Positives of autism

People can give you a platform to speak as who you are. You just have to stay on the right side of believing that people can change and there is hope in the future 

A lot of people struggle with those kinds of puzzles. I think it just depends how your brain sees things.

Every band has a bad night from time to time, things like sound checks might have gone badly or have been rushed, but I think so many bands are manufactured by record companies going round stage schools, looking for people to form a girl band or a boy band that they never sort of play or learn to play together organically like bands that start in someones garage and play in pubs and clubs do.

I've looked at wordle and didn't understand what was being asked of me, I find a lot puzzles and other things are like that, I just don't understand the questions, let alone how to work out the answer.

I think we are good judges of character. 

What I often find is that people will refer to particular maths problems or something like wordle and say they are hard because they aren't good at maths or aren't good at wordle but in reality it is just a logic puzzle to deduce the answer. There are some maths problems I am very good at and it's not because I'm good at maths necessarily but because I'm very logical in the way I work it out. A lot of people seem to really struggle with these questions and I think it's because they don't approach it with logic.

I've never understood singers that are poor live either. I guess they have auto tune and stuff in studios but you'd still expect them to be good enough to have been signed in the first place.

Sorry EP, I wasn't aiming my post at you, just commenting in general.

I will break down tasks into managable steps too and working out what to do first.

Maybe my feelings about logic come from a mix of autism and sequencing dyslexia. Problems with sequences is very common in dyslexics, but I think it's one of the least talked about or understood aspects of it, everyone thinks its just about reading and the ability to see letters, but theres so much more to it than that. Often I just know what the answer to something is, it just pops into my brain, I can work backwards, I can ask others to work forwards to my answer, but 9 times out of 10 I'm right, not with maths or tech stuff, but other areas of life.

I get the thing with singing too, I used to watch The Voice and was amazed at how many people struggle with the notes, maybe its poor song choice, or nerves? I used to watch a lot of live music and its really disapointing when you see a band who's studio stuff you really like, but when you see them live they can't seem to sing or play their intruments.

I'm not sure how logic is a set of excuses for something you already know. If it's a fact I know then I'm not being logical. When I say I’m logical, I mean I tend to think things through in a particular order and work out how things fit together. I’m good at breaking things down into steps, figuring out what makes sense to do first, and solving puzzles or problems by looking for patterns and connections. I don't intuitively know how to solve a puzzle, I have to work it out but having a brain that naturally works in a logical way makes that much easier. I also when making a decision, think I can work through it in a logical way which makes the decision making easier.

That is an interesting list. No 10. only applies to me for things that happened a long time ago and often useless bits of information. My short term memory has always been terrible. Sometimes I write lists or instructions to help me remember something, then forget where I put it. 

Thank you all for your replies. 

This is a thread to refer back to if we are feeling low.

That is good news and makes such a difference to the young people.

For me I would say sensitivity to other people and animals; courage to be different and not constrained by ‘what others think about me’; and the joy and calm I get from my special interests (that does not wear off if something becomes difficult and is not dimmed by distraction)

I’ve held down a job in secondary school education for just over ten years now. Following my (recent) diagnosis I’ve reflected on the fact that I’ve had a good rapport with several neurodivergent students in this time. I think this might be because I’ve instinctively understood some of their day-to-day experiences, and perhaps it’s also being vigilant to patterns in their behaviour. 

Thinking positively about myself is not something I’m very good at, but I think my own neurodivergence has allowed to make some school days more bearable for some of these students. I’m slowly letting myself take some pride in that. 

B said:

I quite often feel negative about my autism

If you've read some of the other stuff I've put on this forum you'll probably pick up on me banging on about Taoism B and in that context positive and negative have  quite profoundly different spin that I can't help but share as I hope that it might help.

The opposite of positive in Taoist terms is, to put it in a nutshell, not "negative" it's "receptive".

I figure that on the basis I am autistic and that's that, so rather than being "negative" about it be receptive - all these lovely things that people have responded to your post with for example!

I'm personally down the line of "What's the point of wondering if one would have a better life if one where someone else"  as short of a brain or body transplant or the invention of time travel the only way I can be someone else is by becoming it.

Yep it's often jolly hard being autistic in an "allistic" world but I personally really do feel sad for all those poor disadvantaged allisitc people who don't have the comfort of being neurodivergent and actually knowing it!

I would not change being autistic but maybe opt for more understanding and openness. I love the way autism allows me to concentrate on a task for hours. Autistic humor. Meeting other autistics both here and in person.

I'm yet to find any.

hehe - why did you say that?  -  agreed :-)

Endless curiosity.

I'm not very good at a lot of the things many autistic people are, like tech, or maths, I'm much more intuition based than logic based to the point where I often think that logic is a set of excuses to justify something you intuitively know. I can be very determined though, this isn't always welcome, as others see it as me being particulalry thrawn

I tend to focus on the negatives a lot too but I am aware that there are positives. It's difficult to know exactly what is autism and just me but this is what I think: I have a very good memory, I am extremely logical, I am good at puzzles and problem solving which I think makes me good at things like maths and ICT and when I really want to do something, I have a heck of a determination.

I was only diagnosed earlier this year, so I'm still finding out a lot about my autist side. Even moreso now that I'm on ADHD meds as well which are lifting the Predominantly Inattentive qualities which have acted as a bit of a counterbalance to my autist qualities for many years. That's not a bad thing at all, I'd like to add.

I think one of the best characteristics for me is the way I respond to music - it can suddenly strike me incredibly intensely and I get a pronounced physiological response, especially goosebumps. The down side to this is that I can tell when music is even slightly out of tune, singing can be particularly awful if it's out and I'm amazed at how many people have made a career in singing when I can hear they're not quite hitting those notes....!

I do like the strong pattern recognition thing that many have already mentioned, and noticing details which other people have missed can be fun.