What are the benefits/good things about having aspergers?

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Im not sure if i posted this in the right section, but oh well.

What are the benefits/good things about having aspergers?

Thank you much!

The best thing about Aspergers is hanging out with all the great people here on WP.

Also, having special interests is a great benefit of Aspergers. A lot of people will never be as passionate about something as we are about our special interests. I see it as a good thing.

Hi, Kat15. I'm much older than 18 but...here goes:

-When you're interested in something, you can FOCUS! This can be good or bad, btw, but if it happens to align with something you're studying in school, or your job/career, it's great. Something like that can (potentially) help you pick a college major.

-You see social "drama", for what it is--nonsense--and can mostly avoid it without feeling compelled to "join in." Trust me, I stayed out of all of that garbage in high school and focused on my SCHOOLWORK (what a concept, huh? ) and finished with a strong GPA that put me on my way to college. I was fortunate enough to have gotten through all of the bullying in grade school; by high school, I had a few friends and was ignored by everyone else, which was very nice.

-You can probably tell who's being genuinely nice and who...isn't. Yes, some of us are a bit naive, and may take things literally at times, but with experience you learn. As a result, the few friends you make will be for REAL, not superficial/backstabbers/flakes.

-It enables you to join a community of like-minded people, like this one.

While I'm 24 I second the special interest thing. We are SUPER FOCUSED on interest. Mom said about back when I was in College before Psychology was all I talked about and thought about. (now I know why LOL!) I am the naive type so I've made some friendship mistakes but hope from finding out about my AS and the issues involved with it I can develop a better life for myself and TRUE REAL friends.

Considering I get into political discussions all the time, I might as well become a politician then? If I do run for presedent (IF EVER), my only promise is that I don't make promises because who knows if the congress/House of Reps block bills and stuff I want to pass.

I am one of my special interests because I have difficulty understanding myself: why am I different to so many other people around me? I even majored in psychology at university (many years ago - before AS was even recognized in the English-speaking world) and it helped quite a bit, but not totally. Discovering things like AS and sensory sensitivity and alexithymia and executive dysfunction has really helped in the last year or two. It has been like a huge "Aha!" experience. Who wouldn't be enthralled? At last, I am starting to make sense to myself!

I suppose I'm less tempted to get involved with the type of thing people my age get up to. I.e. Drink, drugs etc.
I'd prefer watching one of my DVD's. Or pursuing one of my interests. Then again movies are one of my interests. Oh great now I'm confused.

Ehh, dunno about the drink & drugs thing. I tend to do more than most of my friends.

I have a mild case so as far as my combination of intelligence and social awkwardness go, I'm generally thought of as a really clever guy rather than a nerd lol

If I'm not getting my own way I'm generally able to mess with people's heads until I get what I want (Some people may call me manipulative but I prefer to think of myself as persuasive)

When the rest of my friends are complaining about sitting around being bored, I'm generally happy enough browsing endlessly for hours, researching my various interests, even just sitting around in deep thought is fine

That's just off the top of my head, there are countless pros and cons when it comes to our unique mindset. Accepting yourself for what you are and learning to overcome the less desirable traits as best you can is the way to go about it

People sometimes talk as if they believe that being brilliant is a symptom or trait of asperger's. It's not. The diagnostic criteria say that the individual's I.Q. is above 70, i.e. they are not mentally ret*d. So many people seem to have taken that and run to the opposite assumption: that having asperger's means being a genius. It's just not so. People with asperger's have a range of IQ levels and a range of intelligence (those are two different things) and some are just average while some are piercingly brilliant.

Well I've always been the smartest in every school I've been to, plus I have a few aspie friends and they're all at least as clever as me. I've heard this before as well but still seems like more than a coincidence that me and every aspie I've ever come across are highly intelligent.

I've come across some 90-100 IQ people with asperger's. They do exist.

Whenever one talks about "me and all the people I know" one must realize that one is discussing a self-selected demographic that is, by its nature, skewed in comparison to the general population. In other words, you are smart and you value intelligence so the people you are most likely to notice and gather to you in friendship are other intelligent people.

One's circle of friends strongly tends not to resemble the full range of variance but rather the ranges with which one feels most comfortable and allied.

Nope, most of my friends are NT's and tend to be about average, some of my friends are even a bit slow. But all the aspies I've met are very smart. I guess it could just be a coincidence, but it really does seem like more to me

It is a coincidence. According to the study I read, 22% of people with asperger's have I.Q.s in the superior range. Now that doesn't capture the whole picture of intelligence, but it does oppose the idea that high intelligence is a necessary and sufficient diagnostic criteria.

The focus lends itself to certain careers well.

For this I can only speak for myself and it's probably related to heavily concrete based reality thinking/orientation over schitzoprhenic-land world ender fun.

There does appear to be enough access still is available for me to fully comprehend, induce/trigger and experience the sense of the physical body being one thing and "me" or the soul being another. The multiple selves theory sounds fun, though I need to check up if that Paul Bloom chap has expanded/updated it recently.


it's apparent I am immune to having my rationality raped by religion or its kidnapped cohort spirituality. Furthermore, I can and have experienced exactly what they raise up as why their beliefs are valid for they have experienced their godthing. In fact it's obvious I have experienced several times what they have and for most, more than they could as a total sum.

Then there's the greater level of visual thinking. While I would typically need to use a method such as the holotropic breathwork to reach the non-ordinary state, this is where the "minds eye" for me and I presume a fair amount of Aspies increases in resolution, greater zoom capabilities, heightened imagery/scenario/thought manipulation, greater control to set variables on free association and cascade thoughts and ease to set them off.


Just as with LSD, you come back from the non-ordinary state from the holotropic breathwork with amazingly crisp and clear recall to possibly inspire new art pieces ideas, new story ideas, rehash of prior ones and so on.

Free bus travel.