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If you had been born without ASD, what would you be like?

Progster

Progster

Grown sideways to the sun
V.I.P Member
Do you think that you would have had a different personality if you didn't have ASD? This is something I've been wondering about recently - whether I would have the same personality if I'd been born NT, or whether I'd be a completely different kind of person. Perhaps I'd be more confident, more outgoing, and I wouldn't have social anxiety. I would like to think that I'd have the same interests as I do now - or would I have a lot more mainstream interests? Perhaps there is another NT version of me in a parallel universe - I wonder what that person would be like? Would they really be me??

Would you want to swap your ASD self for your NT self? For me, absolutely not. I know I'm not perfect, definitely a work in progress - it's been a rocky road, but I've learned to accept myself for who I am.
 
I'd still probably be the same anti-social person I am today, and still not a fan of being outside.

I think a lot of my worries would be gone though, especially since 90% of them are outside of my control.
 
Remember the thread that asked if you could change one thing about yourself what would you change?
I asked my "aspie" friend and he said he would only change something if he could change it back, like trying out what it would be like to be a female, or retarded or something. So I thought he's come a long way in 1 year from saying he was "like an animal", an alien, etc. as he seems much more accepting of who he is and liking it! That was so great to hear!
 
I would have been more social I guess. I would do more of the things that tires me out today. I would have finished my music degree. I really want to do more then I do now, but I know I can´t handle it.

.....But most of the time, I am happy I am on the spectrum. It is magic. I do not know if I would have seen the "world" as a magic place if I was not on the spectrum. :)
 
I'd possibly be married with at least 2 kids by now, and maybe even working.

Also, I would've gone to a "normal" school. for both junior and senior years, although if I hadn't gone where I did for seniors, I wouldn't have met my ex and her annoying Brother.
 
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I would have went to college and maybe traveled farther away and even moved to another state or country. Who knows. But I think my basic personality would have been the same.
 
Being surrounded by nts, despite all the negatives with aspergers, I do have to admit, I am glad I am an aspie ( ok, not official yet), because nts are so illogical that it is frustrating. I would hate to be illogical.

However, since the world is dominated by nts, I guess I would not even realise I was being illogical and at least I would understand the social cues.

In effect, I was born with social phobia ( I really stand by that it is not social anxiety for me, because it is not anxiety I feel when I have to go out on my own).

I remember being around 9 and tried to run away, because of the home environment, but my head freaked. Where would I go? I am on my own. This world is too big and I am too small. I feel overwhelmed and frightened. Not once was: exploration time; just a gnoring fear of being out alone and that carried right through to now, where it is far worse than ever, because of living in a different land.

I sort of came to terms with it, when I took courage several year's ago, to go back to my own country and to a concert and I went twice, but the first one, was on my own and it was just awful. I mean: the concert was fabulous and I wondered why I had been so frightened at the notion of the loudness, because it was just wonderful, but I felt so self conscious and it was made worse by the fact that I had to walk down stone steps and I could not do it and had to have help :eek: then I misread the ticket and had to go past a bunch of girls, who were plainly irritated by me and one even sort of flipped her hand at me and said: can't you go that way? Which meant unstable walking. I was mortified and it did not matter that I am an adult and married and live in a different country. I might as well be that little girl again.

So, that trip taught me that I will always have social phobia and when it is said: it is not that bad. People don't even pay attention; they are too occupied with their own lives. Well, how come I bring notice to myself and it is as bad as I fear?
 
That's a tough choice to make sense I really have never known what its like to be NT in the first place. We're all fantasizing about what it would be like to be NT based on information we're reading from the brochure. But have never experienced it in real life. For example, I live in a colder/northern climate and I've seen brochures/ads on TV about these tropical paradises with the palm trees and sandy beaches and asking to myself. Wouldn't it be great to visit one of those places? Well, I finally had a chance to go to one of those places and found myself miserable there. The brochure failed to convey the fact that the high humidity might be a problem for some.

I know that peer/societal pressure is one of the most powerful social forces we all have to reckon with. But really think about this for a moment. Is being NT really what it all crack up to be? I, myself can't make that choice because I have no comprehension of what's it like to "really" be an NT.
 
