Published on 12, July, 2020
Partly because I'm trying to cheer myself up, partly because we need a bit of positivity in life and also because I'd like to get to know you all a bit better, what is your autistic superpower? I prefer to think of the positives that being autistic brings rather than dwell on the things I struggle with and I like to think of my strengths as "superpowers".
Mine are empathy (sometimes my heart can feel like it's going to break or explode!) and spotting details / patterns, particularly in numbers and equations. I also think I see more details in nature than my neurotypical friends (nature is my "special interest") and I get far more joy and excitement from nature than most people do. What are yours?
(Just I case it's confused anyone, I've changed my username, I hope that's OK?)
Hi!
Thanks for starting this discussion, it's so important to support our neurokin to develop a positive autistic identity!
My autistic superpowers are:
Given you love nature so much, you may appreciate the book 'Diary of A Young Naturalist' by autistic young person Dara McAnulty. It is beautifully descriptive and almost poetic!
Awesome! I love having the hyper empathy thing too. I always assumed everyone felt like I did but then I found out that they didn't and I felt sorry for them I have a habit of assuming that everyone thinks like I do, it surprises me everytime I find out that they don't, like a small moment of enlightenment!
I'll have a look at the book, thanks for the recommendation. My only struggle with books is that I'm possibly dyslexic I'm great with numbers but big blocks of text have a habit of making no sense or Ihave to read every line 5 times and still can't tell you what it meant!
Little Owl said:Awesome! I love having the hyper empathy thing too.
Cool, if you are interested in learning more about autistic experiences of hyperempathy you may enjoy the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt-fzj_ogVM
Hyper empathy is the reason why I feel so connected to my neurokin and have a strong sense of responsibility towards our autistic community, I can therefore also immediately understand how fellow autistics are feeling in a certain situation. In contrast, I can't engage in content that is too emotional and I also feel very uncomfortable around conflict between people, especially when I am in a situation where people are openly emotional (either positive or negative) because I can get overwhelmed by their emotions.
Little Owl said: I'll have a look at the book, thanks for the recommendation. My only struggle with books is that I'm possibly dyslexic I'm great with numbers but big blocks of text have a habit of making no sense or Ihave to read every line 5 times and still can't tell you what it meant!
You are welcome! What about trying the audiobook version instead?
Here is a link to the audiobook:
www.audible.co.uk/.../1473593018