The 1%

[tducey]

Nice write up. Again I accept what I am and hope others do as well. I've certainly taken my disability and used it to do some advocacy work. I've also joined this forum so that others with Autism can learn from my example hopefully and also so I can help others in their life.

 

[Suiseiseki]

People are so naive with "helping" (the only help they can really offer being cheesy "it gets better" which is just fluff).
Your examples are meaningless because our lives aren't the same.

 

[pax]

Thanks Chance, I needed this today.

 

[pax]

Custom Gifts | Design Your Own Custom Clothes & Customized Gifts

This is my current favourite -

 

[Thinx]

Yes I feel the Greatness. I m definitely fine about being abnormal. I wonder if it's harder in the US there seems to be more pressure to conform? Maybe the UK tradition of eccentricity is helpful? I guess the silver lining to being unsocial is, it's kind of hard to care if others think I should be different from how I am.

 

[Rayner]

personally, I can't say that I as an American that I have experienced pressure to conform, although having never been outside of US I dont't have any first-hand experience with other cultures or societies to compare against my own.

Yes I feel the Greatness. I m definitely fine about being abnormal. I wonder if it's harder in the US there seems to be more pressure to conform? Maybe the UK tradition of eccentricity is helpful? I guess the silver lining to being unsocial is, it's kind of hard to care if others think I should be different from how I am.

 

[Progster]

Every person needs to make the best out of the hand that we were dealt, whatever that is, that's all we can ever do - do our best with whatever we have.

 

[NShoreEndo]

No one is normal. Normal is an illusion perpetuated by people who like to pretend that they’re better than the rest of us. Everyone has something with which they struggle, try to hide, wish it away...

My grandfather would say, “They might look like a big shot, but when they take a dump, it still smells.”

 

[WildCat]

I'm part of the 1-2% of the population diagnosed with ASD, so that much is true. I don't think that in itself implies anything special though. Nothing extraordinary here, just life and all of its roadblocks.

 

[Judge]

Being different doesn't have to mean being deficient.

 

[kay]

Thanks @Chance for the little reminder; still thinking about this post, and how it's relevant to how I need to go about my next painting. Maybe this time I'll not attempt anything too large.

 

[Chance]

People are so naive with "helping" (the only help they can really offer being cheesy "it gets better" which is just fluff).
Your examples are meaningless because our lives aren't the same.

I used to think like what you just wrote... and my life got worse and worse. I was given some very simple advice it was this... {I am what I think. I am the sum of the choices I make, and the actions I take. No one owes me anything, and no one can change my LIFE, but me.}

I respect where you are at, but your life is your life... If you don't love yourself enough, to believe or KNOW there is a better level of LIFE... then there isn't.

Yet I promise you there is, I KNOW this because I have lived both sides. I know what it is to sit with a gun pressed between my eyes because I couldn't find any reason left to live... and not even be able to do that right because I blacked out in the process... I failed at that (or succeeded in that) because I couldn't see the good that is all around ALL of us IF we choose to see it. We will hit brick walls face first IF only to make us see the door to LIFE is not in the place we are at...

Its all in a choice - not a comparison of our lives to others. Bad always seems to be more noticeable, a negative mindset always seems to be easiest to fall into... IF LIFE was easy then there wouldn't be much reason to exist... Its the challenge we were born for.

We are not the same, we are all unique, NT/ND, our race, cultures, social surroundings, our beliefs, our non-beliefs, our goals, dreams, and struggles - they are all different ... It is when we notice how we can master what surrounds us that trips that switch in our heads to see what others are not seeing, feel what others are not feeling, living how others are not living.

LIFE can suck, and yes we all go through things that suck... but IF we start thinking LIFE SUCKS...
Its a promise it will suck and be hard... but flip that switch to thinking LIFE is LIFE, and things can change, and it is a promise that it will... No one can start that process for any of us. The choice is ours and no one else's. But if no one tries to help us whats left but suffering in a negative mindset?

