Is this also an Aspie trait, or is it just me?

Post Reply New Topic

I seem to be a very bleak person sometimes, who can't always be arsed to take in the environment around me. Like last summer when I went to the zoo, my family were really admiring the animals and cooing and going all soppy and seeing every move the animals made, but I just stood there glancing at the animals but not quite knowing what to think. Then my mind wondered off and all these chattering thoughts came entering my head (nothing to do with the zoo), and I was just totally not with it. While I was in deep thought, probably staring at everything but the animals, my mum suddenly nudged me and said, ''did you see what the tiger did? He was so clever!'' or something like that, and I just mumbled, ''cute,'' still miles away in my thoughts. I also got really distracted by all the people (because crowds make me anxious), and I just could not concentrate on the animals.

Also, this is another reason why I don't like shopping - it's because I can't seem to take things in. When others go clothes shopping, they see a top or something and would turn it over in their hands, stare at the size for ages, hold it up in their air to see it in the light, see how long it is on them, then after all the fathing about they go into the changing rooms to try it on, and act as though there is nothing else in the world but this one garment. Me, I would look at a top or something, for about 3 seconds, then I would look beyond it (in other words my attention would be drawn to all the people). I feel I'm too aware of the world around me, and it's so distracting.

Is this an Aspie trait too, or is it just me being a boring type of person? If this is a common Aspie trait, is there a particular word for it? Is anyone else on the spectrum like this?

I can really relate Joe! The zoo example would fit me perfectly were it not for the fact that I really love animals, so I'm always attuned to any around. But any other similar situation... discussion of flowers... cars... jewelry... electronics, I hear background chatter going on and am kind of just pleased letting it stay incoherent background chatter.

It's kind of hard for me to get excited about a bunch of little things, too, unless I see how they fit into the grand scheme of... ultimate happiness and meaning I guess.

Clothes shopping - I do stare at tags for ages but then again I can only stand to go clothes shopping like twice a year because it's so boring and it takes me so long to make decisions.

Zoning out in general though I am definitely thinking is an Aspie trait.

I don't know if it's a common autistic trait or not (it may well be, I've found that at least on boards like this my traits are uncommon in some areas), but I know that I'm almost the opposite. I can't avoid taking in my environment (unless I'm so overloaded that I literally perceive no input at all, but at that point I won't have any thoughts to get lost in), and I have a very hard time thinking when there's so much to take in, let alone having enough thoughts to actually get lost in.

At the same time, though, I have a really hard time interpreting my environment (for the same reason that I have a hard time thinking -- it takes thoughts to turn assorted moving shades of orange and black into a tiger, so often I'll just see the moving shades of orange and black).

Often, though, I find that "opposites" like this are common in autistic people. So the fact that I'm the exact opposite, may make it very easily an autistic trait. We tend towards both extremes with little in the middle, from what I've seen. Like, for instance, growing up, my brother and I both had trouble perceiving certain aspects of depth, but he reacted by becoming terrified of even small slopes, and I reacted by being so fearless around large slopes that I almost got myself killed a few times. (And being both overly fearful and overly fearless are common autistic traits in general, even being both at once about different things!)

Hi Anbuend!

Good point about opposites. I wonder if it is to do with the possibility that the more autistic one's mind is, the less of a filtering system that one has. Someone with Asperger's might filter out stuff whenever it overloads them and they cannot find a use and place for it in their mind, whereas someone with autism has no filter and takes it all in. And maybe neurotypicals have such a highly structured filtering system that everything is automatically sorted into its "proper" place in their mind and overload rarely to never occurs for them. Of course the drawback of this is that neurotypicals' definitions of usefulness for a piece of information are pretty static, whereas at the other extreme, someone with classical autism has the possibility of making neural connections between bits of info where others would never be able to. Maybe this theory is not well-founded... well it's not really a theory at all, just ideas... but anyway I think your post has a lot of insight, anbuend.

I think I can relate. Like, my parents will stare at a view for ages, and I'll look at it for a couple minutes then move on to something else.

But it doesn't mean I'm not interested. Like when I was at the zoo - the animals were so fascinating, and so beautiful, and were such fun to watch. But there was just so many people, and people distract me big. When I watch something on the TV or a computer or the cinema, I can sit and concentrate for as long as it takes. But being out in the open where there's so much more going on, I get distracted. It's worse at the zoo when there are people all standing in the way and I can't see the animals I want to see, and I don't try to look over or past the people, and I don't try to push my way to a position where I can see easier. I just tend to stand there awkwardly, feeling bored because I can't see.

Also, though, I can concentrate better on things when I'm walking along, more than if I'm just standing about. I get bored easily when I'm standing in one position for ages, but when I'm moving along but looking at things at the same time, I don't get so bored so easily.