New member, with questions for those who know their AUDHD

Hey,

Well, after a nosedive into this field in search of explanation, I found a lot of answers.. but I’ve got more questions so i’ll give this forum a go.

Now being ‘how I am’, these might seem absurdly specific but they are not.

..for me it’s existential.

Genuinely-  I’m looking for guidance for those who are, and i’ll say this knowing what it most probably will be perceived as Twice afflicted AUDHD.

It’s going to be easier going forward if some of the ‘audhd’, within myself is understood as having some establishment and self awareness.

Maybe understanding the WHY, of these queries in advance will help understand the scope of the WHAT. Hopefully, broadening an understanding.

.. and I appreciate any feedback regardless.x

Straight into the WHY:

As best I can explain.

I find a struggle in morality with regards to interacting with people whom self delude. There’s, shall we call it, an inferred social baseline. In pursuance of that baseline, I’ve found a pattern that can’t be ignored.

When one looks at faith, religion in general, acedemia, ‘Autism awareness’, the food industry, the finance industry, welfare in general, a lot of Art and almost the entirety of the ‘fine art’ industry, any industry that involves significant commerce, about 75-80% of people I’ve ever met, I found it so hard to deal with this. I’ve obviously referred the problem as to be within myself.

I my thoughts on my case.

I’ve not found much differentiation on guidance for those who probably require a weightier explanation.

How does one truly ground a social value when that seems so transient in reality?

How does everyone else navigate a world with 80% involuntary hypocrisy, within not only its organisation, but its direction, its speech on an individual level, through to a national level. Consider every moment people generally interact.

( I would love to explain every aspect of everything I’m proposing in even this post, I’m chopping huge aspects if that’s not obvious but happy to elaborate if requested x. )

In summary:

I operate life, about 95% of the time, in what can best be described as a hyper mathematical sense. I essentially pattern recognise, make predictions, and act accordingly.

Fortunately/unfortunately, I do this at hyper speed, at multiple levels, almost constantly. This means I essentially feel like I’m in a game.. like everyone else, I essentially places bets on what’s mostly probabilistically likely to happen next, or happen in consequence.

This extrapolates from the moment I decide to not look both ways when I cross a road, to if my partner an I should emigrate to another country, to if it’s in my interests to laugh extra hard at a joke.

.. exact same process, often in real time, maybe a 20year conjecture.

This has its benefits alongside its pitfalls.

I live in a mode of almost perpetual guilt.

I see profound unending beauty in things others don’t. 

So this is something we all do, except perhaps for me, it’s done at hyper speed, across multiple disciplines in real time and I know what’s going on the entire time. At any moment in any conversation or interaction, I could easily explain the use of a single word or inflection and its use based on the probabilistic result of a huge reference able, testable data set across a spectrum other could fill a book.

Again, for me this was 8-10 years old.. in order to navigate puberty, an Irish upbringing, the 90’s etc.. I’ve not been able to stop this, but I’ve layered this.

i’ll have a chatty conversation with others, and I’ll have 1-3 other ‘compute tasks’ running in the background.. sometimes for fun, sometimes for specific completely unrelated problem solving.

I will create complicated compute tasks or philosophical considerations for further rumination to relieve boredom. In conversation, I’ll challenge myself to ‘work’ a figure to completion before I have to answer the next sentence.

The point I’m trying to make here is that, if this is how I operate, why does potentially having more data/knowledge make it so abundantly clear, that the world operates increasingly deluded mode.

( if your first assertion is that my problem is confirmation bias or possibly ptsd related, that is obviously a factor. But a factor that is considered and has had a robust analysis within itself, again another subject I’d like to explore, and your assertion were to be that.. make it survive a query or two.

infact-

I’d love a robust philosophical argument, an engineering one, a medical one, etc ideally to minimum of PHD level.

.. because I have an ego? Absolutely not.

.. because I’m not ashamed to ask anymore.

Trouble is, for some of us, if your still reading.. we need more than placative, tier 1/2 stuff..

What better place than a nationally recognised Autistic Forum?

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  • I’m going to leap in the deep end because so much of your experience resonates with me, although not necessarily with the same way of expressing them.

    You’ll be aware that fairness and justice is an autistic trait, along with difficulty in dealing with people who say one thing and mean another. It seems to me that hypocrisy is both unfair and dishonest. As to whether condemnation of hypocrisy specifically is tied to specific cultures, I’d say not. I’m fairly sure it will be condemned in other cultures – two that spring to mind are Rome under the emperors and 1st century Judah.

    You refer to self delusion, which I view as a different subject, because I doubt it’s responsible for all hypocrisy. For example, I view the major conspiracy theories as self-delusion. I have tried reason before now and found that most self-deluded people have very strong psychological defences and I’m not inclined to bash my head against that sort of brick wall, so I tend to withdraw if I can’t ignore.

    Occasionally, if I don’t want to lose a friend, I’ll try to establish boundaries that a particular subject is off limits. I find they can’t maintain that constantly, so it comes down to how much I can tolerate. If it’s too much, or the subject is too important to me, I walk away rather than suffer the stress caused by putting up with it.

