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Your unautistic autism symptoms.

Just wanted to say you are right about their being much more variation and individualism in autism then generally known. I and my son are undiagnosed but undoubtedly HFA and we have multiple diagnosed family. Without a diagnosis, I don't believe I can give verifiable examples therefore. But if I could, it would be that being autistic doesn't mean you automatically can't handle difficult situations/pressure. We both had/have successful military careers and like anyone else just had to train, train, train, and prepare and dig deep when the situation demanded. The main reason I avoided diagnosis once I realized it was that it would prevent us from persuing our goals.
 
I make eye contact, smile, nod, and give all the proper social cues when dealing with people. However, they're all driven by conscious effort and not instinct. I can forget to do them when I'm distracted or engrossed in a problem.

I can do public speaking.

I can quickly learn someone's speech/intelligence level and talk to them at their level (provided they're not above my level, of course). I can also communicate with people from any profession and quickly learn their professional lingo. For a while, I was the liaison between our engineering and legal departments, and would 'translate' between them. I often get called on to explain technical issues to non-technical people - I've had to present stuff to politicians, regulators, lawyers, and executives (executives are the hardest to get through to, because they always want the shortest explanation possible to make a decision and move on). When I met with the counselor who diagnosed me, I learned all the psychological terminology I could - it's all about precise, accurate communication for me.

I've learned to "reverse-engineer" people by observing their behaviors, actions, and reactions, and deriving their worldview and motivations. This helps me know how to deal with the person. I use this to pass for a real understanding of people. When I am working with someone, I'm constantly running flowcharts in my head to answer "What will put this person at ease? What will help this person to know I'm on their side? He seems proud of what he did - I'd better compliment him on it. How can I lead him to this solution without forcing it on him? Let's discuss the requirements, pros and cons, first and see if he gets there on his own - I don't need credit for the solution, I just need the solution to work."

It takes some time to observe and analyse a single person, but I'm grateful that this approach works for me because it's the best I can do. My wife is a quick and accurate judge of character and can read emotions from the smallest cues - it's like magic to watch.
 
My sister's first response was that I couldn't have Aspergers or autism because I seemed to be empathetic and was not genius in any one area.
 
My sister's first response was that I couldn't have Aspergers or autism because I seemed to be empathetic and was not genius in any one area.

(Repeating myself from other threads) I got this comment from a friend who is a fully licensed psychiatrist: "You're functional, you have a normal life, I wouldn't worry about it."

I always feel like I have to disclaim it when I tell someone new about my autism. "Yes, I can do math like Rain Man, but that's just a stereotype." (I actually had a coworker describe me that way - "There's this guy that can do math like Rain Man.") Like, I feel bad for reinforcing the stereotype.
 
I raised a spectrum gift of a girl. As a spectrum color myself, (mud color), l had her on the computer at 6 months learning the alphabet. By 4ish l taught her multiplication with m&m candy. Homeschooled her, and yes, we took a computer apart for lesson. She also is very computer savvy, spends hours doing her favorite things when growing up -sewing, computer surfing, guitar, Pokemon, anime costumes and books. l basically let her do what she wanted because her level of concentration was extreme, l being spectrum, thought nothing of it, until l came to this site and realized maybe there are some differences. Who knew. l remember being perfectly content in my room during HS, but l think my mom flipped out about it.
 
Ok to go with a comparison to Sheldon from the big bang theory, he is very anti-touch, and dispassionate about his relationship where as me I am very open to touch, my female friends used to give me hugs all the time because it helped me relax and stay calm, me and my exgf would cuddle, trade massage, hug, hold hands and I was always very affectionate and caring.
 
I’m horrible at math and it use to cause massive anxiety during my school years,I am also very empathetic and more into fiction and art than math and science,but also saying this I find that there are many aspies who are into creative stuff and are not all math geniuses.
 
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Haha - of course! How silly of me. I did not even realize that I used that phrase and it was definitely not meant in that way! Thanks for pointing it out.

