated the height of my academic ability. Passion combined with freedom to only research subjects I wanted to. 

I’ve decided today that I actually way prefer communicating with humans through the written word rather than spoken. I feel like it’s more intelligent. Maybe this is what I’ve been missing. I was having to do a lot of chit chat for my job and I think I find it unfulfilling. It feels like neither party comes out of it very well. Because conversation involves so much fakery and presence. So maybe it isn’t the humans I’ve been talking to that have been unintelligent maybe it was just the method that was unintelligent. 

I think you’re brilliant to be able to take those kinds of tests. Feel proud of yourself. 

How about an iPad for audible? You could read books on there too. I’m going to get my dad one. His phone is really basic too. 

'The clear over-representation of megalomaniac super narcissists within many esoteric high IQ circles and societies tell their own story of the Freudian mechanisms at work. I have never met so many arrogant brain-bragging and apparently self-contained people as I have met in high IQ societies. At the same time, I have made some deep and rare friendships that I would never be without. Perhaps the sea of brain-braggers is the costs of finding congenial soul gems out there.'

https://in-sightpublishing.com/2021/05/15/rebsdorf-1/ 

There are definitely  more than a few like that. Quite few members have ASD and/or ADHD. I'll sometimes post on a forum that I've got a good score. Some will see that as bragging, but for me It's a slight counterbalance to the myriad of things I'm utterly useless at. The 'bragging' is short lived, and is soon taken over by 'Anyone could do well on that test' type thinking . Much of my insecurity, of feeling inferior, is driven by the effects of 'bullying related trauma'. One thing I don't do is hide my (relative) cognitive weaknesses. They are as much a part of me, as my cognitive strengths are.

My A-level results, degree, masters, etc all suggest I'm highly intelligent. In fact "oh you must be really clever" is an almost universal reaction when I tell people what I studied and where. But the more I come to understand myself, the more I think it's just that my special interests aligned with the subjects I was taking exams in at the time I was taking them. I didn't do well because I have some in-built genius (if that even exists) but because I would happily sit and do past papers for hours on end because I found it enjoyable and fun.

I'm not sure it's rational to completely shun socializing. There are plenty of interesting and intelligent people in the world, just have to find them. Sure, some time alone to sit with a head in your book is essential too.

I may have autism but I got to wait for the  comfirm 

Sorry for being so long replying to your interesting reply, we are travelling and your observations especially appropriate right now. We were in Hereford yesterday where indeed there is a powerful mix of ancient and modern, but genuine medieval rather than fake Victorian revivals, cheek by jowl with the pretty dreadful examples of cheap unimaginative modernism.

However I know full well that medieval was desperate for the majority (not the bishops house so coo’d at by tourists), damp rat infested hovels, whereas modernism can and often is inspired and healthy and imaginative (as of much of contemporary Manchester). I think it always has been the case that one’s place in the social and intellectual hierarchy determines one’s housing and working conditions. I know I’m perceived as privileged to enjoy the lifestyle and property and assets I have, things which put me into the healthy and happy sector, I’ll never apologise for that though, partly it is down to the love of learning gifted by my parents and partly the results of good decisions made from my teenage years. 

It’s good to meet another who understands sapiosexual attraction too. Do you have a partner currently?

Emma

firemonkey said:

I can never get the swiping right on a smartphone

Have you tried a stylus? My mother uses one as her fingertips are not picked up reliably on her smartphone or tablet (poor circulation seems to have that effect).

Something like this worked for her:

https://www.amazon.com/MEKO-Universal-Including-Computers-Acessories/dp/B08HCNHPS2/

Audiobooks would be good, but unfortunately I only have one of those very basic senior phones. I can never get the swiping right on a smartphone. My daughter says I'm heavy handed because of the 'dyspraxia'

Wow, what do you do with all these wonderful thoughts? Write them down? Make Art with them? 

Have you seen The Witcher? I feel like that’s Game of Thrones with much more magic of the imagination added. There are parts that remind me of what you describe. Where whole scenes in rooms are just figments of a person’s imagination. Their fantasies made concrete. 

I used to love fantasy books as a child, particularly The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blighton. Wow, imagining those lands that appeared up the tree, changing each time, was like heaven to me. 

Could you listen to audio books? Or do you prefer real books? I have a big audiobook library on my phone. It saves space. 

I was a perfectionist and obsessive with my homework at school, I think that got me through. Would spend 50 hours working on something. But then these other kids were naturally genius, not even having to try and getting A*s. 

Sounds like 'hyperphantasia'  The opposite to what I have.

blogs.exeter.ac.uk/.../

Nothing wrong with good non fiction. I've just not  read any books for quite a while. Plus there's not much space in my 42 sq M  flat for books. I have a very small bookshelf.