    I recognise your guilt and found the works of Dorothy Rowe liberating, although it didn’t get rid of 100%. I’d recommend “Beyond Fear” and “Guide to Life”. 

    I’m not as conscious of my calculations as you and mine tend to predictions based on a psychological behaviour, as psychology gave me the map I needed to navigate a dangerous world. Words are for me what calculations are for you – I can analyse the hell out of a piece of writing for bias, propaganda and faulty logic. Blush It sounds to me that you yearn for arguments which only take place on closed academic sites. Social media is better at expressing feelings or seeking information in my experience.

  • I very much appreciate your considered response

    To further clarify perhaps, the ‘deluded’ term deserves some explanation.. you’ve raised a point that it can and should be considered in correlation. 

    For myself, the term itself took a while to arrive to. Or it ought better be described as a term its matured into.

    Without unloading the sandbox of explanation, it’s all just eventually, for me, distilled down into self delusion at scale.

    ..its not that it’s a surprise it’s a part of the human psyche, its the scale at which it’s persists and known alternatives are ignored for a chosen perspective. This isn’t a flat earthers vs the world kinda thing or I’m a talisman for the truth. It’s just, on average, most of the time, it’s a lie.

    .. whatever it is, whoever it is. Mathematically, interacting with people. We have the chose to ignore it. And we do.

    most of the time.

    .. that’s my query.. How do really know a true socia value.

    For sombody like me, that’s one of around 10 ‘files requireing re-consideration’ that hang around for longer than a year or two.

    I’ve battled that exact issue since I can remember, and I’m 41. It’s just easier to articulate now - but still not easy Laughing

    • Thanks again,

    I will look into the book suggestions also. 

    Lastly, your last point is perhaps a premonition. I spent sometime after visiting this forum and found the Mensa site. So I’ve enquired and might be pre-elligable but I kinda like the idea of going through all the exams anyway and seeing where I’m at. And then maybe join a few of these ultra specific autistic for days discussion groups, with luck!

  • I'll be interested to know how you find the Mensa forum. Don't get your hopes up - the self-declared Mensa people I encountered struck me as very narrowly focussed. To be truthful, I found many NT academics much more interesting. 

    There used to many good places for sustained multi-disciplinary discussion before social media took over - the old Yahoo groups and later, some web fora. If I wanted good, focussed conversation, I'd look on Substack or in the depths of Reddit.

    When you originally mention self-delusion it was in the context of hypocrisy. If you're talking about it in another context, I'm afraid you'd have to be more specific. As for social values - as mentioned before, although I agree they are culture-specific, as I've said, some things pop up in many cultures, but it depends which value.

  • Why people prefer their beliefs to reality is often tied up with where they live and what their families' believe; their social identity in sociological terms. They perceive attempts to change their mind as a personal attack. 

    As to why you posted to this forum - only you can answer that.

  • Framing my canundrum as not understanding “why, on average, do the lightbulbs just never wanna be changed?”

    Is about as well as a synopsis works.

    Obvously it leads with the assumption that the statement is within itself true.

    which it isn’t.. it is for me, and others but it can’t be said to be entirely a universal truth. 

    An answer you might prefer is to the question of why did I make this assertion here.. in this way in this forum? And perhaps why now?.

    What are my motivations?. 

    Truth be told, 

    I’m as interested as much as how people interact with me, as much as what they actually say.. it used to be much more so.. but re-discovering the power of words in my late 20’s, that opened up a re-discovery of language that I’m still in awe with today.

    While I’m at it, I can categorically state that I’m not a pessimist. I’m aware it can come across that way. I find stunning beauty in so many things.. and I’ve barely scratched the surface of what life is about..

    - at least that’s how it feels. 

    Ive found a grounding with my cognition and I’m able to be comfortable in my own skin. I use it for good as and when I can.. but as previously mentioned, a pursuit into difficult problems is seemingly a dietary requirement, for me. 

Reply
  • Framing my canundrum as not understanding “why, on average, do the lightbulbs just never wanna be changed?”

    Is about as well as a synopsis works.

    Obvously it leads with the assumption that the statement is within itself true.

    which it isn’t.. it is for me, and others but it can’t be said to be entirely a universal truth. 

    An answer you might prefer is to the question of why did I make this assertion here.. in this way in this forum? And perhaps why now?.

    What are my motivations?. 

    Truth be told, 

    I’m as interested as much as how people interact with me, as much as what they actually say.. it used to be much more so.. but re-discovering the power of words in my late 20’s, that opened up a re-discovery of language that I’m still in awe with today.

    While I’m at it, I can categorically state that I’m not a pessimist. I’m aware it can come across that way. I find stunning beauty in so many things.. and I’ve barely scratched the surface of what life is about..

    - at least that’s how it feels. 

    Ive found a grounding with my cognition and I’m able to be comfortable in my own skin. I use it for good as and when I can.. but as previously mentioned, a pursuit into difficult problems is seemingly a dietary requirement, for me. 

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