here we go! positive aspects of AS/ASD

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So... there are no positive aspects to autism?

AFAIK there are no positive aspects to LowFunctioningAutism, MediumFunctioningAutism, HighFunctioningAutism, AspergerSyndrome, AttentionSyndrome.

I'm sure there are, and I didn't say that there aren't. But I guess I took this whole thing literally, and thought of what it says in the DSM-IV, and not many of the things listed here fit in. And besides, I didn't feel very good about my AS when I wrote that, either...

But I'l reconsider, OK?

PM me ur msn addy I would like to chat with another someone has HFA.


As someone with HFA , his + are :

- Immunity against propagandas (politics , religions ...)
- Don't need a lot of friends ...so less probability to be backstabbed.
- Having a good IQ ( this is in my case IQ: abt 116 , some HFA have below average tho.)
- I can play piano by ear , good hearing( but some NTs can do it too)
- I can notice extreme details in pics .
- I can't grief easly in tragedic situations (sometimes this may be + but sometimes it annoys me)
- I can learn PC skills easly and faster than any1 in my class ( I am not boasting but this is TRUE , in all computer courses ALL my colleagues call me for help be4 final exams)
- I Have patience ....sometimes I can feel that I stopped the time .
-I have the sense of fighter inside me .....I want to prove to the world that I am something .
-When I love someone ....I love her for good whatever what happens later=> loyalty
- My parent care a lot abt me even at this age
- I am independent in some things .... I have my own mind and my perspective on life
- I don't care a lot abt the looks ...I don't judge a girl by her beauty.
- I don't care if my car is amazing and wow .....what all I care is a car with good quality and can move.
-I have great knowledge abt animals , nature and ecosystems, computers , space ..... that most ppl don't have it here.
-I am honest with myself ....I can criticize myself
-I don't mind if I am alone .

I suspect that each person is posting positive aspects about themselves rather than AS in general, but that doesn't make them any less important People should recognise their strengths as well as their weaknesses.

...sorry about the cliches; I just got carried away.

Yes, so true. It would be difficult to post any of the diagnostic criteria as "positive aspects of AS".

Lets see... You guys have a lot in common with me actually.

-Independant.

-Obsessive (I.E., video games, robot fights, etc.)

-Loner

-Painfully shy

-Hard for me to feel any kind of emotion for an extended period of time.

-Slightly arrogant: I have to resist the urge to brag, or bring somebody down, but it's not too bad really.

-Compulsive: I often have to resist the urge to do things I know I shouldn't do. I have little control of my passions and thought life as a result.

-My ability to see through George Bush's lies. XD

-My ability to notice minute details.

-Above average IQ (except in math).

-Nature conciouss.

-Don't need a girlfriend, though I'd like to have one anyway.

-Can be alone for extended periods without getting lonely.

-Narrow focus, and having a super hard time concentrating (I'm procrastenating homework as we speak).

......more later.

This is true, too, but then the same could be done for NT's were you to decide that they had a diagnosable condition. Most famously: http://isnt.autistics.org/

Haven't we had more than one poll showing that most here (or was in another AS site?) would, overall, rather be what they are, if a cure meant being more like NT's in certain respects?

I like my logical mind, that I'm not so swayed by emotions, fads and fashions and advertising.
That I can problem solve like no-one else I've ever worked with. That I notice things other people don't and extrapolate from them...

Yes, downsides. Some big ones. But I'm not clamouring for a cure.
At least, not one that makes me merely normal.

This is true, too, and some of the criteria for this terrible disorder are readily available in threads focusing on NTs.

The ability to perceive many aspects of my environment outside of a mind-construct of what I expect it to look like.

(Which is actually backed up by research. There's an entire paper out now that deals with the core feature of autism being a cognitive/perceptual strength, that has different outward manifestations in different people but is based on something very similar, and this being why they've never been able to find a "core deficit", because it ended up being the other way around.)

Ignorance.

-High intelligence

-Special talents, e.g. in music, visual arts etc.

-Independence

-Loyalty

-Unaffectedness

-Development of expertise in an area of interest

-Sometimes, good looks

Many of the diagnostic criteria could be good or bad, depending on the situation. This is just like many personality traits. Am I independent and strong willed or just stubborn and defiant?

Depth of knowledge in a "restricted and stereotyped patterns of interest" can lead to gainful employment and respect in society. It also gives the person a meaningful focus to his or her life. This single-mindedness and perseveration of attention can also be of benefit when extended concentration is required. The independence and unconcern with social trends can enable a person with Asperger's syndrome to explore original possibilities without fear of social pressure.

Most of the psychiatric disorders listed in the DSM-IV-TR and Chapter V of the ICD-10 are exaggerations or overuses of healthy, normal human behavior. Asperger's syndrome and the autistic spectrum in general merely represents the disordered end of a continuous distribution of autistic traits within the normal population. We just have stronger manifestations of these traits, more of these traits, or less adapted means for coping with these traits and putting them to positive ends.

Indeed. In fact all of them can be good or bad, or can be outgrowths of things that are good or bad. And many of the weaknesses or apparent-to-NTs weaknesses in autism are actually results of a particular pattern of strength in autistic thinking.



That's the standard line, but I don't buy it, because I don't believe that there's anything necessarily wrong with how we are. Where the line is between "healthy" and "unhealthy" (and I think "health" is not even a good metaphor to use here, and it is only a metaphor here, not a reality, and that's important to keep in mind) gets changed all the time and is often dependent entirely on what society at a given time is structured to accept.

Because I am mostly uneffected by emotional body language in others, I can detach myself from a scene and record body expressed meme for later internal analysis. I can then build schema from them.

It's just the opposite with me. Despite my terrible short-term memory I have a very good long-term memory. That means, I may not remember something I've just read, but a few hours -or days!- later I can remember (almost) every detail of it.