(So called) lack of imagination

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I dont think im very creative at all, and I dont see why people think thats a really bad thing.

I have a very good imagination

but I better imagination than my friends, most are NT.

It only is if you enjoy drawing etc.

For me it was quite frustrating because while I was happy drawing things I knew from books, from TV etc. when I was younger, the older I got the more aware I became of not being able to think of things to draw. My Mum got me to go to art therapy in the clinic where she works which was brilliant, although I needed a lot of help in coming up with things to paint. In the end I was given a fairytale to illustrate and that worked well.

Once I get started on something (given an idea) I can be quite creative.

This is interesting...here's a textbook case of this imagination thing.

I'm NT, my boyfriend is AS. Throughout school teachers said he had no imagination...he couldn't express himself, especially through creative writing or exams. He did get better though, after meeting me...I'm a fiction writer and have come up with some pretty bizarre stuff that focusses on elaborating on and dressing up details.

Thing is, he's INSANELY creative. He's amazing. An incredible imagination. Give him a piece of paper and tell him to write a story, and he's stuck. Complete mind blank. Give him a few random objects and some wires and tools, and he'll create a proper, functioning device out of thin air. He's taken all the lights out of his car aside from the headlights and replaced them with LED systems...has taken out the bulbs from his car and completely rewired them with HIDs. He's then taken his spare HIDs and wired them into a hand-held torch which is now IMMENSELY powerful (for the purpose of spotlighting the bastards that were blinding us at a car club meet...mmm, revenge), and instead of running of batteries, runs off the cigarette lighter in his car. He's custom-wired my alarm in my car so it's pretty damn hard to break into...he's also fiddled with a lot of the mechanics in this car, including stopping the exterior key locks from working (some bastard broke into the car...it's the one in my avatar, so you can see why), reduced the sensitivity of the knock sensor to increase timing, removed the baffle on the idle valve to increase airflow...his own car has undergone far more work than mine too!

He's one of these people that just KNOWS things, or can dream up a solution based on his existing knowledge. He's never done a brake conversion or suspension upgrade...until he's converted BOTH of our cars from drums to discs, and STi struts. He just...dreamed up a way to do it effectively in his freggin' garage!

Basically...something needs fixing and he'll find a way, almost instantly. No training required. I put that down as imagination...when it comes to electronics and mechanical I'm a typical NT, have to learn by rote how things work and how to fix them or replace them. This boy? This is where he shines...I'm still in awe with the way he can create something from nothing, or fix a problem no one can find a solution for or in a way even Subaru themselves hadn't thought of...

In my realm of creativity, the typical NT consideration of creativity, he's lost. I paint, I draw, I write. I create images, scenes and characters with unlimited ease (in fact if you say a name and an age, I will create a character right there and then...anyone wanna try? XD), I roleplay (several characters at a time)...this is my area of expertise. I'm a designer by nature.

We come together at two interesting points...in cars, I know design and style inside out, whilst he excels in the interesting, unique mechanical work...together, we could create one MONSTER of a car. In design, I could create one hell of an interesting-looking website, whilst his code would again be unique, original, incredibly user-friendly and highly unusual. Switch realms and we'd have something that looks plain or boring, and with very little structure behind it

Zomg I actually have a point, too. They need to redefine what CREATIVITY and IMAGINATION is. Freak's sake...so many Aspies are VERY imaginative and creative, fantastic problem-solvers...just not in the same way as NTs!

WOW, You REALLY make any fakers sound like they really have a plan! Such a reaction would be SAD. BESIDES, what would the point be? If I can do some good thing that people don't think is a part of AS, I would much rather see it included in AS. I wouldn't say I COULDN'T do it. Heck, I'm even going to see if I can really look into somebodies eyes, as so many here say it is so hard, etc... I can't remember the last time I did it for even a second.

Well, I DO have an imagination, never claimed not to. Heck, AGAIN, I think it was better earlier. I don't remember EVER acting like an animal, although there was a time I liked things like boxes, etc... and might have appeared to almost act like one. I don't remember ever just lining up cars. But HECK, I had dreams of building airplanes, etc... I never even built them, but in a real way I built them, flew in them, and determined possible problems in my imagination.

A while ago, people here were talking about rehearsing days, maping out stores, etc... That stuff requires imagination.

As for rituals, etc... I DO try to determine possible outcomes, and I bet I am as good as anyone. Can I precisely determine THE outcome? Not always. WHO CAN? I usually do it to try and determine which has the best tradeoffs.

