• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Things about you NT's find weird or unusual

I have no friends, so there aren't any reactions. However, if I did, they would be bothered by my habit of saying too much as well as non-editing of exactly what I think. When I like a subject, my voice gets unintentionally loud and "angry sounding" (so my offspring have informed me), and occasionally I will overload due to noise, music, unfair or mean treatment of an animal or person, conversation/words, {hate phones} leave quickly and sometimes bolt out of crowded places.
 
Me, just me in general. Apparently I have a very strong presence and make people uncomfortable. A piercing stare that says a whole lot without saying anything. That's what I am told - not that I can relate because I am in my own skin.

I comment on small things which seemingly do not have any significance until I poin them out - then they become very important.
 
Blah blah blah.
' I KILLED YOUR CAT'
blah blah blah
'YOUR MOTHER TOO'
Blahblahblah
BANANAS
blah? What? Sometimes I dont think you listen to me at all. No wonder you've got no friends... NT walks off.

Your post is a classic and is linked into one of our main systems or 'tick boxes'..

Cue trumpets :

'Taking things literally'

Mistake no 1. Using language to communicate. Assuming that the words people use are a method to convey meaning.
They are not. It is normally 'grooming' ie picking nits off of each others backs translated to modern times.... listen to my nonsense, i listen to yours, we both lie (sympathise) = friends.

I'm finding the 'symptom' of taking things literally to be massive.

I didn't understand that i didnt understand it!
Still working towards it and gaining new examples everyday.
Even the symptom on their tick box sheet 'takes things literally' has an NT hidden message in it.
'Takes things literally' ?how else would you take things? But the assumption in three words on their sheet is a whole world!

Taking things literally is massive.

In one multi drop driving job I had on completion and back at the yard parking up, a colleague was out of his wagon and checking the space and distance between the rear of his vehicle and the parking bay he wanted to put the wagon in.

He called over to me "watch me back" (north west English accent)

(The whole thing became a multi choice situation)

"Watch me back"

His thorax was still visable?
Rear of the vehicle?
Watch him driving backwards?
Keep look out in order to alert him to a possible attack?
 
@Gracey Good example. Don't need to say but I will: it takes energy and attention away from other stuff to process and decide what in the **** people are wanting to communicate. Sometimes I can inwardly laugh but not always.
 
There are a few things but they are
My lack of eye contact
My interests which mostly consists of doll collecting and comics and cartoons
The fact people think I'm upset when I'm not smiling
There are other things too like I been told I take things literally and also my sarcasm metre can be off at times.
 
Taking things literally is massive.

In one multi drop driving job I had on completion and back at the yard parking up, a colleague was out of his wagon and checking the space and distance between the rear of his vehicle and the parking bay he wanted to put the wagon in.

He called over to me "watch me back" (north west English accent)

(The whole thing became a multi choice situation)

"Watch me back"

His thorax was still visable?
Rear of the vehicle?
Watch him driving backwards?
Keep look out in order to alert him to a possible attack?

It is a good example. But also one where it's easy to guess the context.... driving a truck backwards.

I think there are a thousand things where we learn the context of a situation and guess the meaning from the context not the assumption within the words.
So much so that we become competent in most situations, even though we have built up our world in a different way.

I wonder how many therapists would understand how all encompassing this is?

I also think that is where my sense of humor comes from : remembering those mis understandings then deliberately creating new ones. For my own amusement and sometimes others.
 
I have no friends, so there aren't any reactions. However, if I did, they would be bothered by my habit of saying too much as well as non-editing of exactly what I think. When I like a subject, my voice gets unintentionally loud and "angry sounding" (so my offspring have informed me), and occasionally I will overload due to noise, music, unfair or mean treatment of an animal or person, conversation/words, {hate phones} leave quickly and sometimes bolt out of crowded places.

Oh boy, I can definitely relate to this. I think people find it difficult to distinguish between anger and intensity or passion.
 
Having a soul. It's landed me in hot water more than once that I don't buy into the extreme us vs them mentality and so defend "the enemy" when people on "my side" think anything goes against them.

No but to be serious... I've been told I'm just weird in general. To this day I don't think any NT has actually gone beyond the "you're so weird" to explain in detail why that is. But I don't disagree with them. Lol.
 
It is a good example. But also one where it's easy to guess the context.... driving a truck backwards.

I think there are a thousand things where we learn the context of a situation and guess the meaning from the context not the assumption within the words.
So much so that we become competent in most situations, even though we have built up our world in a different way.

I wonder how many therapists would understand how all encompassing this is?

I also think that is where my sense of humor comes from : remembering those mis understandings then deliberately creating new ones. For my own amusement and sometimes others.

Easy for you to guess perhaps but not detailed enough for me.
 
Easy for you to guess perhaps but not detailed enough for me.
Agree.
It behooves one to be discerning when looking at this sort of situation. It is easy to guess when reading it.

