Advantages and Disadvantages of having Autism

[JayD210]

Having had my Autism Diagnosis nearly my entire life, I’ve come to know how it works for better or worse. It has its advantages which if you play the cards right, there are many of them. The disadvantages regardless of how you play your cards can also be numerous. Safe to say that pretty much all of us can speak to these.

In my case, what are the advantages of having Autism?
•The ability to get truly wired into things. At work when I’m doing my Investigations, my lifelong passion for anything mechanical comes out in the realm of Vehicles. Make, Model, I can even tell you what span of Model Years that Vehicle comes from. In a lot of criminal incidents, Vehicles are involved so this has proven to be an excellent tool to have.
•The ability to compartmentalize. When wired into something I’m doing, it allows me to take the big picture in its entirety and break it down into each individual part. The ability to take pure chaos, separate the details, and orchestrate it. This has also come in handy in some of the worst times of my life. The abuse from my Dad, the violent assaults I’ve been the target of by bullies and suspects alike, I find details to help in the investigation and find details to zero in on to escape the psychological impacts of what I deal with. The ability to compartmentalize has allowed me to better handle the chaos that’s been my life in the 39 years I’ve been on this earth. I credit Autism in this respect as being the reason I don’t have PTSD.
•One hell of a memory. I can remember as far back as before my 3rd Birthday. It comes in extremely handy.

What are the disadvantages.
•That ability to compartmentalize I just sang praises for isn’t a picnic. Yes it allowed me to avoid PTSD but I still remember all those things I’ve been through. They’re still there. If your brain puts the compartmentalize details in order like a Rolodex that my brain seems to be, the occasional nightmares take place.
•Anxiety is a hallmark among most of us. Despite it not having stopped me from a damn thing, I’ve always had to battle it for as long as I can remember. Has what I’ve seen in the course of my life made it worse? Maybe. One would think so. I can be sitting in a meeting or in my Office and according to nearly everyone around me, I apparently bounce my leg at 90mph off my toes and ball of my foot on my right side. My Teachers growing up said the very same thing. My Grandma M would suddenly grab my Leg hold it there. Scary thought is I don’t know when I’m doing that. Is that Anxiety or pure Autism? I don’t know, but I honestly got bigger fish to fry.
•The overwhelming feeling of never quite being a fit no matter who you’re around. Even when I’m with other people on the Autism Spectrum which I’m part of a Group of people with Autism that meet every couple weeks, I still feel uneasy, like I don’t belong there. If I get that vibe around others with Autism, the feeling among others still is much the same.
•Trust Issues. Bullying growing up. Abuse growing up. The things I’ve seen in my line of work. Having been the target of violent attacks. Having been betrayed by those I was too quick to trust. All these things. Put them together and I have a lot of life experience that dictates that I don’t trust much of anyone really. I’m still very much willing to give people the shirt off my back, assist people, and generally stick to my rule of not leaving people in bad spots hanging, but that doesn’t at all mean I trust them. I can help you but still not like you effectively. Autism has been the reason I stood out over the years and the result hasn’t always been so great, so the trust I once had in general has mostly disappeared. Add what I do for a living and that distrust goes even deeper because I work in a field that fosters that distrust even more. Another thing that breeds further distrust from me towards a person is when I try to offer pointers and people get rude about it. I find myself biting my tongue in order not to unleash a firestorm on those who have it coming because I’d rather not come off as a jerk.

There’s what the advantages and disadvantages are for me as it relates to Autism.

 

[AspieChris]

Hyperfocus- Both an asset an a hinderance.

If only there were a way to control these things and turn them off when they suck!

 

[AprilR]

Advantages: Being more non judgmental than most, and understanding of differences

Easily learning languages

Love of knowledge that enables me to study well.

Disadvantages: Naivete when it comes to relationships

Too honest, and easy to take advantage of.

 

[AuroraBorealis]

I'll say it both for my autism and my ADHD tendencies, since those are too interwired to separate them.

Advantages:
- Curiosity and open-mindedness about anything and anyone, with (almost) no natural tendency to judge.
- Being able to get truly passionate about many things - including the contents of my job.
- Having a special connection to animals.
- My logical and matter-of-fact way of thinking and speaking - including steering conversations back to their original question or towards their initial purpose.
- Feeling immense joy when listening to music and being outside.
- Thriving in solitude and barely ever getting lonely.
- Forgetting to feel bad about something after a relatively short time because my mind will preoccupy itself with something else.
- Having a good learning ability - explain/show me something once in a way that works for me, and I won't have to ask again. Many physical tasks will go straight into muscle memory if I performed them only once.
- Being able to adjust my speech and vocabulary to different people, probably due to a lot of masking and studying people, thus being able to explain things in very different ways and levels.

