Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm told that autistic people have areas of special interest, mine is humans, I know I am one, I know others are too, but I don't understand my own species, so I study them, I didn't realise until a year or so ago that I was doing it. I used to be a counsellor and was quite good at it, I think it was because of not despite being autistic, it allows me to see others problems as an abstract whilst still empathising. I think we get told we're not good with emotions, personally I think that rubbish, we might feel overwhelmed by them and some people seem to have storm force auras, but we do feel.
What are your specialisms and interests?
Hey there
I think I probably share this one with you I’m not a counsellor but I’m always watching, listening and trying to figure things out. This interests me so much. When I have had contact with someone I’m constantly evaluating them in my head. I’m guessing this is derived from gathering scripts in order to mimic conversation?? I am far too empathetic also which means I do tend to take other people’s problems on as I feel their sadness. Im no expert on the subject but it does interest me a huge amount.
I have to remind myself not to take on other peoples problems, it was easier when I was counselling as everybody left most clients behind, the process of note taking at the end of a session and putting the file away helped. There were some clients who we all struggled with, we wanted to take them home with us and worried about them between sessions, this is normal, the minute you stop reacting like that to the distress that can bring people to counselling is the moment you need to stop.
I get the script thing too, I tend to do with characters from books, but fictional people have much more ordered lives than real ones and it haas got me in trouble at times. A lot of the time I prefer fictional people to real ones. I can go over and over every interaction with others looking for where I went "wrong", I've gone and appologised to people for things I've said that they don't remember, or were perfectly OK things to say. I think it's a big part of my social phobia, it's so exhausting having to analyse every word said, every look, all the body language and I can remember it, as it seems to run on a tape loop in my head. The only time that was useful was when we were burgled and I could remember the faces and exchange with two of the guys involved., the policeman was very impressed.
Being too empathetic is exhausting too, do you get it with animals too as well as humans? I have a push-pull with wanting to help and wanting to run away so as I don't get overwhelmed. I don't think this aspect of ASD is explored enough, people tend to think ASD people lack emotional response when in fact whilst some do, some are just overwhelmed by the amount they feel, some people have storm force auras that feel like a battering ram when they enter a room. What are you supposed to do with that? I often wish I could be debriefed like you see on telly in cop shows etc?
Has anyone else got a bad habit of recognising social games and naming them? NT's seem to know when theres an invisible elephant in the room and tip toe round it, ASD people seem to go into the room and as why theres an elephant there and go and talk to it and about it, then you get a whole heap of bad.
Never thought about it with animals but i suppose yes, I love animals and wildlife. I usually end up talking to anyone that I feel would benefit from some attention as I feel they look like I feel (in need of someone to chat to and understand) I see most people avoid people with disabilities and kind of pretend they are not there where as I make a beeline for them and talk to them as I feel a strong connection.