I can only speak for myself obviously, but the difficulties erupt when in a real life situation. NT's can have a hard time understanding in any way the boundary line between me being able to blend, and not.
When I [expected by others] am needing to be processing all that is going on, and then a human uses words which are less than concise, it causes me a little or sometimes a lot of trouble.
Humor can help, but it's not always approprate. And that leads to whether it is us who must accomodate NT's, or they us. A balancing act and it has to happen in real time.
 
Last edited:
What are some things you do or prefer that others (typically NT's) find unusual

For me the biggest "thing" has to be that I in fact don't listen to music, at all.
Sure I don't "hate" music but I just don't get it. If anything I find it awkward and distracting and sometimes I even cringe when I hear music. I've tried listening to all kinds of music but still haven't found anything I can bear for more than 1-2 minutes
Whenever people ask me about something music related or what music I like, and I tell them I don't listen to music they act all surprised like I just told them I commited a major crime or something.
I'm the opposite. For me it's all about music. I need it. If I go out shopping, then get stressed and angry,home to music is my cure.

Some soothing and intricate music by guys who don't act like typical NT.
Jeff Buckley- album grace.
Radiohead- song let down.
I hop you do get it one day. J
 
I have been accused, more than a few times, for "Sheldoning" something. It's like mansplaining, but how I do it is not based on who audience is. If I feel I bring up something that I feel isn't common knowledge, I side track and explain that thing even if I wasn't asked to.

The thing is that I know what it feels like to be the new kid in a crowd, and not understand a part of the conversation that is key to contributing forward. I am trying to help, and if anyone interrupts saying that everyone knows, I switch gears back to the topic at hand.

I think I'm being helpful, but it's seen as me believing I know more than everyone around me.
 
Inappropriate or unexpected answers to questions. (I call them questions but usually it's a statement whereby inflection changes on the last word) - I take that as a cue a response is required.

In my mind the answer I've given makes sense.
Their reaction or following opinion would suggest it didn't

NT : the water was running for a long time.
Me : statement acknowledged.
 
Also, some people don't get that my music tastes are permanently entwined in the 70's and 80's and early to mid 90's, anything after about '96 is crap, although some of the early Spice Girls stuff is decent.
 
That I know nothing about pop culture - sports, TV shows, celebrities, etc. but like "weird music" and learn "weird languages". Also odd things, l don't use the lift/elevator, don't use a handbag (I'm female), don't ever wear makeup and dress in a masculine way, and things that they find fun or interesting are boring for me.
Edit: I have a habit of getting up and wandering off at social events, they probably find that strange too.
 
That I know nothing about pop culture - sports, TV shows, celebrities, etc. but like "weird music" and learn "weird languages". Also odd things, l don't use the lift/elevator, don't use a handbag (I'm female), don't ever wear makeup and dress in a masculine way, and things that they find fun or interesting are boring for me.
Edit: I have a habit of getting up and wandering off at social events, they probably find that strange too.

I'm a bit that way, I spend about £32 a year on Yorkshire Cos Play and Comic Con for the sheer fact of dressing up and going out, but then I get there and have had enough after about an hour or so and want to come home, usually after I go through 2 packets of batteries in my camera taking photos of other people's costumes.
 
NT : the water was running for a long time.
Me : statement acknowledged.

The water was running for a long time? - question. Perhaps wanting an explanation why the water was running for longer than usual.

The water was running for a long time. - odd statement. Perhaps thinking out loud.
?

My all time champion, the undisputed winner is:
"Pass us that please"

(How many of you are there?
My kitchen holds over 300 "thats' alone. A workplace, thousands.
If I'm busy with a chore of my own and the statement is addressed to my back (not aware of what other person is doing)

I ask "what?" (Tone of voice mustn't be correct.)
They repeat request louder.
I say "specify"
They think I'm being awkward and pedantic and start huffing and chunnering.
?
Can't win.
 
I don't have any friends, so this is what the NTs at work have indicated curiosity about.

-The fact I have a 'different perspective' which never matches theirs, and come at problems with totally unexpected solutions.

-That I blunder into things that I have clearly seen and should have been able to navigate around (I have seen and have calculated the route around, but my brain didn't deliver the right instructions to my feet).

-That I can hear conversations happening hundreds of feet away, but can't differentiate their voice from other sounds when they're talking to me from no more than 5 feet.

-That I can't remember anything meaningful from the last few seconds, but can recall accurate details from 30 years ago. That I can't remember names, but can recall where every item has been placed.

-That I cannot recognise faces, so if they see me out of the context I know them, I have no idea who they are.

-That I live alone, have no visitors, yet don't feel even a little lonely, and am actually very happy.

-That I am really good at what I do, and really useless at everything else.

-That I know how to dismantle and rebuild almost every laser printer ever made.

-That should the occasion arise, I can sit and do absolutely nothing, yet that I am never bored.

-That I have hopeless fine motor control.

-That I can focus on a task for many, many hours at a time.
 

New Threads

Top Bottom