Published on 12, July, 2020
I was listening to the radio the other day and they were talking about things that you’ve only just learnt or realised that everyone else seems to just know, the typical - “I was today years old when I realised…”. Made me think of some things that I didn’t register about straight away, and now wonder whether this is part of my autistic way of thinking about things, that I just thought about things literally. Some examples…
On for sale sites when people put something about collections, I always thought they meant that the person that bought the item had to be a collector to purchase it, as in a stamp collector or a coin collector, like it was their hobby. Not that they had to physically be able to go and collect it from the person selling.
In the song ‘one man went to mow, went to mow-a-meadow’ I always assumed there was a place called mow-a-meadow. I didn’t realise he was going to a meadow to mow/cut the grass.
when people put ‘Tia’ at the bottom of a post I thought it was that their name was Tia and it always amused me how many people shared the same name. It was only recently that I realised it was ‘thanks in advance’
Has anyone else got any examples of things like this? Do other people do it? Is it an autistic literal thinking thing or am I just stupid? :)
You aren't stupid, this is definitely an autism thing.
I'm always taking things literally. I can remember as a child when my Mum said it's raining cats and dogs outside and I went to the window and said "where?"
Scarily I still do this now. I did it at work only a few months ago when a colleague said it, got me a few giggles but my brain didn't work it out until I'd made a fool of myself.
This happens a lot with many things. It's reassuring to see I'm not the only one as I worried I might be.
Ah yeah it’s definitely reassuring to know that I’m not the only one that does this too! :)
it’s weird with phrases and things like it’s raining cats and dogs, I know that it’s not literally doing that, I guess by learning that it is just a phrase but when someone says that phrase I instantly picture cats and dogs falling out of the sky and it never seems weird to be picturing it!
Bizarre how our brains work!