Disadvantages:
- Sensory overwhelm in loud, bright, busy spaces (or even at home on worse days).
- Constantly having to organize my energy levels (or "spoons", as some people call it) when planning activities or visits.
- Selective memory, being very forgetful in daily life and in conversations.
- Getting "stuck" about certain tasks which seem too big at the moment and needing external help to break those tasks down.
- Social discomfort and social anxiety.
- Anxiety in general - you already named it.
- Stimming and fidgeting in public and thus being less able to hide when I feel stressed.
- Misunderstandings or simply not understanding something in a social situation which seems straightforward to everyone else - sometimes also being an issue at work.
- Never really seeming to fit in.
- Being tired so much more than others seem to be, and needing a lot more rest and quiet-time.

 

[velociraptor]

There’s what the advantages and disadvantages are for me as it relates to Autism.

I like how I think and feel and how I relate to the world. I like the professional advantage that my hyper-focus gives me over NTs in my industry (insurance). I wish that there were more people who were like me, because having to interact with NTs is something I can do, but can be tiresome. The only NT I (mostly) like interacting with is my wife because she (mostly) gets me. We appreciate our differences and try to leverage them.

 

[JayD210]

I like how I think and feel and how I relate to the world. I like the professional advantage that my hyper-focus gives me over NTs in my industry (insurance). I wish that there were more people who were like me, because having to interact with NTs is something I can do, but can be tiresome. The only NT I (mostly) like interacting with is my wife because she (mostly) gets me. We appreciate our differences and try to leverage them.

I’m in the Security Field myself and my Better Half is also on the Spectrum. Dealing with typical folks is exhausting when they’re usually on drugs and stealing anything not bolted down. Those on the teams I’ve been on, I can relate to them to an extent but that’s because we rely on one another for information and sometimes safety if working a Blitz together. Trying to advocate for family who have Severe Autism is actually the hardest thing about having Autism myself. My oldest nephew is minimally verbal, almost completely nonverbal. After talking to a close close mutual friend of ours who is also a Mom of two kids with Severe Autism, I figured out why my Sister has isolated herself from most the family except for myself. I agree with her reasoning but doing agree with the actual isolation if that makes sense. Talking to NT people about this stuff trying to educate them that those of us on the Mild or Moderate side of Autism are not the ones that need the awareness and advocacy. It’s the ones like my Nephew who do. Trying to educate people about that is exhausting but I’m unwilling to give up for the sake of my Nephew and the others in the same boat he’s in. Our existence isn’t defined by our diagnosis and we have that choice. Sadly, those with Severe Autism don’t have that choice because often they’re stuck inside themselves and can’t express the most basic of things. The ignorance of most the world to this angers me for their sake.

 

[Shevek]

Advantage: Being able to understand systems more clearly than others.
Disadvantage: Being unable to show others how to understand those systems, even with working models showing better functions. Things look even more hopeless when physical proofs don't apply.

 

[velociraptor]

Disadvantage: Being unable to show others how to understand those systems, even with working models showing better functions. Things look even more hopeless when physical proofs don't apply.

Everything is patterns to me. Separate patterns, interlocking patterns, layered patterns... Trying to describe what I see to people who do not perceive the way I do feels like trying to describe colour to someone born blind.

 

[Rodafina]

Advantage: Being autistic means being my authentic self and practicing acceptance while living life in the only way that makes sense to me.

Disadvantage: Sensory and social challenges take a lot out of me and I frequently feel worn out.

 

[RemyZee]

Advantage: same thing: can focus for hours, days, months...years on the same thing and never stop appreciating it or getting bored with it. I know the stereotype is that we aren't creative, but I do believe autism is where my imagination comes from, and I am very creative and my life is creative. I love solitude and do not get bogged down in things that are trite. I think constantly, always have, and see that as a strength: I follow ideas and get kind of enraptured with them, am good at coming up with solutions and noticing details. I see things other people don't--notice things that other people don't see. Am a good writer. And as mentioned, I have such a profound experience of music that I don't think many non autistic people have...like it can be almost an ecstatic experience to listen to certain types of music. The whole thing about patterns: I definitely notice patterns wherever I go and it gives a kind of artistic expression to the world. The down side: never finding a place to belong; eating difficulties; experiences of bullying, tendency to get fired; all kinds of social problems, difficulty sleeping, and just feeling weird in the world, the experience of repeated social tragedies and constant physical anxiety. I think everyone has challenges from who they are. I've know athletes who had very, very difficult lives because the demands were so high. Whatever our qualities, I think everyone has challenges.

 

[TBRS1]

Advantage: the kind of curiosity about "how things work" that goes all the way from the macro level to the microscopic level, and from the macro level into the infinite.

Disadvantage: A complete, utter, total disinterest in using my knowledge, skills, and abilities to make more money than I need.

Possibly my sensory issues, although being hypersensitive means that I see/feel/experience a lot more, all time, everywhere, than an allistic person can - unless they are taught to do it, too.