How to think more socially, and have less sensory overload

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I realize that my social issues basically stem from sensory overload. My mind cannot filter that much input without being overloaded rather quickly.

The result is that I tend to avoid social interaction.

Here is my opinion why it happens as it does:

The basic problem: People with AS tend to perceive details, while NTs tend to perceive wholes.


It is much more overwhelming to have to deal with a bunch of details than just one whole picture.

The difference is that:

- AS people are solo hunters, who focus on objects rather than people, because what is important for their survival is having a territory in which they can hunt solo.

- NT people are group hunters, who focus on people rather than objects, because what is important for their survival is having a group they can hunt with.



One fundamental consequence of this is that:

People with AS are much more likely than NTs to view people as being equal. AS people tend to view people as seperate individuals, whereas NTs tend to view people as individuals belonging to a big group.


This gives the key to avoiding the autistic sensory overload:

By thinking in people and in "who is more important"/"who is our leader".

That is also the key to understanding social interactions much better.

I can immediately feel how much less sensory overload I experience when I adopt this view. At the same time I realize it obviously is impossible for me to change the way my brain filters information.

  Nope, NTs use only symbols, not even summaries of concepts.

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  To have someone to hide behind when the mammoth sh*t hits the fan.

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  Yes, NTs use group identities for individual identify for both themselves and others.
  NTs spend most of their time vying for rank therefore see nearly no one as their equal.

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  Nothing is impossible!
  Not enough filtering is the core overload issue for ASD.

Filtering like an NT is the solution for behaving like an NT.
But is that a good idea?
Since 1) they spend a lifetime perfecting filtering with all the motivation of life and death survival drive behind it,
and since 2) some part of the Aspie brain obviously thinks this is a dumb plan,
= We're likely to never be able to catch up with their skill and experience at that behavior.

I feel that it's more important, and more likely for us to become skilled at, is to focus on smoothing our interactions with them.
In the same way that an adult probably can't change his "First Language," he may be able to learn a "Second Language" very fluently for the same reasons: to communicate smoothly.
(though he would not learn it in the same way that a child learns their first language)

A subtle but important difference, imo.