Leeds_Demon wrote:
I was heartbroken when my dad died and based on what I've read, about autism, I shouldn't have been, as aspies don't do emotions/empathy.
Erm, what? In my experience it's quite the opposite: I feel like I feel a lot deeper than many of the NTs around me...I just have absolutely no clue how to convey those feelings to others.
As others have said, not every Aspie will have every symptom. For example my speech wasn't delayed and in fact I started talking early (I said my first word at six months). Aspies are stereotyped as having no sense of humor, but, while I can at times be astonishingly literal (mostly when following directions--my mom is endlessly amazed when I follow her directions to the letter...in ways she didn't intend
), my sense of humor and sarcasm detector are just fine. I also don't really have any trouble reading people; I do sometimes miss social cues but as far as reading people's faces or intentions I find it quite easy. Aspies are often portrayed as math geniuses who sit down to a piano at five and compose a concerto; math is my weakest subject and while I do play piano, "I don't play accurately--anyone can play accurately--but I play with marvelous expression."
I do have keen special interests, I do have a near-eidetic memory (for facts...but not necessarily dates, conversations I had five minutes ago, or names :p ), I've never had a meltdown in public (not since I was a kid anyway) but I can freak out over stress or sensory input, I toe-walk, etc., but I doubt many people have
all the same symptoms. They're really just a list of traits of which you might experience some.
_________________
But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?
--"Galadriel's Song of Eldamar"