Is it Unusual for an Aspie to be Charismatic?

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Its weird but when I have a definite purpose and goal for which I have studied long and hard I can be quite charismatic. I learned my charismatic ways from watching TV. My systems interact with people based on scripts, and over the years I have developed a huge database of what actions motivate typical human audiences. I tune my systems to deliver information in ways that my target audience have a track record of responding well to.

I do lots of public speaking on autism, disability and motivational issues to help those who are poor and or disabled. I sit in the green room \ waiting areas of places where I am about to speak and I am very withdrawn, quiet almost sullen looking. I close my eyes and rock sometimes to deal with my nervous feelings before I speak. Funny thing is I see the organizers of the events looking at me worried. Some even talk to me saying you will be upbeat and positive won't you. Often event organizers tell me so many people say your speaches are full of energy and fun where is it, I do not see fun or energy here I am worried. It only comes out when I start speaking.

When I go out on stage in front of all those people, its like my reserved group of internal reactors all power up and suddenly I have all this energy. I look at all those people and I think of how horrible it was for me growing up in the 1960's with no help from groups like this. I have a passion about leaving the world a better place than I found it especially for autistic people. Also I enjoy helping others more than anything. Helping others is the only way I know to be social. Helping others is socialization with a clear purpose that has a beginning a middle and a definite end. I like socialization when it has a definite purpose, a beginning a middle and an end where my performance can be both quantifed and graded. My performance at a purely social gathering like a party can not be quantified and graded hence I am clueless to my success of failure at the task of being acceptably social.

All the pains of people touching me, unexpected noise, social demands and other autism inspired discomforts in public do not matter to me when I am helping others. All the pain I experience and endure to help others is worth it if my efforts help make the road even a little easier for future generations of autistic folk.

When I go out into the world I put my typical human world body on. Its like in my natural autistic state I am not unlike a Werewolf at home. When I go out into public I run a special group of programs designed to hide my true rather brutish scary autistic nature so I can better interact with NT's in ways they can more easily understand and are comfortable with. Part of interacting with NT's is being charismatic. Convincing others to buy into or invest themselves, their money or their time into your ideas, your skill sets and ventures is part of what it means to be a success. I am still brutally honest with my listeners and some don't like it. Being charismatic just requires autistics to manage how material is being presented to the audience. Over time some high functioning autistics or aspergers folk become great presentation managers. Being charismatic is just a simple typical human equation and all autistics have to add is their honest passionate conviction to the subject at hand and for me that results in my instant charisma.

I'm a bit like this too. I've never sold anything, but I'm a good public speaker, and I'm not afraid of it the way most people are. Those who know me in daily life - who know my shyness and social awkwardness, namely - are surprised when they hear me give a speech in class. But it's all about memorizing the information and memorizing how to say it in an informal, entertaining way. I can't do it on the spot in social situations.

I think passion is charisma and I love sharing knowledge. I think if you love a subject you can overcome the anxiety of having to deliver in front of other people. I go in the Zone and sometimes my 'performer me' that has had years of practice takes over.

That happed just recently at a prize giving in December. It was like a whole out of body experience. My speech was a blur as my 'performer me' and 'director me' (who kind of sits on my shoulder to monitor my performance) weren't in synch that day, but it seemed to go down well thankfully.

I was sat on a podium for 3 hours and there were more people than I had visualised. It was all the senior students and an upper balcony of parents. The funniest thing of all was that the uniform was striped blazers (vertical), with striped ties (diagonal) and even a few striped cardigans (horizontal) to really mess with my perspective.

Luckily I knew why the stripes were spinning me out so could deal with them (don't look at the stripes, don't look at the stripes...) and I was in fits of laughter in my head about it. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and then as always after a speaking gig I had to sleep for three days to recover.

There can be a charisma to the differently brained, certainly many bipolars are quite charismatic (when they're 'up'), so are some sociopaths.

I nearly applied for the disability pension on the basis of charisma (as a handicap). I had a paper written about it for my application, then I discovered my autism. Strange as it may seem, unless you're in showbiz or maybe sales, I find charisma a handicap. To be never seen to be the same as others, always set apart in their minds by some extra quality. the staring, the copying behaviours, the wanna-be-me thing. ugh.

I had a 'single white female' flatmate once who was always 'borrowing' my clothes and then denying she had them, so i had to take them from her room to get them back. Which I hated as it was an invasion of her privacy, but she had taken them from my room first and otherwise I would have been left with nothing to wear.

Or she'd go straight out and buy something I'd seen, liked and described. Or copy my new hair colour. It was too weird and I eventually asked her to leave. After making sure I'd got all my stuff back first and put a lock on my door. Thinking about it I have flatted with some crazy people over the years. I have often been the most together one in the households I've lived in

yes, exactly, I've had women 'friends' who did the 'single white female' thing on me. i love that movie. I'm currently trying to get rid of yet another 'friend' who wants to become me. I've even had one impersonate my identity (for minor fraud). it's repellent this copying thing they want to do. the latest one has been trying what i'd call a 'merge' of personalities, it's been really creepy.

I'm great at selling things. It's a skill of mine. I think it's because people can see your honest intent in how you present these other things.

I'm really glad you started this thread; I can definitely be charismatic at times, so much so that it made me question 'maybe I'm not really an aspie...' It nearly prevented me from seeking a diagnosis. It's nice to know that other people have the same experience.

When I'm 'on' socially, I can make everyone laugh and really charm people; other times, I am silent and comfort rocking at the dinner table (even the times when I'm 'on', it usually takes me 20-40 minutes to warm up to conversation).

Me too. The hardest thing of all used to be not knowing when I'd be having an 'on' or 'off' day. Now I go into training in preparation for any large social event. I'm like an athlete preparing for a race. I make sure I eat sleep, exercise, try my outfit on in a mirror, and visualise the event beforehand. Then afterwards I make sure I rest and recuperate to recharge my social batteries. That way I can guarantee not to wig out on the day and not be able to face an important event.

If I force myself to go out when I'm feeling anxious, then I spent all night feeling like my skin is super thin, struggle to talk to people and worry about having a panic attack. Which of course makes it more likely I will have one and want to go home early. My trick now is to stop the anxiety before it spirals and remind myself that the fear of something is often worse than just doing it.

What a strange mix of contradictions we are. No wonder people find it hard to put us into boxes

of course it is. Hitler was charasmatic. he didn't have AS.