 

[Bella Pines]

I love it! Very poetic. Especially the "And lots of 'normal' people cant see special until it has so far surpassed their dogmas and stupid traditions". Totally agree, special is often defined retrospectively. In fact many great and special people were scorned and burned in their lifetimes and their opinion was only appreciated and embraced 100s of years later. You should write a book on that. A mass biography of independent thinkers who were marginalized in their time. However, I have to say, you do bring a whole new dimension to the word "overthinking"!

 

[Chance]

I love it! Very poetic. Especially the "And lots of 'normal' people cant see special until it has so far surpassed their dogmas and stupid traditions". Totally agree, special is often defined retrospectively. In fact many great and special people were scorned and burned in their lifetimes and their opinion was only appreciated and embraced 100s of years later. You should write a book on that. A mass biography of independent thinkers who were marginalized in their time. However, I have to say, you do bring a whole new dimension to the word "overthinking"!

I over think how toothpicks are made... well maybe not toothpicks, but everything else...

You seriously cant imagine the craziness that goes on my head... And I get lost in the mechanics of LIFE and tune out what people call "the real world." That is my real world, but no one seems to get that very easily.

Its like I HAVE TOO understand how stuff works, and my head and my thinking is no different... I will read, think, and dig until I literally overload my head and then spend days trying to filter it all out. Then I start the process to put together all these tiny clues that stuck in my thoughts like glitter in carpet... Overtime it made this mental tapestry of what makes me "me"... I guess maybe some people are just born KNOWING lots of stuff that comes pre-packaged... Me, I was just an empty box, and I threw the box away in the process.

I'm sure in some cases people might find me nuts enough to put me far away in a rubber room with a hardy helmet, but crazy isn't always crazy... At some point its either insane or brilliant. So far I must be stuck more on the insane part, but who knows lightning might strike someday and this will all make sense.

I am a full blown member of over thinkers anonymous, now IF I could just implement some of it, instead of it being this nebulous blur... : )

 

[LucyPurrs]

I over think how toothpicks are made... well maybe not toothpicks, but everything else...

You seriously cant imagine the craziness that goes on my head... And I get lost in the mechanics of LIFE and tune out what people call "the real world." That is my real world, but no one seems to get that very easily.

Its like I HAVE TOO understand how stuff works, and my head and my thinking is no different... I will read, think, and dig until I literally overload my head and then spend days trying to filter it all out. Then I start the process to put together all these tiny clues that stuck in my thoughts like glitter in carpet... Overtime it made this mental tapestry of what makes me "me"... I guess maybe some people are just born KNOWING lots of stuff that comes pre-packaged... Me, I was just an empty box, and I threw the box away in the process.

I'm sure in some cases people might find me nuts enough to put me far away in a rubber room with a hardy helmet, but crazy isn't always crazy... At some point its either insane or brilliant. So far I must be stuck more on the insane part, but who knows lightning might strike someday and this will all make sense.

I am a full blown member of over thinkers anonymous, now IF I could just implement some of it, instead of it being this nebulous blur... : )

I'll choose brilliant over insane but it does sound like you tend to drive yourself barmy at times.
Don't worry Chance, it's all good and you are making progress. Now you need to learn how to turn everything off and shut down for a break when you need it

 

[Chance]

I'll choose brilliant over insane but it does sound like you tend to drive yourself barmy at times.
Don't worry Chance, it's all good and you are making progress. Now you need to learn how to turn everything off and shut down for a break when you need it

I tend to live on the edge of everything... If I get comfortable and slow down something dark always seems to come for a visit... Depression sucks the life out of people and its the one thing of all my messed up nightmare called LIFE, that I cant have much gratefulness towards. I haven't found any purpose to be in peoples lives except torment and self destruction.

I don't think I ever have known what it is to relax, or take a break, or even just enjoy anything very much...
Its like there is always something lurking to take any joy, peace, or honor, even if I have earned it.
So I have no choice but to always be on the move, in my head, and in real life and even then I cant always find a place where I feel I have the right to be, do, or have...

So I live on finding ways to live mostly, I don't feel I have a lot of other choices.

Its not ASD that causes this... Its PTSD and the torment that comes from it, or so I was told by people who call themselves professionals...
Maybe someday I will learn how to live like a real person, or maybe not... : )

 

[Fridgemagnetman]

I don't think I ever have known what it is to relax, or take a break, or even just enjoy anything very much...