Can I quote you in my speech? I think I can conclude selected parts of your response.
Of course you may quote from my post; but I don't think it was very good at all. Its just some words that I came up with. I had to delete about half a page and eventually gave up trying to find the correct way to word it. I nearly didn't hit "post reply". xD
There are several really good posts in this thread, much better than mine.
 
I'm pretty great at sarcasm and have given presentations for 100's of people. I hold a job, I take care of myself and my family. I actually like being me.
 
Undiagnosed, but I've never had trouble making eye contact or reading basic expressions. I do get bamboozled by people's motivations, though. I often prefer to observe things out the corner of my eye, or unfocus my eyes on purpose.

I also have dyscalculia. Instead I learned to read and write early. I'm also artistically somewhat gifted.

Female + terrible at maths + normal eye contact + eloquent + artistic = never suspected autism until recently.
 
Ok to go with a comparison to Sheldon from the big bang theory, he is very anti-touch, and dispassionate about his relationship whereas me I am very open to touch, my female friends used to give me hugs all the time because it helped me relax and stay calm, me and my exgf would cuddle, trade massage, hug, hold hands and I was always very affectionate and caring.

My daughter loves loves loves cuddling. It is another reason it took me so long to seriously consider autism.
 
(Repeating myself from other threads) I got this comment from a friend who is a fully licensed psychiatrist: "You're functional, you have a normal life, I wouldn't worry about it."

I always feel like I have to disclaim it when I tell someone new about my autism. "Yes, I can do math like Rain Man, but that's just a stereotype." (I actually had a coworker describe me that way - "There's this guy that can do math like Rain Man.") Like, I feel bad for reinforcing the stereotype.

I wouldn't be if I were you! It is as awesome to be typical to a stereotype than it is to not be.
 
Possibly without all the stereotyped traits, more people might be diagnosed or realize their own possibility of autism. So actually, this is often a barrier of what could be helpful.
 
Possibly without all the stereotyped traits, more people might be diagnosed or realize their own possibility of autism. So actually, this is often a barrier of what could be helpful.

I think that's what @Vatblack's goal is, and it's wonderful. We need more people doing this.
 
I just saw a post on Facebook for Autism Awareness month talking about the typical "You don't seem autistic" comment.

I think "You don't seem autistic" is really saying, "You can't be autistic, because it doesn't affect me."
 
I just saw a post on Facebook for Autism Awareness month talking about the typical "You don't seem autistic" comment.

I think "You don't seem autistic" is really saying, "You can't be autistic, because it doesn't affect me."

Subconscious says "I know nothing about this."

Engage NT TACT subroutine.

Mouth says " you don't seem autistic.'

Disabled version :

''' I am missing a leg "

Reply

"It looks like youve got both legs"

It's a strange world ,at least you're not reminding people of Tom Cruise...
 
"It is simply a different use of the internal (behind the scenes) routes of conscious and subconscious thought processes that an autistic mind uses to perceive and make sense of incoming stimuli and formulate response.

Some say that auties' thought processes take more complex and thorough routes; that we are more methodical and less intuitive."


This made so much sense to me. Thanks.

There have been so many times I have felt "slow" in social situations compared to most people. Their intuition seems to work like lightening. They all "get it" and seem to enjoy jumping around lightly from one thought-space to the next together. I fake being in the same thought-space to get through the conversations. It is only later when I am working through the conversations in my mind that I realize I didn't "get it" in real time. I followed the words, but I wasn't thinking/feeling in the same way.

But there also so many times when I seem to have a much more "thorough/accurate" grasp of a topic than most people. It feels like I have rushed ahead of people in understanding a topic and I am constantly waiting for them to catch up. I fake agreemeent/empathy/whatever you want to call it with their "slow" comments just to get through the conversation (calling people out for inconsistencies/inaccuracies isn't a good option), but this doesn't make me feel any better to be honest. It just underlines how differently I see things.
 

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