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Mountain Goat
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06 Sep 2019, 7:11 am

We have heard a lot about the difficulties and struggles of the condition, but what about the advantages?

I am wondering if my brother who is three years younger then me is on the spectrum as well, as when growing up, my nrother and I would sit for hours on and and even days playing with the same toys before we would eventually play with something else. For both of us, the ability to focus and aor amazing attention span on what we were doing, was thought of as normal by my parents, and my parents thought it odd when other childrens attention spans were not the same.
My ability to concentrate in thinking in pictures where I was ofenn accused of daydreaming is a big advantage for me to plan and design model railway related things.

Anyone else can add to the positives about being on the spectrum from ones own experiences?


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timf
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06 Sep 2019, 8:24 am

While the ability to focus is an obvious advantage, another one might be, social disengagement. This becomes an advantage when lemmings are going over the cliff. For example, if teen youth decide to steal a car for a joy ride, not being part of the group can be an advantage.



SharonB
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06 Sep 2019, 8:52 am

I am honest (this is why my husband married me and I support a particular set of customers at my workplace). I look where other folks don't and have made impactful discoveries. I am naïve (and vulnerable) and this can bring out the best in others. I am accepting of others differences. I'm a Protector and will take a stand for others. I am a genius, or nearly so (---I have a hard time with this one b/c I was taught not to boast and I'm not sure how my intelligence works, but I would like to use it for good rather than being ashamed). My enthusiasm is infectious. I persist. I am a repository for certain facts. My laughter is infectious. I care deeply.

Reference materials:
https://www.aane.org/asperger-profile-strengths/
http://www.myaspergerschild.com/2010/12 ... cs-of.html



Fnord
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06 Sep 2019, 9:09 am

Social Disengagement (as timf noted above): Not being a slave to the latest trends in entertainment and fashion, not having to pretend to like a specific candidate or celebrity in order to have friends, enjoying things that interest you whether or not they interest others, et cetera.

Exclusive Focus: Being able to concentrate on one technical problem until it is solved, instead of just buying and installing a replacement over and over again.

Hyper-Sensitive Senses: Smelling smoke before the smoke alarms go off; hearing a bearing begin to fail before the motor or engine seizes up; tasting the taint of spoiled food before an epidemic of salmonella hits an entire family; feeling the change in humidity/air pressure/electric charge that signals a tornado before the weather-guessers on TV even notice the storm; et cetera.

Honest Opinions (as SharonB noted above): Causing a little embarrassment now when someone asks if they look okay before an important meeting, instead of letting a lot of embarrassment happen later because you lied and said, "You look fine" so as not to be the one who hurts their feelings.



Mona Pereth
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06 Sep 2019, 9:18 am

The long attention span you and others mentioned is an advantage for at least some of us including myself. Also I tend to be detail-oriented and very analytical. If I'm interested in something, I will study it deeply enough to become close to an expert.

All of the above are commonly said to be advantages of autism. But I wonder what advantages it could possibly have for someone with both ASD and ADHD. because it seems to me that these two conditions would tend to cancel out each other's advantages for the most part. See the separate thread/poll How you feel about autism (with / without co-occurring ADHD).

Anyhow, back to my own advantages:

As a child, I was a musical savant, though not a full-blown prodigy. At age four, concurrently with finally getting around to learning how to talk, I figured out on my own how to play the piano by ear, starting with one-finger melodies, then soon playing chords too.

(I never quite reached professional musician quality, though, because I never had formal lessons, though I did get some informal lessons from my parents after figuring out the basics on my own.)

Also I've always had a strong talent for math, which tends to accompany some varieties of autism.

Also, I've long tended to question popular ideas, and I've long tended to hold social views that were ahead of their time. For example, I was an early gay rights advocate back in the late 1970's.


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Last edited by Mona Pereth on 06 Sep 2019, 9:21 am, edited 2 times in total.

The Grand Inquisitor
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06 Sep 2019, 9:20 am

We are often superior at pattern recognition and attention to detail. Many of us also have superior long-term memories.



Mona Pereth
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07 Sep 2019, 3:28 am

As I've already mentioned in a couple of other threads: Here and here and here are some lists of positive traits common among autistic people. (Note: These articles contain some over-generalizations; the things they mention are certainly not true of all autistic people.)


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Edna3362
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07 Sep 2019, 7:59 am

Hmmm...

Experience. :lol: 'Sensitivities' so to speak. That is, if said person can afford that kind of sensitivity.

Because apparently, I've been stuck and been unstuck from varying cycles and within cycles, and fluctuate wildly enough to experience certain variables of autisms.
Getting contrasting traits and everything in-between, within certain span of time, within certain situations and circumstances, within certain states of mind and body.

Was it because I kept breaking cycles therefore I kept changing and getting contradictory autistic traits?
Was I trying to break from bigger cycles, then briefly be free from it, yet it came back, only to be free from it again?



I wonder...
What if as much autism gets 'better' and 'worse' overtime due to changes of environment/circumstance/knowledge/body/etc, what if there are changes in one's autistic traits if they could break certain cycles?
Think about it. How many here have vicious cycles and the like? When it started? What changed in their case? What gets better/worsen? Etc.


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IstominFan
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07 Sep 2019, 9:20 am

Good memory for factual information
Good vocabulary



SuSaNnA
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07 Sep 2019, 2:10 pm

Spending less time socializing gives me more time in practicing my music and art, and more time to read books about science.



Joe90
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07 Sep 2019, 6:08 pm

I don't have any of the advantages listed in this thread. But there's one advantage I have, but I don't know if it's to do with AS or if it's just my nature or the way I've been brought up or whatever. And that is that I have the skill of understanding people who are different. I know there are lots of NTs that are understanding too (yes, they're not all inconsistent a***holes), so it might not be to do with having AS.

Otherwise I can't really think of anything useful my AS has ever done for me. It's just a disability to me that is the bane of my life.


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08 Sep 2019, 12:51 am

An ability to treat co-workers with respect. Also, not falling prey to the gossip and backstabbing that goes on at work. I hear it all and just store it away in my mind. I'm there to do a job and be welcoming to customers. I'm new at it and it's difficult but I'm slowly getting better.

Other than that, I'm with Joe. I have both ADHD and autism and they don't do much for me.



Joe90
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08 Sep 2019, 4:18 am

I've always had trouble focusing, even on my own special interests. When I was 12 I had a special interest with Spanish. I was totally obsessed. It became my favourite class in school, and I so badly wanted to learn to speak the language. But when I bought myself a book that came with CDs to help you learn Spanish, I hardly ever used it because I just couldn't sit and focus on it for too long. Also, despite Spanish being my special interest and favourite thing in school, I wasn't top of the class in Spanish. I still struggled with remembering the language, until I gave up in the end and the special interest started to fade. After that I kept getting obsessions with particular people, which is not very healthy but being obsessed with people doesn't require so much focus and concentration as being obsessed with facts or other intelligent stuff.

I do have ADHD as well.


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AprilR
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08 Sep 2019, 5:05 am

Speaking for me and my father, being a logical person who doesn't hate things mindlessly. We don't get angry and hate easily and if we do there's most likely a good reason. Short tempered and hateful people are so scary to me.



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08 Sep 2019, 2:33 pm

I agree about the strong focus, honesty, sensitive senses, and social detachment - about the latter, maybe that's responsible for our ability to see things that others don't see, which I think can be of great benefit to any community, to remove its blind spots and shine new lights on things.