I remember a day when it stopped.
A silent,peaceful feeling came over me.

I thought, wow, is this how people feel all the time?

What I've found calming is :

Meditation and movement.

You're a big visualisation guy as I remember.

I do a sort of amalgamate of tai-chi and fridge.
Maybe an iced tai-chi.

You allow your busy thoughts but you bring in a singular movement involving breath with the movement.

This has produced some of the calming feeling I once felt..
(Like once in many years)

The movement , I call it is, meeting the rainbow.

Any time thoughts intrude, you don't judge,forgive,return to the movement.

The difficulty is -you have to find your own version that works

Also - you won't notice much of a difference for weeks.

WEEKS.

But it can give some respite.

O e Tai chi to is the energy ball. You hold it in your hands, move it around...
Maybe even juggle with it. !!!!!! (Call back if you remember)

Your thoughts will intrude,don't attempt to control them.
Just return to the breathing and the movement.

If I skip a couple of days , I notice it coming back stronger.

Ok Mr don't,with the long purdy eyebrows,signing off for now.

(I read and take note of everything ..what have you done )

 

[LucyPurrs]

I haven't found any purpose to be in peoples lives except torment and self destruction.

You have helped a lot of people on this forum and enriched my life with your writings so you certainly have a purpose here. I hope you find your people out in the real world- you've lived with those who torment you long enough.

I don't think I ever have known what it is to relax, or take a break, or even just enjoy anything very much...

This is unimaginable to me, I don't know how you have survived feeling this way ALL THE TIME but hope you never give up. You are overdue for good karma so I hope it arrives soon!!!!

 

[Bella Pines]

I am a full blown member of over thinkers anonymous, now IF I could just implement some of it, instead of it being this nebulous blur... : )

Okay I see your nebulous blur and raise you my current thought process.

Last weekend my son turned the house upside down looking for a Lego minifigure called Lance. He was distraught that he couldn't find it, but I said "don't worry, you're very lucky, so keep thinking about it and something will turn up". And sure enough it did. The next day I bought a magazine for my other son, which just so happened to have a free give away of Lance.

So he wished for it and somehow the wish came true. But in order for that wish to come true, the sequence of events dated back 2 years. My 2nd son broke his iPad, which led to him losing an app that collects sheilds, which led to him asking me to buy a magazine to collect more shields for his new iPad, which worked in tandem with the magazine publishers choosing that minifigure on that issue so that it arrived into our lives 1 day after my son wanted it.

Now I don't believe in fate, luck or coincidence so I can only conclude that our desires can act as a magnet and that time is simultaneous, therefore we can set in motion a complex sequence of events leading up to a single moment. The start of which occurs before we consciously initiate it.

Whilst I'm pondering simultaneous time my boss is hopping up and down and "disappointed" in my delivery.

And whilst my boss is pondering my lack of investment in my trivial and meaningless day job, I'm now pondering how toothpicks are made...

 

[LucyPurrs]

Okay I see your nebulous blur and raise you my current thought process.

Last weekend my son turned the house upside down looking for a Lego minifigure called Lance. He was distraught that he couldn't find it, but I said "don't worry, you're very lucky, so keep thinking about it and something will turn up". And sure enough it did. The next day I bought a magazine for my other son, which just so happened to have a free give away of Lance.

So he wished for it and somehow the wish came true. But in order for that wish to come true, the sequence of events dated back 2 years. My 2nd son broke his iPad, which led to him losing an app that collects sheilds, which led to him asking me to buy a magazine to collect more shields for his new iPad, which worked in tandem with the magazine publishers choosing that minifigure on that issue so that it arrived into our lives 1 day after my son wanted it.

Now I don't believe in fate, luck or coincidence so I can only conclude that our desires can act as a magnet and that time is simultaneous, therefore we can set in motion a complex sequence of events leading up to a single moment. The start of which occurs before we consciously initiate it.

Whilst I'm pondering simultaneous time my boss is hopping up and down and "disappointed" in my delivery.

And whilst my boss is pondering my lack of investment in my trivial and meaningless day job, I'm now pondering how toothpicks are made...

nam myoho renge kyo