Feelings about Numbers

[ZebraAutismo]

Is it normal to like and dislike numbers?
My favorite number is 18, but I hate the number 1048.
Is this normal? Some numbers just make me annoyed.

 

[Clueless in Canada]

Normal is over-rated! I don't know that I have strong feelings but I do have preferences and favourites regarding numbers and also quantity. My favourite number is 3 and then 7 but if it's a multi-digit number I like any of the rounded ones ( 0,6,8,9 ) to be predominant. I like even numbers when fairness or balance is an issue but for art/decor purposes groups of odd numbers are most appealing. I particularly like groups of three or nine. I also like multiples of ten or five. Mostly my preferences seems to be about appearance and feel or dare I say, vibe.

 

[tducey]

I have a fascination with numbers in general. Data fascinates me and I have made a career out of it somewhat.

 

[Anarkitty]

I like primes, and I also have a preference for multi-digit numbers that end in 5 or 0.

And also 42.

I did math competitions in middle school. I enjoyed changing base 10 numbers to other bases. I don't practice mental math anymore, though, so I found out the other day that my middle son is now faster than me.

 

[Clueless in Canada]

I like primes, and I also have a preference for multi-digit numbers that end in 5 or 0.

And also 42.

Of course 42, as it is the answer to everything. However I find it a slightly ugly number to look at. I like the feeling it creates for my lips when I say it.

 

[Jojo_LB]

I think a lot of people find my fascination with numbers, and desire and ability to visualize equations or functions in multiple ways in my head really odd. (and tbh this, in addition to how spaced out i looked and quiet I was deep in thought of things like this, should've screamed "autism" to my family when I was a little kid but it didn't)

 

[Anarkitty]

I think a lot of people find my fascination with numbers, and desire and ability to visualize equations or functions in multiple ways in my head really odd. (and tbh this, in addition to how spaced out i looked and quiet I was deep in thought of things like this, should've screamed "autism" to my family when I was a little kid but it didn't)

Autism simply wasn't on anyone's radar until recently for children who were verbal. We were just the odd ones.

I have pictures of me with my "spaced out" look, both as a small child and as a high school student. My best friend in high school called it my dumb look--slack-jawed and vacant-eyed. I make a conscious effort to smile or at least keep my mouth shut to avoid that look.

 

[Jojo_LB]

Autism simply wasn't on anyone's radar until recently for children who were verbal. We were just the odd ones.

I have pictures of me with my "spaced out" look, both as a small child and as a high school student. My best friend in high school called it my dumb look--slack-jawed and vacant-eyed. I make a conscious effort to smile or at least keep my mouth shut to avoid that look.

I don't have pictures of me being spaced out, but I do have pictures of me with my head down, looking at the floor or ground while everyone else had their heads up. I always walked with my head down. I still walk with my head or eyes down sometimes, but I realize as an adult I should be a little more aware of my surroundings.

When I was a kid I was obsessed with walking on the footsteps of the person ahead of me. Wherever that person placed their foot, once they lifted their foot to take their next step, I had to place my foot exactly where their foot had just been. It was a compulsion. I couldn't not do it if I was just a few feet behind someone. If I didn't do it, I'd be really stressed. So, that's why I always had my head down.

 

[Anarkitty]

When I was a kid I was obsessed with walking on the footsteps of the person ahead of me. Wherever that person placed their foot, once they lifted their foot to take their next step, I had to place my foot exactly where their foot had just been. It was a compulsion. I couldn't not do it if I was just a few feet behind someone. If I didn't do it, I'd be really stressed. So, that's why I always had my head down.

I remember doing that! It wasn't quite as strong of a compulsion with me, but I remember doing it sometimes.

One of my compulsions was if something touched my right hand (or foot, leg, etc.), I'd need it to also touch my left side, so I was always doing odd things so that I could get the same sensory input on the other side of my body. I still do it sometimes, though sometimes I'm able to tell myself that I'm a grown-up and should be able to ignore that. I caught my son, who is also autistic, doing the same thing once when he was a teenager. It made me laugh because I'd never known anyone else who did that. I told him that I'd never met anyone else like me, so I had to breed one.

 

[aspieoutlaw89]

2 used to be my favorite one,until i started playing the odds based on them.

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

0.7734

 

[Fino]

It took me a long time to for me to fully understand what numbers exactly meant, that they represented the amount of something. It's hard to explain. They're too abstract. I said when I was young, "Numbers aren't even real," and haven't liked them since.

None of them.

 

[Nervous Rex]

I like all numbers, but I like some more than others.

I have the powers of numbers 2 -12 memorized up to a decent power (e.g. up to 2^20, 3^6, 4^10, 5^5 - it’s based mostly on how much I use them, not based on memorizing for the sake of memorizing). As a result, 343, 625, and 1728 are “nice round numbers” to me, since they’re powers of low integers.

One of my stims is counting things. I find myself counting things without even noticing when I started. I used to think I was doing it quietly without being noticed until one time, while waiting to be seated at a restaurant, my step-mother commented, “Rex must be bored. He’s counting things again.”

When I consciously ask myself why I am counting something, I find that I am expecting the final number to be something meaningful. When I get the final number, I factor it and see if I can remember other things that have that same number of items.

 

[Anarkitty]

It took me a long time to for me to fully understand what numbers exactly meant, that they represented the amount of something. It's hard to explain. They're too abstract. I said when I was young, "Numbers aren't even real," and haven't liked them since.

None of them.

My son is like this. He's the only one of my children whom I had to specifically teach that when counting, each object just got a single number. He still hates numbers.

 

[Nervous Rex]

0.7734

If you go with 2578/3333, you can have as many 7734’s as you want.

 

[Bolletje]

I like numbers. I once told a client I thought he had a beautiful social security number. Got a very weird look back.

 

[Fino]

My son is like this. He's the only one of my children whom I had to specifically teach that when counting, each object just got a single number. He still hates numbers.

Yay! Someone like me!

Someone like me! Someone like me!

(That's intense chanting, not anger )

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

If you go with 2578/3333, you can have as many 7734’s as you want.

Your sum sounds like a message they sent into space.
The last surviving message on Voyager, of a long forgotten earth.
An eternal,infinite,hello.

For a boy who got a pocket calculator in the 70's and turned it upside down .

0.7734..... hello
With no alien ever knowing it was a greeting.

 

[Suzanne]

When I think of it, I guess I prefer even numbers over odd numbers. I sort of see the odd numbers floating randomly, which causes confusion and even numbers are so nicely organised that it brings me peace.

 

[Anarkitty]

Yay! Someone like me!

Someone like me! Someone like me!

(That's intense chanting, not anger )

I read him your post, and he loved it. He's also asserted that "numbers aren't real" several times since then. It's been like an hour.