Neurodiversity

[Bit]

Yanno, you're scaring me here girlfriend... *very wry smile* I "zone out" which is pretty much what you just described, staring (mouth closed in my case) with my eyes unfocused because it's just too much... and yes, I can talk while I do it but I really don't wish to have to actually look at anything... or anyone.

(And yes I deleted my post so I could go back and get yours to quote because I have this GENIUS for not quoting someone and then I turn the page, and it happened AGAIN... aaarrrggghhh, lol!)

Originally Posted by Girl_On_Fire

Yes!! That's the way I read maps too. Where I'm facing is "North" to me, even though I know that's not true.

I also have the staring thing. I need to stare off into space to deal with sensory overload at least 5 times a day. I may not do it for long but it's how I "rest" in between "takes" of life. My ex didn't understand this for a very long time. I'd just power down and hy'd ask what hy'd done wrong or what my problem was and I was like, "I'm resting. This is how I rest." And I'd keep starting blankly with my mouth slightly open. I know what's going on around me most of the time, I just need to tune out a bit so I can keep going all day. I got sick of explaining all the time after we'd been together for years. Some people, I guess, simply cannot or will not accept neurodiverse people.

[Girl_On_Fire]

Anybody else walk on their tip-toes as children?

[Ursy]

Originally Posted by Girl_On_Fire

Anybody else walk on their tip-toes as children?

Yes! My mother thought I was going to be a ballerina. She signed me up for ballet classes. I only went to one. Lol. Poor mum.

[Bit]

That one doesn't apply to me... I would have fallen over, even then, lol... no sense of balance at all!

[Girl_On_Fire]

Yeah, I don't have much balance either. I trip over air too. lol! But yes, I definitely walked on my tip-toes all the time. I didn't even know that was an Aspie trait until I talked to another Aspie. I've learned more from talking to other Aspies than anything I've learned from books.

Speaking of books though, has anyone read, "Pretending to Be Normal" by Liane Holliday Willey and Tony Attwood? When I read it, it changed my life. It literally describes the way I view the world. I was 100% convinced after that.

[Girl_On_Fire]

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*bump*

[Ursy]

Originally Posted by Girl_On_Fire

Yeah, I don't have much balance either. I trip over air too. lol! But yes, I definitely walked on my tip-toes all the time. I didn't even know that was an Aspie trait until I talked to another Aspie. I've learned more from talking to other Aspies than anything I've learned from books.

Speaking of books though, has anyone read, "Pretending to Be Normal" by Liane Holliday Willey and Tony Attwood? When I read it, it changed my life. It literally describes the way I view the world. I was 100% convinced after that.

I read it a long, long time ago. I think it was really good, from memory. But I don't have much of a memory anymore. I used to have a fabulous memory, but I got misdiagnosed as bipolar a few years ago (before I realized I was Aspie) and spent a few months on Lithium, and I think my brain has never been the same since.

I'm pretty clumsy too. I "fall off my shoes" quite regularly, even ones that are only a couple of inches high :/

My ankles are really paying for that, now that I'm getting older.

[Girl_On_Fire]

Does anyone here sigh a lot? I do it all the time and it's a self-comfort thing but people are always mistaking it for being irritated or subtly trying to display displeasure and I don't even realize I do it until somebody points it out.

[Ursy]

Originally Posted by Girl_On_Fire

Does anyone here sigh a lot? I do it all the time and it's a self-comfort thing but people are always mistaking it for being irritated or subtly trying to display displeasure and I don't even realize I do it until somebody points it out.

I probably do. I think it's a form of stimming. I also make random noises, sometimes to ward off unpleasant thoughts, but mostly when I know nobody else is around.

[Venus007]

I sigh a lot. For me it resets me, like "okay, done with this, on to the next"
it also comforts me in a way, I rub my forehead or my first 3 fingers together when I am alone but in public it is usually a sigh.

[Girl_On_Fire]

I rub my forehead too. Hmmmm....

[Fanbutch]

I have a lot of trouble telling the difference between reality and things I imagine or dream. Does anyone else have this problem?

[Ursy]

Originally Posted by Fanbutch

I have a lot of trouble telling the difference between reality and things I imagine or dream. Does anyone else have this problem?

