Published on 12, July, 2020
I've just finished reading "How to handle Neurotypicals" by Abel Abelson. I found it very interesting.
It explains how we we project our own self-image, or the ideas we have about ourselves, on other people, believing they have the same characteristics we presume we have, but advised that we shouldn't assume that another person is basically or fundamentally the same as us. We should start from thinking they are completely different, while gradually finding convergent points if there are any.
It also touches on the problem we have all had of trying to take off masks and find our true self, which gives rise to a problem in recognising other autistic people: "You might have been so busy overadapting and mimicking neurotypical behavior, and the same may be true for those other people like you, that it has become almost impossible to mutually recognize each other as actually similar beings. You may have been together at the same party, both thoroughly hating every aspect of it, and both so successfully mimicking joy and integration, that you didn’t even recognize each other’s similarities."
It also explains that it's futile expecting other people to change, or trying to change them ourselves, but that we can survive better by finding our own solutions to problems.
I would highly recommend this book to Autistic adults.
BOUGHT!
£2.50 for the Kindle edition - certainly worth a go.
I know nothing about this book, but would recommend to all adults with autism, read more! learn more! It helps for 2 reasons
1) You know more about this profound and hard to describe condition which effects us, knowing more makes it easier to develop your own strategies and work-arounds for life (you can't really use other peoples sadly, and need to use your own)
2) It helps to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. It's really hard not to become alone and isolated with Autism because on a day to day basis we tend not to meet too many of people like us. Using books and community groups like this is a way of building our own foundations stronger, the more we engage with the subject, the more real it becomes.