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What kind of advantages does your ASD provide for you?

Do you feel your ASD gives you benefits?


  • Total voters
    37
First off, I think this is a great topic! :grinning: I voted "Occasionally" in the poll above. I believe that for me, some of the good qualities that come with autism are my eye for detail, diligence, eagerness to please, sensitive hearing (I'm able to identify voices/sounds in a way that surprises people), sensitivity towards others (hyperempathy - the common/very hurtful misconception is that autistic people don't/cannot have empathy, which just isn't so), drawing things from memory, and being a good listener when someone needs to vent to me, since I don't speak very much unless spoken to. :blush:
 
1) I have a very good memory.
2) I read exceptionally fast. I can read in two modes: Normal, leisure reading, or very fast where I scan paragraphs at a time for relevant nouns and verbs, and piece together the basic idea. It works well for reading patents and technical documents.
3) I can see passages of text that I've read recently in my head clearly enough to recite them verbatim - well enough that on a few occasions, I've debugged code while away from my PC, because I can still see all the code in my head. I can picture long words in my head just as clearly as if they were printed on paper and spell them backwards as easily as forwards.
4) I can quickly pick up the vocabulary of any other professional I work with. I use this at work to explain technical issues to attorneys and regulators, and legal issues to engineers.
5) I am very good at logic - give me a few rules and I can quickly find all the implications of those rules. It makes me good at math, programming, and game theory, and good at strategy games. When someone introduces a new game concept, I'm the first one to find ways that people can abuse it. Prior to my diagnosis, I used to wonder how no one else could see the "obvious" flaws in their system. It also makes me able to take someone else's new idea and tell them everything else they can do with it, which contributions get my name on a lot of company patents.
6) I can "feel" the solutions to math problems faster than I can formally prove them. Sometimes I know the answer to a simple math problem before I finish reading it.

To be fair, here are my downsides:
1) I have no visual memory whatsoever. I can talk to someone for half an hour and if you asked me right afterward if that person was wearing a hat, I wouldn't know.
2) I have tremendous insecurities, which leads to internal (well-hidden from others) freakouts and insomnia. I brag too much about what I can do - apparently, that is due to my insecurities.
3) I have a terrific knack for saying the most optimally wrong thing in social situations.
4) I cannot remember names or faces. When I get a new FaceBook friend request, I have to show it to my wife and ask if I know that person.
5) The more engrossed in something I am, the more likely I am to spend an inordinate amount of time over-explaining it to others. If I didn't have an ID card, I'd think my name was "Get to the point!"
6) When something is "boring", I can't make myself do it, no matter what the reward or consequence is. I have to find some way to make it interesting.
7) I can't be still and calm, ever. I always have to be working on something. Staying busy is the only thing that keeps the anxiety away.
8) Items 1-7 all get worse the more tired I am.
9) Conflict of any sort, real or in media, scares me.
10) I have a very passive personality. Don't ask me where we're going for lunch or what we're doing this weekend - tell me and I'll go along. I don't solve problems or come up with patent ideas on my own - I need someone to bring me a problem and I'll solve it.

I don't think I'd give up my ASD if I could. It has enabled me to make a good enough income to support my family and get the respect of my bosses. I usually cope well enough with the downsides, and am getting help for the things I don't cope well with. With a diagnosis, I feel like I'm getting to read my Owner's Manual for the first time.
 
I can use it as an excuse for almost anything
I really doesnt' seem to have any other benefits
 
I was also reminded when I saw @Nervous Rex 's post that I tend to have a very good (and long) memory as well. :blush: I can recall events from when I was very young (around age 3 or so, and even a little bit before that) pretty clearly.
 
as a machine operator iv shocked my trainer with my ability to diagnose problems, but that is not my straight. my strength is physics. my mind just views this world differently then others. everything is an action that couses a reaction. now whether those actions are equal and opposite is up for debate as, if the universe is ever expanding and time moves forward, where are the opposite and equal forses for those.
 
as a machine operator iv shocked my trainer with my ability to diagnose problems, but that is not my straight. my strength is physics. my mind just views this world differently then others. everything is an action that couses a reaction. now whether those actions are equal and opposite is up for debate as, if the universe is ever expanding and time moves forward, where are the opposite and equal forses for those.

I think my and many others have this unique, what NTs call "out of the box" thinking that is extremely useful in solving problems. In fact, it took me many years to grasp the NT concept of "the box". Many companies are beginning to see this unique skill. Ford Motor Co. has an Autism Human Resource program as well ast his company Dallas company hires those on autism spectrum
 

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