As for reluctance to change? The last two times I gave in, I got gyped BIG TIME. One JERK recently tried to reason how I should let them break nearly every facit of a promise. They SEEMED to reason it through, but it was a little too much work for me, and it is work THEY created. Before I hung up, I realized 3 other points they left out. I generally figure this stuff out in advance, and last minute changes are usually under too much stress to properly assess the situation.

SO, does it sound like AS? In some ways yes, in some no. If it came clearer and faster and/or was more as it was before, I would be happier, but I am happy, so I guess that is what counts to me.

Steve

Yeah I just didn't understand that the other kids had their own imaginary worlds. I thought mine was the right one and expected my playmates to go along with the rules that were already in place in the world. I probably chose my childhood friends based on passiveness, though I described it as "she plays right."

That said, I too was and still am very creative and imaginative. I kind of miss playing sometimes.

steve you always want to start a fight with me and i dont know why. that reply wasnt even directed twords you, yet you took it personal. as seen in your lengthy reply

As a kid I hated playing house. That make believe world of pretending that I am something I am not kind of urked me. I would prefer to play by myself with some construction kit like Meccano or Leggo something and let the rest of the kids play house like a bunch of dills.

And a good choice of avatar.... Yay new series starts in little more than a week... I am sooooooooo looking forward to it!! !

I liked both, myself. I think if I had to choose, constructing stuff was more fun (still is) but I loved all of the imaginative games as well.

I don't want to sound annoying or anything, but could someone answer my question from my first post? It's kind of something I'd like to get cleared up quickly. Thanks.

I hate playing house and dolls, my mom said I didn't like dolls, when she gave me a doll I threw it and I prefered colored construction blocks, Lego, and similar things. And I built with construction blocks the same models everytime, like a routine.

"When my sister began playing with dolls - my mom told me - you tryed to learn it, then you was playing with her, dolls and girl stuff".

I remember my mother givng me a jig saw puzzle of a map of Queensland when I was 8 and I assembled it over and over again. Maybe hundreds of times. At least that was better than playing house with my sisters.

Look for example here -> www.nas.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=255&a=3341 (search for "imagination" on the page) or here -> http://www.aspergers.org/myths_about_as ... ndrome.htm

It's still amazing then how many other sites get this thing wrong.


It's hard to tell from a distance, but I think if she is going to ask you if you want to go out with her and you don't want to it's perfectly ok to say something like "I'm sorry, I think you are nice, but I just don't like you in that way" or something. At least I wouldn't know any nicer way to put it either.

I'm not trying to start a fight with you. I never was. You think that is what I was doing? And heck, I never believed the garbage about AS people not having imagination anyway. Some seem to have ASTOUNDING(Used for emphasis, from habit, not yelling from anger) imaginations. Sorry if I came across as if I was trying to start a fight. As for lengthy? Sometimes I wish I was more terse. I'm usually not. I can go a whole day without talking. When talking code, I may say yes/no, EVEN if the question doesn't appear to be a yes/no question. USUALLY though, I respond with a lot even if it appears to be a yes/no question.

I AM astounded at the claim that people try to claim they have things to match AS. Then again, I guess I can never claim people are logical. 8-(

Steve

As for me, I loved playing imaginative games as a child (I never dressed up as anything though, didn't like carnival either), but "house" (that's where one plays the mom, one the dad and one the child and so on, right?) I only played in kindergarten and that only because all the other kids didn't want to play anything else. Which is why I usually preferred to do something different there. However, with my dad and my best friend I always wanted to play imaginative games (to the point where it became annoying especially for my dad), but then it was more like playing Hansel and Gretel or cops and robbers or something (script by me, dialogue by me, directed by me ), never something as boring as "house". I also loved making up stories as a kid and so was good at writing those at school, too, but with social imagination I think I was also never good.

I never thought of it as being a lack of imagination in this context, but for example when I call somewhere (let's say I wanted to apply for a practical training in a hospital) then I try to foresee what is going to be asked (name, where, when, how long, why...) and prepare for the answers to those questions, however if then someone asks something totally different, which I didn't expect it totally rattles me. With small talk I also totally lack imagination (I'm always glad if for example at the uni we had an exam or got new professors or it was Christmas or just anything, so I have some standard topic to talk about on the bus for example, like: "Hi Jen, how were the exams for you?", "Hi Tom, how did the exams go for you?", "Hey Anna, and for you?", "Hi Jen, erm, did I already ask you how the exams went for you?...I already did?" *dammit, five more minutes to kill until we arrive....Oh wait, thank god it's Monday so I can ask how the weekend was.*

I have always had a vivid imagination. I just never needed to share it. Most imaginative people can't fully live their imagination, I would suppose. I can, so I don't need to try to create a facsimily of it.