I was fairly mediocre academic wise. A similar child nowadays to how I was, he/she would be labelled as 2e with EF difficulties. Back then though(1961-1975) there was nothing like the level of help and support available now.

im more visual imagination, i often get lost in my own thought and become blind to whats infront of me as my eyes suddenly are transported to whatever my mind is thinking of. this can result in me seemingly staring forward maybe at people or through them, but im not seeing them, im seeing whats in my mind, images, thoughts, memories, sometimes fantasy, sometimes landscapes. sometimes ideas and plans.

my mind is visual, daydream like.... i start reading a book and eventually the words seem to fade as i instead start seeing the imagery in my head. game of thrones the sky series was pretty good because alot of it actually did match what i saw in my head. although obviously with alot of missing parts....although the book was more emotive, especially the red wedding, that was more sad in the books and in my mind as i guess i could empathise with them more as it was direct playing in my mind as i read it and easier to feel what they feel and put myself in their shoes from my mind.

sometimes the image breaks though and i end up seeing the words in the book again and then stall a bit and have to keep reading back at parts for my mind to catch up, or my reading to catch up... there seems to be a stall i guess between reading and imagining/seeing in my mind, perhaps my mind goes too fast and leaves the reading behind, consider it mental buffering where it gets disjointed and then loses the connection and has to reconnect.

Do you like non fiction at all? I’ve started to prefer it. Even though I have an insane imagination sometimes I just think ‘what’s the point in hearing someone’s fantasy about society rather than the actual facts?’.

That sounds very interesting with your quizzes. See yours to me is an intelligence that I’ll never reach. I was average in terms of knowledge at school. As and Bs but my peers were getting A*s. I did very well at Uni but that was Art. 

I was anti psychiatry for a while but then sometimes now I’ll look back on my time at college when I was on anti depressants fondly. Life was a breeze back then. If I hadn’t stopped taking them I might have ended up like one of my peers who became a multi millionaire. I would ways stop the pills and become reclusive again. So part of me wonders what would have happened if I’d have taken them for say 5 years just to play at having a normal life for that time. Then once success came I could have stopped them and gone back to being me again. And it wouldn’t matter because I’d be rich enough to stay in the house forever. 

I was an avid, and eclectic, reader of books during my school years. That stopped when I became mentally ill.  I'd always thought other people were like me, couldn't visualise characters and scenes from reading a book. That was shattered doing guided imagery ,via the mental health centre, to reduce anxiety. Others were finding it helpful, but it did nothing for me. Fast forward almost a decade later and I came across 'Aphantasia'.  I have total aphantasia. Knowing that other people can imagine characters and scenes from books- and I can't-that has put me off reading fiction. 

Because I'm useless at a myriad of things I wanted to find something I was at least reasonably good at. That lead me, through my autistic interest in low to highbrow quizzes and tests, to  high range IQ tests.   I'm no way a genius, but have managed to get a few reasonable scores.  I did fluke my way into being a  member of https://president2205.wixsite.com/foursigmasociety/members, but quit after a short while . Why? Basically because I was taking the p*ss. I'd used an outlier of a  score to join, and was nowhere near the intellectual ability of the other members.

As for psychiatry, despite my less than positive experience(though 2017- has been fine) I'm 'critical of' but not anti psychiatry. I have little time for the Robert Whitaker's of this world.

This is snobbish probably. And bias because I’m a creator and less of a consumer. But in my eyes intelligence is not just watching tv and accepting low quality entertainment. Like reading Hello magazine or something. I’ve been through times in my life where I’ve watched tv for hours of the day, chat shows and read rubbish magazines about celebs. So I include myself in that. But I also read books and watched quality films too. 

I think misdiagnosis is rife in Psychiatry and it’s part Pseudoscience, although some conditions do exist. They just know something’s wrong and attach any label they want but can’t admit that they don’t understand at that moment because they still need to get paid. So they have to tie up loose ends. 

whos to say we are intelligent anyway?
when i was a kid my parents had some person assess me for "learning difficulties" and that person said nothings wrong with me and im actually above average intelligence, ofcourse this was the issue in the 90s, anytime you had clearly something mentally wrong with you everyone just only knew the word learning difficulty and had you seen for that instead of anything else like a disorder or anything like autism. that was at that time, times moved on, i maybe below average intelligence for my age now if we tested intelligence again anyway. it doesnt stay the same. and not that intelligence matters as its actually knowledge we are tested by and whos to say the general knowledge we have is actually worthless while someone elses knowledge is more usefull?

this is where intelligence is perhaps misunderstood or tested wrong. or perhaps it just doesnt exist, and all it is is memory and repetition. which makes us kinda virtually intelligence instead of actually intelligent, as we require input instead of coming up with things ourselves.

Your story is similar to mine problems starting at a levels. I feel like I had a breakdown. Like I couldn’t keep pretending socially anymore, it was exhausting. I had two faces. So I dropped out of college and became a recluse. I remember some of my college classmates writing me letters as well as my lecturer telling me to get well soon. Then it was a case of my mom running around trying to make me normal again. I’d go for appointments with a psychiatrist at a clinic where there were girls with eating disorders staying. I’d ask this £90 an hour Psychiatrist if he had any proof that I had a chemical imbalance or was bipolar. Because that’s the conclusion they came to at that time. And he admitted that ‘no there was no proof but that psychiatry was about treating a problem with drugs and that if the drugs worked, well great, happy days’. So I’d just take the meds for a while, become normal, then stop and go back to being me again. I still don’t buy what they labeled me as. But the difference is that society leaves me alone now and let me get on with being me unmedicated. Probably just because I have a job now so it’s like they can’t harass me. 

What did you study?

I don’t really know what’s going on with me but at Uni I used to not being to stand being there much. I’ve always just preferred being at home. So a lot of the other students had these lovely studio spaces containing all their work. Mine was bare because it was all at home. I graduated in 2012. I think they just thought I was anti social. And the lecturers probably initially thought I was lazy but then I shocked them with the huge amount of work I’d been creating at home.