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? :)
There are some things that I know I take literally. For example, I have an aunt that I was once very close to and would speak with regularly on the phone. She would always end our conversations by saying, "Speak to you later." I would be left thinking that she was maybe planning to phone me again later that same day, until the penny dropped and I realised it was just a figure of speech and her way of saying, "Bye".
However, there are plenty of instances when I should take things literally and don't, although, off the top of my head, I'm unable to think of any examples.
Another example of me taking things literally is when people talk about their "baby". In my mind, I'll be conjuring up an infant under the age of 18 - 24 months old. It then catches me out when I realise the 'baby' is considerably older and possibly an adult, the person's pet, or in fact their partner.