Contradictory Traits

Post Reply New Topic

Anyone else have traits, autistic or otherwise, that seem to contradict one another? For example, I have a strong visual memory (can basically pick images off a screen in my brain that files them away and almost never loses them) and good visuo-spatial skills; I'm quite a proficient drawer when provided with an image to work from, and geometry is the only typ of math I can perform reliably, and yet at the same time, I have the most abysmal sense of direction. From the research I've done, my visual memory and good visuo-spatial skills ought to give me an edge up with directions, but I can't navigate my way out of a wet paper bag! Any of you have skills that really don't seem like they should be together?

I have a good imagination but can't draw from my imagination. I need to practice off something in the real world.

I have the same issue with having great visual skills yet be rubbish with directions, unless I memorize just one direction. I'm not very good at learning how to get to a place from many kinds of directions.

I need order and routine but sometimes get sick of it and like to switch things up a bit.

yeah same here. Ironically im great with geography and mapping things of google earth.
but in the real world i get lost really easily like in shopping malls and stuff.
im very articulate online to the point where i dumb it down some on the teen forums.
But in real life i have a very hard time communicating.
I have pretty bad dyspraxia and can't tie my shoes, clip my nails or cut meat.
But i have excellent marksmanship when firing either pistol or rifle.

sometimes my speech is very fluid and eloquent and I write very well. Other times I speak like a two year old.

I'm good at identifying patterns in what people say and do and can often identify the meaning with extreme precision, in terms of fitting or not fitting a pattern. People seem to find it very contradictory that I don't then prioritize the importance of the issue as they would or figure out what to do about it in a smooth manner. They seem to consider analyzing human interactions to be the same as responding, which I don't find to be the case. Unless there is a clear pattern for how to respond, that helps a lot. But people find it very contradictory.

if I have been somewhere a few times, and take the same route, I'm o.k. finding a place in the middle of a big city frustrates the heck out of me. I seem to always know what way north is. I had to go on a 4 hour trip almost every weekend in the summers since the day I was born till about 15. had a friend drive up when I was about 18. I was really tired, and told him I was going to take a nap. he was worried cause he didn't know where he was going. I told him I could get there in my sleep, because I have done it soo many times. literally woke up, and told him where to turn every time. sometimes my eyes were still closed. he was amazed. I know every town, and can visualize all the stuff in my head very well. if someone asks for directions, I couldn't tell them how to get there without a map. i have to say things like. turn left at the big red barn after the s-curve, and those three hilly bumps in the road. is it just me, or is this from somekind of autism???

Socially I appear to be an introvert but unlike most introverts I'd rather be outside than inside most of the time (coastal/rural areas, not inner city)
I am sensitive to noise and crowds yet can enjoy going to theme parks and riding roller coasters, going to a pub to do line dancing or going tenpin bowling...(I do tend to pick the off peak times though and i keep disappearing off to get away from the noise for a moment or two before going back to it).

I have pretty good language skills, was reading early and more proficiently than my peers, was skilled early on in creative writing and a decent grasp of punctuation and grammar (although, in my old age, that's slipping, so don't sue me, I'm Queen of the typos these days!! !)

BUT......acronyms completely throw me!

When I read, for example, LGBT, I can't immediately compute that it stands for Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender. Or if someone expresses the name of a movie as TDK, I actually have to take a few beats to get it sorted out in my head that that's "The Dark Knight." Or if I myself have to "translate" a phrase or a name of an entity into its acronym, my head can't work fast.

I just don't know why that is. I'm very literate in every other way! But acronyms seem to stop my brain from functioning, and anyone watching me stumble over them thinks I'm illiterate!

.

I've often wondered about the visuo-spatial = good with direction thing. I've read that a bunch of places and even though I make a living using my visuo-spatial skills and my great visual memory I too am lost in the wet paper bag. I hope there is a burger joint in here somewhere.

I have great memorization skills and I can remember facts I read from books once for several weeks. However, I'm only capable of memorizing crucial information for only an hour before I have to rememorize it all over again. My subconscious is quite possibly my greatest adversary.

Oh yes, very much so! This is what makes getting to know my thoughts and feeling about the world so difficult for people to understand me. That is what causes me to feel so emotionally insecure. At least I think that is what the cause is.

I get overwhelmed in crowded, busy places. Everybody knows that, and understands that, whether they know I have Asperger's or not. Nearly everyone who knows me knows I have some sort of anxiety disorder, which makes them understand how distressing crowded places can be for me, because they can be stressful for anyone to an extent. But I also stress out in quiet places too, so sometimes I say that I'd rather be at a crowded place because at least then you don't have to feel compelled to greet people when walking by (unless you're being served by a cashier/waiter/bus-driver, etc, but that has purpose). But in quiet places it feels more awkward (for a social phobe) to pass people, because strangers seem to greet each other where I come from (at least according to my mum and her family), but they never greet me, probably because I give off a socially awkward expression. So I kind of look up at them and smile and get no response, which then makes it awkward for me too, but then I feel cold and unfriendly if I just walk by with my head down. It's like I don't know what to do.

Also, speaking of that, (another contradiction) - I don't like people staring at me, yet I want them to look at me. Well, it might not be a contradiction because there's too different types of looks; the blank look (where they just stare at you as if to say ''what do you want from me you dope?''), and the friendly look (where they look at you and give you a nice smile, which sometimes leads to a friendly hello, making you feel like you have dignity).

Mind you, I believe that most of my traits aren't exactly contradictions when I think about it, although it may sound contradicting to others. What I mostly seem to base my thoughts and feelings around is context and principles. It is very subtle, which is why if I wrote a book called ''How To Understand Jo'' it would be over 800 pages long.

I am good at navigating, but I don't think that I am really using visual-spatial for that, maybe a little, and more if I am navigating off a map, but in the 3-D world without a map, it's more like I know which way to go, or I know quickly if I am going the wrong way.

Some days, when I'm not so bad, I've been called very charismatic and smooth. People like me, and I like people. I'm very people-smart, and am good and leading (or manipulating) others.

I suffer from extreme social anxiety. I hide from all others, feel fear whenever I talk to someone face-to-face, and cannot stand the thought of others looking at me, as if anytime anyone is doing this, they're carefully combing me over for something - anything - that could be wrong with me. Naturally, that's exactly what I do to myself, all the time, every day.

People are the most painfully complicated animals, and we can never be content to just be one way.

I have a very good visual memory-I can't remember faces
I prefer routine-I am disorganized and can't make any schedules or plans (in fact, I always score as a Perceiver on the MBTI)
I can remember what happened or has been said 10 years ago-I can't remember what was said/where I put something 10 seconds ago
I am good at algebra-I suck at geometry

These are some maybe there are others but now I can't think about them.

I hate being in big crowds, parties with a lot of people, but I actually like the crowded streets of New York City. Everybody is into their own thing and not me. I really do get "lost in the crowd" and find it very easy to go into my own world in that situation. Executive Function we discussed in another thread. IMHO this is totally Aspie.

Yes I am extremely contradictory!

The main one being the typical AS symptom of having obsessive special interests. I have more than I could hope to count and it prevents me progressing with any of them, I just tend to procrastinate and get frustrated. But I am absolutely passionate and obsessive about each and every one.