"You write too well to have autism"

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I find writing much easier than speaking- I'm able to express my thoughts clearly, I can take as long as I like to get my thoughts out, and there's no stopping talking due to tics or compulsive movements, things like that.

I don't know if I can only speak because of writing, but my ability to write things down in a fairly clear and direct manner makes it significantly easier for me to repeat the information I've written in a fairly clear and direct manner. Without that framework, I tend to be all over the place, talk about things I don't really want or need to talk about, and only sometimes manage to get to the point. I'm better about this now as I can stop and review, and recall my original intention and try to get back to it, but communication is more difficult than it needs to be.



I've come to the conclusion that my primary language is written as well. I used to have much more formal speech than I do now, but over time I've become more informal. I am not sure how to "mentally write something out," though, as it seems like the process I use for writing only really does anything when I am actually writing. I don't seem to be able to simulate that without having an external focus (like a computer or typewriter).

I lose the ability to speak on occasion, but it is much more rare that I lose the ability to read and write. It does happen, just not nearly so often.

I can still be pretty pedantic as well. That doesn't bother me, although sometimes it annoys people and it's hard to find a different way to say the same thing without sounding pedantic.



I find writing much easier than speaking, and written language informs how I speak to a considerable degree. When it comes to speaking, it can actually be fairly difficult to get the thoughts I want out because I keep associating different things and spiraling off well out of relevancy until I notice I'm doing it and try to bring myself back to what I want to say. Often I find myself saying things that I really didn't want to say (not bad things, just completely irrelevant) or when I think I am clearly explaining my thoughts people get no relevant information from what I actually do say.

Someone from Autism West Midlands said something similar a few weeks ago.
For people with LFA, they are usually underestimated: capable of far more than people believe.
For people with HFA and AS, they are usually overestimated: people think that they are more capable that they actually are because they don't show they disabilities/differences so much.

It bugs me too that people think I have no problems: they just don't see them because I am quite good at hiding them!

Back the the OP: in general, people now think that I write well, but if you look at my work from school, it's shocking! Handwriting is a load of scrawl and there's no imagination or structure in anything: the only thing is all of the grammar/punctuation because it's a simple logical rule to follow, and follow it I did!


...thinking about eye contact, in my case.
My CBT therapist is used to this now: she asks me to write things down for her to read as a starting point for our sessions as I just freeze and cannot get words out if I have to do it from scratch. Also, it means that she knows exactly what I feel rather than my poor attempts at explaining verbally.
I find that my writing became so much better since I realised that it was a good way of beating my selective mutism, and that there had to be some way of getting my point across.

I too had a hard time of it writing in high school. However, using the internet taught me how to do it well and so now I am pretty good at it. In fact, other people I know have sought me out to edit their work. The thing is, I read a lot and so I learned how things are supposed to sound and flow. I have been able to use that to my advantage and transfer it to my own writing. It's also much easier to edit things on a computer than it is in person or on a hand-written page. Thus, if I go off on an odd tangent writing in my stream of consciousness, I can delete it and replace it with something more on-topic. If only I had been born a few years later, perhaps I would have done better in school because I would have had the ability to use the internet.

Yeah basically writing gives you more time to re-read and edit you're statement or thoughts. Judging by how long it takes until I'm happy with expressing something of great length in writing it makes me realise why I'm so dissatisfied with most of my verbal expression. Sometimes I wish I could edit it in the same way, make people forget my mistakes and replace the memory with a redo!

I get told that too. My written communications ability has always been a stronger asset than other functions of communication; especially as compared to trying to get a point across verbally and/or with body language. My speech is fine, as is my vocabulary, but somehow the message just doesn't flow out verbally so well as I can write it.

Charles

Writing is my strongest talent, has been since early in life. In junior high, I thought diagramming sentences was FUN. I got high marks in composition, and tutored other students in my senior English class. I worked for years as a technical writer, and wrote fiction in my free time.

I don't think, when contrasted with all my quirks, that makes me not Aspie. I'm definitely Aspie. I have no doubt at all anymore.

But I'm not that great at talking, LOL.

Last edited by SpiritBlooms on 18 Jun 2012, 7:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I would have to say that's because of ignorance about autism that makes people believe that. I was diagnosed with AS January 2012. A number of written papers of mine were written while I was in uniform and will remain classified by the Defense Department for decades.

