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AngryAngryAngry
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12 Aug 2017, 3:34 am

One thing that I've noticed is NT's have stories.
This seems especially important for forming friendships, or on dates.

Exciting / Funny stories.

Often involving travel, or stupidity (injuries).

I don't have any of these.
I've some stupid stories, but these things I'm not proud of - stupidity is not humourous to me.

It's not that I'm boring, just that I don't do things others consider exciting, such as skydiving.
What do you think?
Do you have cool stories?
Are you able to tell stories concisely?



SilverBoltsisWmax
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12 Aug 2017, 3:47 am

IstominFan
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13 Aug 2017, 4:19 pm

I agree. Stupidity isn't funny. I did a lot of stupid stuff, all of which I am greatly ashamed.

I do have travel stories, and would like to have more of them. I want my ultimate travel dream to come true: going to a tennis tournament, meeting Denis Istomin and writing his story. It is a story of triumph over adversity which should be an inspiration to anyone going through a hard time.



Keladry
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13 Aug 2017, 9:14 pm

I have stories, especially travel ones. But I don't know how to tell them. Whenever I try, someone else interrupts me to tell THEIR story that's only slightly related, and everyone listens to them instead, and mine never gets finished. Nobody wants to hear my stories, even though they are good. Why do I always get ignored while others are listened to?



synthpop
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22 Aug 2017, 1:59 am

Oh, this has always made me sad.
I've never done anything exciting. I have no friends outside the internet, I cannot drive, I've never been invited to a party, I've never been drunk. My most exciting 'stories' are childhood tragedies.
It's entirely my fault, though. I cannot blame autism, OCD, panic disorder, agoraphobia, or any other disorder that affects me. These labels are ultimately pointless. It's me. It was all me. I chose to not make friends. I chose to not drive. I chose to not seek out parties. I chose to not drink.
I've been apathetic towards most of what neurotypicals consider 'fun' for my entire life; but, there's always been an extremely morbid curiosity within me, for drugs, sex, chaos, and so on. I could easily steal alcohol from my family right now and get so drunk I fall asleep in my own vomit. I could install Tinder and meet a man 10 years older than me that wants to pick me up in the middle of the night to go to a party. I could do any of these things. I just don't want to. Even if I wanted to, I would have no drive to do anything, really.

Neurotypicals ride the same waves in life. They're integrated, they're social, they're "fun." Neurotypicals tend to branch out and act, act, act. Autistic people tend to lay low, and stay that way.

I don't really see myself as boring--not in this moment, at least. I do, however, despise my apathy. A small part of me wishes I had been one of the "normal" kids that would fill their thermoses with their parents' vodka in homeroom and attend football games later that same day. Another part of me is sickly proud of myself for never being "like them," which is extremely arrogant and judgmental and I hate the fact that this part of me exists. I only ever take pride in my reclusion when I'm self-conscious about it. It's a coping mechanism.

When I turned 17, I began to 'live' a little more. I mean, I still only set foot outside once every 3 months, but I still did more than I did at any other age. I /wanted/ to do the things I did, for once, so I did them.

If you don't want to do anything that neurotypicals are doing that you consider story-worthy, don't do them. Don't be jealous, either, since you don't want to do what they're doing anyway. If you do want to do what they're doing, why not try to go for it? Conquer some fears, let loose a bit. I mean, be responsible, but if you want excitement, try to get some.
If you're content, continue as you are.


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cberg
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22 Aug 2017, 5:17 pm

Everyone has stories, it's all a matter of what brings them up to me. :?


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kraftiekortie
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22 Aug 2017, 6:08 pm

I'm not really good at telling "stories."

Though I've gotten better over the years.

When I do tell one, it tends to be "short and sweet" (though not to the listener who is bored).



emmasma
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22 Aug 2017, 9:08 pm

I don't think it's so much having great stories, It's more having the ability to tell them in an interesting, well timed, appropriate manner. Some people can tell a story about going to the grocery store and its great stuff while others drone on about skydiving and still not sound interesting.
I'm not a good storyteller.
I've actually had some really crazy stuff happen in my life but it's hard for me to capitalize on it socially because I always come off as whiny or preachy, or just strange. It never seems to go over well :roll:



bobchaos
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22 Aug 2017, 9:39 pm

I've found stories to be very important. I also don't appreciate stories that make me look stupid, but I've come to understand they are sort of a rite of passage to NTs. If you don't have some, then (by the NT standard I perceive) you're either an egomaniac who can't admit failure of any kind or just plain the most boring human ever. I'd recommend you all go poking through your memories for a story where you looked stupid, preferably with someone else. If that's never happened at all, I assume you're either a proper hermit, in which case you don't need stories, or are too young to drink alcohol ;) I understand those are embarrassing, but that's the point to them. It shows humility.

Got a story? good, now rehearse it! You'll note when NTs tell stories, it's often in the form of a monologue (with any interjection rapidly discarded so the story may proceed), which I assume most/all of us are capable of to some degree. Certainly easier than those pesky dialogues.



biostructure
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24 Aug 2017, 12:15 pm

This reminds me of a post I once read on a personality blog about how a certain personality type (either INTP or INTJ--I don't remember which, and I have tested as each of these at some point) is often indifferent to stories. I found it really intriguing because it was the first time I'd seen this addressed.

If there is one thing that would stick out when you compare my interests and tendencies growing up, it's my total lack of engagement with stories. I never read fiction unless we had to do it for school, couldn't have cared less for watching movies or TV, etc. Now as an adult I read fiction sometimes (and even write it occasionally), but it's either to try and gain insight into the NT brain, or to immerse myself in fictional settings with lots of visual detail.

I used to think that it had to do with the fact that stories contained people, and I'm sure that's a lot of it, but after that blog post I think there's something more than that going on. I seem to have a "picture brain" or "visual pattern brain", while most other people have a "story brain". Part of it is kind of the difference between being born with a "serial port" or a "parallel port". Like, complex pictures require a parallel view of the world, while stories require a serial one. This tendency shows up in science--I like to be able to mentally get a picture of how everything fits together in a molecule or whatever, but everyone tells me that when most people read papers, they want effectively a "story". To me that loses so much of the beauty and complexity, but most people don't grasp multidimensional "landscapes" the same way.

Also, I have heard that some people think stories (and the desire to tell them) are something that people have "evolved" to express the idea of individuality. They think that even if highly "anonymous" social animals like ants and bees had humanlike intelligence, they wouldn't tell stories. Of course story-indifferent aspies don't lack individuality--quite the opposite in fact--but this may be part of the reason it's seen as "boring".



shlaifu
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26 Aug 2017, 10:15 am

true, NTs are more experience focussed, and Aspies seem to be quite meta, i.e., not immersed in the experience so much. You know how NTs are all excited about some film, and you can't not see the bad cgi? that applies to life, too.

I have some travel stories, but here's a thing: for, me, it is more important to bring my experience in a broader context and reflect on my thoughts - instead of recounting just the "action".

which is why my stories tend to be long, include art- and social-history, biology of perception, and so on. also often not having a point for people to whom the broader concepts are unfamiliar. ..... I have few friends I feel comfortable talking to beyond phatic communication.


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