How NTs view the world vs how Aspies view the world!

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I think that was a thread I started and Pensieve commented on. I was struck by your comments about smelling smoke and having to smell shampoo to reset your ability to keep smelling the smoke. Do you think most people with typical neurology lose the ability to sense things so quickly or was it because the smell of smoke was so faint?

Another thing I'm wondering. When you hear a figure of speech, do you automatically get a mental image of the phrase taken literally even if you understand the phrase? Example "Go jump in a lake"-see someone jumping off a pier.

It would be difficult for me to say if it is less complicated for me than for an aspie, I suppose it depends on which specific things you are talking about.

A lot of the posts on WP seem to be about difficulties with social interaction. From what I read on here I would definately say that social interation is much easier for me. I read social cues well and even if I am put into a new situation I can generally figure out what is expected of me fairly easily. I don't think we have as much anxiety about day to day things, or have to think so much about every detail in order to feel comfortable.

I know that some people on the spectrum have a very hard time talking on the phone. Since this is a form of communication that may often be used at work, I can see how an aspie may have a difficult time in that situation and an NT would not.

I don't think we are as exhausted by social interaction and so our energy is not as easily sapped by the things that are often required in day to day life.

I suppose that when I think about how much I have to adapt my communication style in order to try to have a relationship with my aspie that I realize that he has to adapt to me and then other NTs in his life as well. I'm adapting to one person he is adapting to many. I can see how that could be exhausting! However I guess he has more practice adapting than I do so mabye he is better at it? Some of the things that he does or the way he thinks are completely foreign to me and for the first time in my life I am sometimes at a complete loss as to what has just happened between me and another person.

I imagine that if this happened to me with not just him but on a daily basis with other people in my life that it would be very hard to deal with. I would assume that for many aspies this could be a daily or at leask weekly occurance.



I also look people in the eye when I talk to them. This is not a problem for me either.

Last edited by ntgrl on 17 Mar 2011, 7:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think it was both. If buildings were burning all around me I wouldn't have to keep re-setting my nose to keep detecting the smoke. It was faint. But I think this "sensory fade" phenomenon is widespread in NTs. It's not just me. A lot of people talk about how they just stopped noticing things after awhile. If it's very strong, it takes longer. But NTs who live in urban areas do stop hearing the cars outside their windows as they sleep after awhile.



I only get the mental image the first time I hear the phrase. I don't picture somebody jumping in a lake because that phrase is so familiar. But if somebody translates an idiom from another language into english, then I picture it. But if it's an english idiom it's as though there is a shortcut in my brain that bypasses the mental image and goes straight to the intended meaning. It's like the shortcut on a computer screen that goes straight to a particular program. But when I was a little kid and still learning the idioms, I pictured them.

I am quite good at talking on the phone and have good phone manners in general.

i don't like looking at people in the eyes only becuase it makes me feel embarresed and paranoid that they are able to see my twisted thoughts

@ Janissy-thanks, I was always curious about the figure of speech thing. I have a particular liking for idioms and their history so I never take them literally but no matter how often I hear something I will always get an automatic visual picture.

I think I am able to not so much stop hearing noise but render it on the level of white noise. I have in the past been unable to sleep when there was intrusive noise. Then I read something about how much of the problem is the resistance to the noise and if you just relax and listen to it it eventually becomes not noticeable. I think this works if the noise is consistent but not if it's loud and intermittent.

Yes, I did when you said this. But I don't think I am that bad of a literalist with these idioms but I do see visuals of it often. I guess I can be with some random things and not getting what someone is saying or asking.

Last edited by Jediscraps on 17 Mar 2011, 7:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I have HFA, but I don't have that much trouble with socializing. With new people at social occasions, I get nervous. Around my friends, I don't have a problem. I have trouble relating to some people, but there are a few who I think we share a mutual understanding of each other.

I have a large personal body space area. I am currently having to work temporarily with this guy who not only talks with his hands but gets up close to me. My counselor has talked to me about a nice way to tell him to back off but I haven't tried yet because I've been stressed about other things. I could feel his presence in my personal space till late at night. I don't know if that is sensory or what but it bothers me.

I think I experience that sensory fade. I definitely do with smell, even relatively strong smells.

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Last edited by DenvrDave on 17 Mar 2011, 9:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Denver Dave is being an NT like being drunk all the time?

I'd take a wild guess that being an NT, and being a drunk NT - would be very much like being an NT who is drunk.

I have no idea. When I look people in the eye, my eyes hurt like staring at the sun or an extremely bright light, but without the phosphenes, and can even trigger a headache and some amount of overload. I just don't know what's going on, but I know looking people in the eye for any time at all is very uncomfortable.

The only two people I can make much eye contact with at all are my sister and mother.



This is one of those traits that can be either extreme - too much or none at all. Or it might not be an issue at all.

Correct me if I'm wrong, as I'm not officially diagnosed, but I suppose AS is like a zoom lens in comparison to the usual. The world is more chaotic and stressful, but more beautiful as well.

I don't understand why you would ask me that question. First of all, I am not drunk all the time so how would I know? Secondly, my perception is that being drunk makes one dizzy, careless, slow to react, vomit, say regretful things, pass out, and wake up with a headache. Since most people do not act like this all the time, to me the answer to your question is obvious. Is your perception of being drunk any different?

Your taking what i say too litteraly. by that i mean being happy all the time and smelling the roses?