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?)
My superpowers and strengths are creativity, empathy, ability to mimic really well and near photographic memory.
Nice to have that memory! How long does it last?
Is it like video footage, or can you just "snapshot" your visual record?
I'd love to know more!
Number said:Understood. Unusually strong traits always tend to be both a blessing and a curse in equal measure
I've found the same. A blessing and a curse, true words. I find much of life a curse, very little good happens now I'm an adult. Sometimes though my memory and looking back on the good things are fun and heartwarming. For me reading is when things don't stick.
Number that is exactly how I would explain it for me also. I really don’t understand it as even some really important things that I would want to retain disappear. Then I can remember stuff that is or has never been any use to me. I wish there was a way of changing this around as it’s very frustrating.
Understood. Unusually strong traits always tend to be both a blessing and a curse in equal measure.....when you really think about them. I seem to have a very selective memory.....with certain things simply NEVER embedding.....at all....no matter how often I'm reminded, whereas other things will stick first time and for a long time.
Some things last a long time, for years, like I can look back and see certain memories like a video. Things like reading I can't really remember and definitely can't see.
Others are quite factual, like I open a book and can pull out information if I need to.
I find memory quite complex really. Like a lot of people the bad stuff I remember best and it can repeat like a video in flashbacks, but that's down to PTSD. I've got a diagnosis for that since last year.