Longshanks

My vocabulary can be improved, but most of the time I write very eloquently. Same believe it or not, the anti autistic quality in me is that I speak very beautifully as well. After all, I got to speak at several autism conferences. This would be impossible just 5 years ago. Somewhere around 2008 or 2009 I got into public speaking for the first time. It was actually due to a manic episode to be honest but it worked. It is only when I am having a psychotic break when my speaking/ writing ability deteriorates significantly (becomes very disorganized). When I was just 5, I hardly ever said anything. I didn't start speaking until I was 7 years old. I also started writing very early on in my life. I don't know the reasoning for my vocabulary being so limited (aka a 5th grader or maybe as high as 6th) but me being 29 that is just unacceptable. What is different about me though is sometimes I do talk very autistic like. I have my own words for things. I mainly use it while talking and sometimes while I journal. I have insight to know what the words are, so I try not to use it on the Internet but I am sure that I have sometimes.

I once had a guy at an autism talk tell me that I'd been misdiagnosed after about 15 minutes of talking to me, then turn around and claim I couldn't judge how good his therapy was because I'd never seen him working with an autistic kid - even though I'd just spent an hour listening to his presentation about his therapy program! (He was an ABA guy who seemed not to have done or read any new research since the 1970s.)

Goes to show that therapists are often as screwed up as their victims.

Even my parents were shocked at how well I could actually write. ( er type, handwriting is another whole issue, mine is legible JUST! LOL). Its how I communicate. And I have said this before, but..
I was already in cyberspace ( & using the term) before a lot of you were born. Writing my thoughts in an electronic medium is as natural as breathing to me. I do not think it, it just happens! Well, almost.
I do, did very well at creative writing. I am a decent poet, but a terrible writer of stories if they require a lot of character development.
Anyway, I know of many autistics who write extremely well but never speak at all.

Sincerely,
Matthew

I'm not going to lie, that sounds fairly badass.

Also, I wish that people didn't think that "not being able to talk well" = "not being able to write well". Yet this concept seems, at least in my experience, to be firmly imbedded in most people's minds. -sigh-

Ahhh the good ol days of vic 20s and 9.6 baud modems.

When I know exactly what I'm talking about (Know as in solidly believe, not know as in have facts to back it up), I'm extremely eloquent and articulate in verbal conversation. People believe me, because I am an authority on many subjects as an agnostic philosopher with Asperger's Syndrome and depression, because I give logical chains behind what I say, and because I say things in a way that will at the very least attempt to make an emotional impact.

One of my greatest loves is argument.


Most of the time, people assume that I'm NT, due to me understanding logic and reasoning. If the subject comes up, I explain that I have AS and have worked on the social and empathic issues for years so I can understand people better. They try to tell me I'm lying. I just shake my head and let them believe what they want to, since it doesn't change how my own mind works.

Some of my friends still don't entirely believe that I have AS - they seem to think that I'm somehow different from people with the disorder because I seem too normal for them.


As for writing - I'm able to say a lot more in a lot less space and time. It takes less time to read, and only barely more time to write, since I tend to catch my errors fairly quickly. Sometimes it'll take longer to find error in something I've said, but generally I don't go back to correct it - I prefer to keep my writing direct. I might admit my error later on, but I don't like to disrupt a discussion.
I enjoy writing stories about things in great detail. I enjoy convincing people to help themselves, or talking down my aggressive bipolar friends when they're in a down spike. Writing can be more effective than speech sometimes, simply because the reader has to fill in the emotions him/herself, which brings it a little closer than simply listening.

I expect I will get this after I realise my novel, particularly because the book I read are by empathetic authors that have more social awareness than me and I'm influenced by them. The only reason they will know I'm autistic is because the depths I go to explain my autistic protagonist's mind. It's all there: the anxieties, the passions, the synaesthesia and the continuing failure to relate to people and gain independence. Oh, and there's a science fiction plot in there somewhere.

When I started sharing my blog and my family members actually read it they were surprised I could write so well and even more surprised by what I was saying, how I was articulating it.

I talk poorly. I start fine, stop, stutter as I try to force the words out, say 'what was I saying?' a lot and squeeze out that last sentence. I speak very simple words too, only sometimes the full capabilities of my vocabulary will reveal itself to people. I'm actually surprised that while writing and being on my ADHD meds at some of the words that come out.
Oh yes, and when I burn out my writing style turns into my speech style. As the above demonstrates.