As a non autistic INTP I would have been better recieved in school and probably be a scatterbrain learning too many different things. Society would still see me as unreliable but I would function better in the real world. The difference is that an INTP lives and breathes ideas but becomes lost in many different subjects to find their purpose. Instead I just get locked into whatever I am learned in and learn more than an INTP would be normally capable of in that one thing. For example games. After so many games I start predicting scenarios and even seeing a language conveyed. Like they are telling me what they are going to try.
 
I wouldn't have had a special interest in computers since the age of 10 when I was first introduced, but I probably wouldn't have had any very strong skill either, however I probably would have been average at a variety of things. I would have most likely been an average and reasonable person with a lot more confidence. I would probably be married with children as an average father with average intelligence in an average job with average prospects in a similar way to my parents and I probably would have been content without all the anxiety, non acceptance and other complications that often comes with autism.
 
Oh dear. I try never to go down such a path. With all respect, I just can't.
 
Thank you to all your replies.

Nobody can really know how things might have been different if we had been born NT, what kind of personality we would have, what our strengths and weakness would be, how our life might have panned out differently, but it's an interesting thought experiment - that there's another NT me in a parallel universe. Except that it wouldn't be me, it would me another person.

An NT me might have some advantages, I might have a good, steady job, I might have 2.4 children, I might have lots of friends and an active social life, a Twitter account, watch soaps and celebrity shows on TV, like sports, go out drinking every weekend... boring. No thanks. I'd rather keep this version of me.

Of course, that version of me wouldn't know what life was like for this version of me, and wouldn't miss anything.
 
LucyPurrs said:
Remember the thread that asked if you could change one thing about yourself what would you change?
I asked my "aspie" friend and he said he would only change something if he could change it back, like trying out what it would be like to be a female, or retarded or something. So I thought he's come a long way in 1 year from saying he was "like an animal", an alien, etc. as he seems much more accepting of who he is and liking it! That was so great to hear!
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It would be the ultimate dream to try being something else for a short time knowing that it was only temporary and I would be changed back, but it could also be very dangerous because I wouldn't be myself and as someone else I might not be or do what I'd expect and I may not want to change back, E.g. perhaps if I changed to being an NT my entire personality would change for the worse, I could do some horrid things that I'd be shocked at as I am now, so it would be a risk and I'd have to set up as many fail safes as possible, E.g. having a number of people I trusted overseeing the experiment.

If I could feel what it was like to be an NT even for a few hours it would give me a huge insight, but it would probably still be very difficult to understand after changing back. I'd also love to fully experience what it was like to be an animal for a short time, perhaps my cat, even before this thread I've often looked into her eyes and wondered what it must be truly like to be her. Once I was a cat however I probably wouldn't even be-able to comprehend the experiment or even think about changing back, so again it would be dangerous and fail safes would need to be put in place. I don't think I like the idea of eating cat food however, especially since I'm vegetarian lol!

Well in reality being someone else or an animal is not going to happen during this lifetime at least and the closet we can probably get is through meditation techniques where we could attempt to visualise and feel what it is like to be another being, plus we can also allegedly connect with animal spirits, but it's not quite the same as being fully conscious as one.
 
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Merete said:
But most of the time, I am happy I am on the spectrum. It is magic. I do not know if I would have seen the "world" as a magic place if I was not on the spectrum. :)
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I agree. I value my intelligence, my way with words, and my ability to communicate with cats. Would I have such insights into people, as well, has I not tried so hard to "learn about them" growing up.

There was a discussion in another thread where someone shared that they knew a gifted child who lost it at puberty, when the brain goes through a massive rewiring; while I never seemed to do that. Like my former friends all went boy-crazy at that point, and I never did. We used to enjoy reading fairy tales and making up our own, and then they didn't care any more.

It is a bizarre feeling to think I would not be ME were I ND... but I do think that such is so.
 
I wouldn't change a thing about myself, other than the social/general anxiety I face on a daily basis, but I'm pretty sure neural typical people also face these challenges. I have no clue even what it means to be neural typical, to me it seems like most are easily deceived and fall for groupthink ideals and ideas, and I just couldn't fathom being like that. I like being an individual.
 
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