How are you with understanding metaphors?

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I've heard that one trait of Asperger's/autism is having trouble understanding metaphors. Myself, I don't really have this problem. When I hear a metaphor, I know what it means. I suppose I may have not known what the metaphors meant when I was younger, but I don't really remember. What about you? Have you ever had trouble with metaphors?

No real problems that I can think of, but that's because I've had extensive contact with the spoken English language. Maybe when I was younger, I know for sure sarcasm was something I rarely got. It's one of those indirect traits of AS that only comes about from lack of socialization.

What kind of metaphors/what context?

Idioms? (e.g. "don't rock the boat" "the grass is always greener on the other side" "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush") I have trouble with those, but eventually I figure them out or get an explanation I can understand.

People saying "x is like y" or otherwising using analogies/metaphors to describe experiences/objects/life? That's hit and miss. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't get it.

Literary/poetic metaphors? I have more trouble with those, and I couldn't understand them at all as an adolescent.

I suppose I mean mostly idioms/sayings. In books starring main characters with AS, it seems like the AS character is always taking things literally (like getting up on a chair when someone says to "look up" something). I never really had this problem. Do people actually experience this, or is it just a stereotype?

I've had trouble with idioms in the past and still do occasionally. A classic example is when my mom told me once to "pull my socks up" and I started to reach down to literally pull my socks up. That was only a couple years ago too. On the other hand (there's one right there), there are some that I use myself often enough.

If I've heard the metaphor before, I usually don't have a problem realizing that it's not meant to be taken literally. But if I haven't heard it, such as the aforementioned "Pull your socks up," I would likely take it at face value.

I'm pretty good with it. I tend to have one or two bugs sometimes, that usually are hilarious for everyone so it's not that much of a problem, but most of the time it's ok. If I REALLY don't understand I tend to look for where the metaphor come from, since there is always a reason, just more or less justified and depending a lot of past culture, etc. Example,
it's raining cats and dogs (itself justified by the cats slipping from the roofs when it's wet) in french is "il pleut des cordes" ("it's raining ropes"). If I don't understand something, I just try to work on it with a bit of logic like with anything else and keeping into mind that people will make strange shortcuts as a basis, example, > "it's raining so hard that you can almost see a continuous string (rope) of water.
I usually had a pretty hard time with metaphors, but since I started doing this not so much anymore. Although some metaphors require more work than others obviously.

I experience this, although after the first one or two misunderstanding(s) and explanations I tend to figure out the pattern of how/when a saying is used. If a saying is never explained then I might continue to see only the literal meaning or only the nouns (or just be totally at a loss and see nothing) and be confused indefinitely....it depends.

Even when I've been able to understand a metaphor for many years, I see the literal meaning forever (unless I never saw it in the first place because it has no nouns or something, like with "look up") and it always comes first in my thoughts, because the literal meaning is a fundamental part of my understanding. If you say to me (or when I think of) "the grass is always greener on the other side" I will literally picture green grass(es) and a fence (or a wall, or some other boundary, but the fence is standard); For "don't rock the boat" I picture a wooden rowboat on the water, with someone sitting in it and rocking it; For "green thumb" a green thumb (from plants...think of grass stains on skin); For "lightbulb moment" a lightbulb, which connects to the lightbulb over a person's head symbol and the whole visual scenario of seeing suddenly, being in pitch dark and then a light gets turned on.... etc. etc.

I did well with em in English class but I don't always understand em in real life. I also recognize sarcasm on TV but have a hard time with it in real life.

Well, you are all doing better than I did when I was younger because growing up in a family where we worked in health care, I thought it was a therapeutic fiber (Metamucil).

I'm fairly okay with figuring out metaphors for the most part - it depends, sometimes it goes over my head because I interpret things literally.

I sometimes have difficulty interpreting metaphors, similes and idioms.

In addition, I am rather quizzical when others make seemingly ludicrous remarks such as "This ..... is mustard" and "Bob's your uncle". In my weird little world, mustard is a condiment and Bob isn't the name of my uncle.

I don't have trouble with metaphors, unless I've never heard one before, but even then I still guess it's a metaphor.

I hate it when people associate Aspies with not knowing what "raining cats and dogs" means, and assuming that we are going to run to the window to see if we will see cats and dogs falling from the sky.

I occasionally get confused by metaphors that are less frequently used. I used to have more trouble dealing with them when I was younger, but since I read a lot I tend to pick up a lot of the nuances in language.

I still detest metaphors, though. In my personal life I have often found that people who frequently use metaphors tend to be rather shallow and intellectually lazy.

... Wait a minute... I just recalled some of my own posts, and I have a tendency to use the metaphor "Food for thought" quite frequently. So, I suppose I shouldn't look at the speck of sawdust in my brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in my own eye.

... Argh, another one!

Intentionally interpreting a metaphor literally can often be used for comedic effect, though.

Someone else: Everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room -
Me: Not I. It's standing on my f***ing foot.

I don't usually mind metaphors/idioms, but I think in images, they are like a puzzle where I match the words with the imagery and my experiences, like a visual shorthand version of commonly accepted observations about nature.

Let sleeping dogs lie, made no sense until I woke a grumpy sleeping dog! If things have calmed down, leave them be.

Or you can lead a horse to water, but you cant make him drink, also made no sense until I tried just that and the thirsty horse refused to drink the water, until she was ready to drink it, just like how people wont embrace a good idea until they are ready to do so.

I'm okay with idioms, clichés, metaphors, etc.

For someone who claims to be a poet, though, I'm not too swift when it comes to these things.