Autism is my superpower

I hate it. I think it's patronising. It takes away from the things that are difficult and further pushes the myth that all autistic people have some genius ability. 

I get it a little bit with little kids but I think as they grow up they will notice the things they find difficult and go huh I'm supposed to have a super power, why is this hard, my super power must be defective. 

Expecto_Patronum said:

I'm supposed to have a super power, why is this hard, my super power must be defective.

I think a lot of it is down to if you can find a way to harness your autistic traits.

For example:

1 - if you sense so much stuff around you that it can be overwhelming then it can be possible to turn this to your advantage.  Rather than be a victim of the input, make it work for you - for example I could look at a software or hardware fault and burrow into the situation looking at all the behavioral nuances of it and look for the things that are out of place and gave me a clue as to what was going wrong.

Running tests and assimilating the data quickly and systematically gave me a huge advantage over my colleagues who could only plod through trying the things they thought it woud be and normally missing the subtleties of the fault as rarely was it just one thing happening.

2 - When driving I can be aware of all the other vehicles around me, their relative speeds, the road conditions, the road signs, the changes in scenery that indicate junctions and of course the vehicle I'm driving. It has saved me from crashes on many occasions when other drivers just sail on into the situation distracted by whatever they are doing at the time.

It also leads to a much smoother ride as I spot potholes, curve radiuses and possible obstructions before most other drivers.

3 - Special interests can be powerful if you can learn to focus that energy on other research subjects that may not necessarily excite you. I would often be a researcher for the companies I worked for on uncommon subjects because their staff lacked the focus for a deep dive in the same way I can do it.

None of this stuff is easy and it all takes a lot of discipline mentally but they can all be very useful.

Expecto_Patronum said:

I'm supposed to have a super power, why is this hard, my super power must be defective.

I think a lot of it is down to if you can find a way to harness your autistic traits.

For example:

1 - if you sense so much stuff around you that it can be overwhelming then it can be possible to turn this to your advantage.  Rather than be a victim of the input, make it work for you - for example I could look at a software or hardware fault and burrow into the situation looking at all the behavioral nuances of it and look for the things that are out of place and gave me a clue as to what was going wrong.

Running tests and assimilating the data quickly and systematically gave me a huge advantage over my colleagues who could only plod through trying the things they thought it woud be and normally missing the subtleties of the fault as rarely was it just one thing happening.

2 - When driving I can be aware of all the other vehicles around me, their relative speeds, the road conditions, the road signs, the changes in scenery that indicate junctions and of course the vehicle I'm driving. It has saved me from crashes on many occasions when other drivers just sail on into the situation distracted by whatever they are doing at the time.

It also leads to a much smoother ride as I spot potholes, curve radiuses and possible obstructions before most other drivers.

3 - Special interests can be powerful if you can learn to focus that energy on other research subjects that may not necessarily excite you. I would often be a researcher for the companies I worked for on uncommon subjects because their staff lacked the focus for a deep dive in the same way I can do it.

None of this stuff is easy and it all takes a lot of discipline mentally but they can all be very useful.

I'm not sure you've quite understood the point I was making Iain. I'm not saying there's no positives to being autistic or that we can't work on ways to use it to our advantage.

I simply do not think it is a positive thing to push the term super power on to people and I think it infantilises a complex condition.

Iain said:

curve radiuses

Ever notice how most drivers cannot take a right-hand** bend? They turn too early and inevitably cut the corner. [wipes foam from side of mouth]

** I suppose that would be a left-hand bend if you drive on the right—i.e., wrong—side of the road.