You Can't Be an Aspie If.....

Post Reply New Topic

1. Possess a special skill/talent. Dunno where you're even getting that. The only skills I have, I learned through endless repetition, out of stubborn desire. Don't have a single natural talent in the world, unless you count the ability to mimic cartoon character's voices, which isn't likely to get a person into the history books.

2. Lack empathy, in the same way a robot lacks empathy Oh, for gods' sakes, here we go again... "EMPATHY" IS NOT "SYMPATHY." It's not an emotion, it's not the ability to FEEL emotion - EMPATHY IS A SOCIAL SKILL, nothing more. Empathy is the ability to recognize emotions in others, identify what they are, and understand instinctively how to respond. It's knowing when to wink, as opposed to when to give a hug, or when to just smile and nod. If you see someone you care about crying, and you aren't sure what you should do, or can't bring yourself to do it - you lack empathy. It doesn't mean you don't care, it means you don't automatically express your feelings appropriately.

3. Have meltdowns immediately after having a sensory overload Who ever said "immediately"? For that matter, who ever said "always"? A meltdown is simply an emotional collapse due to stress, it can sometimes come several minutes or even hours after a stressful event, or a series of stresses. It doesn't mean going berserk in the middle of a staff meeting. It may mean driving home first and spending the evening nursing a bottle of vodka, while curled under the furniture in a fetal position, sobbing. In children, it may happen more spontaneously, say, in the middle of WalMart, but for grownups, who have to protect our jobs, we have more self control because we have to.

5. Be unable to recognise if a person is sad/angry/happy, just by the tone of their voice
Yeah, unless the people around you are all hammy movie actors, I'd be surprised if anybody can do this consistently. Even the most perceptive saint can't always know what's going on in other people's heads. In my experience, if there's something fairly obvious going on and I miss it, it's usually because I'm distracted with my own personal demons and I'm just not paying attention to what other people may be clearly signaling. It's a real problem in personal relationships, and makes others feel they're being ignored, usually because they are.

6. Be a systemiser
7. Be interested in categories of things - linked to the idea of systemisation

See also "Executive Function Deficiencies." When you suck at making a plan and sticking to it, it helps to sort of automatically categorize things and file them neatly in your head, so you remember them later. It doesn't make you any better at getting things done, but at least you have a place for everything, and everything's in it's place, just in case.

8. Be hypermobile Again, where are you getting this? Autism does not have to appear wildly active - even many stims, are relatively docile in their appearance. Head banging and hand flapping may seem a bit frenetic, but I sway from side-to-side constantly, and can stand in one spot and do that all day long. I'm not running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, yet I'm hardly sitting still, either. And keep in mind, that even Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder has classifications like "Inattentive," in which the body may be quiet and at rest, while the brain silently jumps around like a spastic toad. We may look like we're paying attention, while our minds are on another planet, dancing and ordering sushi.

9. Have walked on tiptoes, as a child Just another stim behavior, not everybody does them all. Personally, a a kid, I NEVER "walked" on my toes or hand-flapped, though, as an adult, when standing in a que, I do tend to rock back and forth on the heels and balls of my feet, and flip my car keys back and forth in my hand. Go figure.

10. Have no understanding of idioms Again, this applies to autistic CHILDREN. Autism is a learning disability, not a learning INability. We may pick up on certain things a bit more slowly than other kids, but we're not utter morons. By the time you're an adolescent, you should have begun to figure certain things out.

11. Have 'odd' voices, (pitch, tone, etc. First, as a broadcast professional, I assure you, you don't really know what you're voice sounds like to others. Second, even though my voice has been trained over many years, the way I speak to friends and relatives is very different to the way I speak to an audience (or a pet, for that matter), and in more relaxed settings, I often hear a choked nasal quality that is peculiar to my Dutch family DNA, that I would NEVER use when speaking professionally. Having been around other high functioning autistic people, I have also noted that they (and I) all tend to get LOUDER, as we get wound up in talking about a personal obsessive interest. It's entirely unconscious, and I'm usually unaware I'm doing it, until someone interrupts me in the middle of a spontaneous lecture.

Point being, you may have many quirks and characteristics of which you are personally completely unaware. Just because you don't immediately recognize yourself when you read the diagnostic criteria, doesn't necessarily mean they don't fit you (and some of them probably won't).

I remember very clearly the first time I read the phrase "May see lights and hear sounds that others do not" and I thought it meant hallucinations of some sort, which I'd never experienced in my life. A few days later, it struck me that I was interpreting the statement wrong - that they literally meant HEARING noises and SEEING actual lights, and what made me realize it, was suddenly remembering several instances in my past, in which I had, in fact, heard verifiable sounds, or noticed quite real lights (or objects) other people completely missed, simply because my brain was tuned to pick up details on a frequency most humans simply ignore. Not miraculous, or bizarre - just slightly different. But TRUE, nonetheless.

In my case..

1. Possess a special skill/talent, Nope. Just odd aptitude profile.
2. Lack empathy, in the same way a robot lacks empathy; Nope. Sometimes I WISH this is true, except this isn't the fact.
3. Have meltdowns immediately after having a sensory overload, I'm not sure.. I almost forgot what it was like. I HAD once upon a time.
4. Be unable to recognise the facial expressions of other people, I don't have prosopagnosia.
5. Be unable to recognise if a person is sad/angry/happy, just by the tone of their voice, Nope.
6. Be a systemiser, Ah, sure. In mind and spirit, yet never in means.
7. Be interested in categories of things - linked to the idea of systemisation; Surey.
8. Be hypermobile, I'm not. I'm dexterous instead.
9. Have walked on tiptoes, as a child; Not only as a child, but even at this present. No one realized that.
10. Have no understanding of idioms, Not completely true.
11. Have 'odd' voices, Yesy. I usually get away with this.


12. You have to be male. .. And I'm female. So I'm disqualified~

Gained Number Post Count (1).
Lose Time (n).

Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.