JohnHopkins wrote:
I honestly believe I have more or different social skills than a lot of peopel on here because I was forced into a church social setting every sunday for my whole life and so a lot of what people with Asperger's can't necessarily do - empathise, read body language, etc. - I can do subconsciously the way NTs do. Since I've hit university, my Asperger's is in tatters, really, hardly any of it is left. I see myself as like, a bridge between NT and ASD, so I try and explain the NT way of looking at things to people on here to help them out. and this includes in relationships, because all of my relationships (aside from the one I'm in) took place pre-diagnosis, so I didn't have it to consider.
Argh, woken up by the damn college fire alarm!
I am very similar to John in a lot of ways, definitely with the social skills area (I'm probably a lot more socially competent than many NT's I know), and I've learned to empathize and read body language to some extent (which still is like blundering compared to my friends, but they laugh it off as "quirky") but I do this consciously, not sub-consciously, except for the really really basic stuff. I actually read a body language book on the holidays, which helped me immensely in deciphering body language this year. And sometimes I still can't figure out the right empathy motions to make towards someone. I couldn't imagine just being able to know stuff about people like that sub-consciously though.
I was also put through forced "NT training" as I like to call it by my parents pretty much all of my life (from way before I was diagnosed even, their knee jerk reaction was "There's something wrong with her, lets train it out of her"), where they would actually make me do stuff like looking in a mirror while eating, looking into their eyes while talking (they'd constantly interrupt me if i didn't), walking up and down the stairs 50 times so I'd remember to lock the front door, making me socialize and greet all the kids at school and ask them how their holidays were (didn't make me too popular, that one) cause otherwise I simply wouldn't talk to kids and read instead, etc etc. I also believe I have stuff to contribute to this site and this forum, but mostly I am here for my own personal enjoyment - the enjoyment of talking to others like me.
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Into the dark...