Very occasionally I will have a dream that I thought was real until I woke up from it, and twice I had dreams that were incredibly real in that they were set in exactly the environment I was living in at the time, indistinguishable from real life. Those are freaky!

My imagination - not so much, though my imagination can affect me emotionally almost as much as if it was happening. For example, I can just imagine getting a phone call about a loved one dying and it will make me cry.

[Girl_On_Fire]

Originally Posted by Fanbutch

I have a lot of trouble telling the difference between reality and things I imagine or dream. Does anyone else have this problem?

I don't remember ever having an experience like that but I do have very intense dreams. I always have.

[Girl_On_Fire]

I wanted to try to bring this thread back if anyone is interested.

Are you an "emotional barometer"? I find myself reacting to people's emotions before they even realize they're feeling them, which can make for sometimes awkward social interaction. Meaning somebody may mistake my nervous response to them as being self-conscious or guilty of something when really my inner core is saying danger! I have a hair-trigger when it comes to feeling sudden negative emotion from others, even when it's not outwardly expressed right away. Anybody else feel this way?

[Ursy]

Originally Posted by Girl_On_Fire

I wanted to try to bring this thread back if anyone is interested.

Are you an "emotional barometer"? I find myself reacting to people's emotions before they even realize they're feeling them, which can make for sometimes awkward social interaction. Meaning somebody may mistake my nervous response to them as being self-conscious or guilty of something when really my inner core is saying danger! I have a hair-trigger when it comes to feeling sudden negative emotion from others, even when it's not outwardly expressed right away. Anybody else feel this way?

I don't think I'm in touch with my own emotions enough to be able to tell where they are coming from at the time (intense though they are, does that sound ironic? I don't know how to explain it), and I don't trust how I read the emotions of others to be able to connect the two.

I kind of feel too much all at once, and it's so overwhelming that any introspection is difficult.

...deal with misophonia on a daily basis and feel like a freak because of it?

[Ursy]

Originally Posted by Daktari

...deal with misophonia on a daily basis and feel like a freak because of it?

I commiserate.
I don't know if I can say I have misophonia but too much noise does give me the irrits, especially if I'm trying to concentrate on something.

This makes me sound like a Grinch, but why do children have to be so loud? Especially when they are walking past our house on a sleep-in morning?

[Kelt]

Originally Posted by Daktari

...deal with misophonia on a daily basis and feel like a freak because of it?

Very much so. I didn't know there was a special word for it though. It's a combination of noise in general, but specific frequencies are actually painful. I only feel like a bit of a freak if I am out in public and some sharp sound makes me involuntarily duck or quickly cover my ears when no one else seems to notice anything.

Gots ear plugs and knows how to use em.

[Girl_On_Fire]

Originally Posted by Daktari

...deal with misophonia on a daily basis and feel like a freak because of it?

Yes. I just learned there was a name for it the other day. I cannot stand the sound of mouth noises. Chewing, swallowing or dogs licking their chops. Bleecchh! Sends me into extreme sensory overload. I can only block out so much of it before I start feeling like my nerves are on fire.

****

On another note, I found this really great article about the innocence of autism. I really think that this can be an easily-misconstrued component of Asperger's syndrome and other developmental disorders. No matter our age, Aspies seem to tend to retain some of their childlike innocence. The things we do or the way we interact may seem socially quite immature but we're oblivious to it until we look up and see a disapproving or confused look.

Here is the article: http://geekysciencemom.tumblr.com/po...-autism-part-1

I'll never forget the time I was out with my ex and I saw this adorable frog hopping along on the sidewalk and I went running up to it cooing and I caught it. I was so very in the moment of innocence and my ex, embarrassed, ended up going back to the car to hide. It broke my heart.

In the second half of the article, it addresses the hurt that people on the spectrum feel when their real selves are seen and then rejected. It's the hurt of a child and not that of an adult with hurt feelings. It's such a complete and whole hurt. It's like the world ended. That's how children feel and that's how adults on the spectrum feel as well.

Here is the quote: "People’s behavior didn’t match their words, so I was hurt many times. There have been many times that the hurt I felt was that of a child, not the hurt that an adult experiences."

How has your innocence/child-like tendencies affected you and your relationships whether personal or professional?