Video on autistic perception walking down the street

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plPNhooUUuc&feature=related[/youtube]

Found this on YouTube. I can very much relate to the second part (also noticing all the details on the way and getting distracted by it) and it is somehow surprising that there are others, who experience it in a way alike, though you know that there are, but still you feel so lonely with it.
I feel different in so far, that sometimes I see more colour, "hard", like "jumping out of a building" and sometimes it scares me and add people to it and I am in overload. Sometimes I feel, if I would sense noice and movement somehow "tactile", like it goes really into the body and - I don't know how to explain it - it's like a passing car is somehow driving "through" me, but it is hard to explain.

But how can he/she know, how a non-autistic person experiences it?
I guess, somebody helped with it.

What do you think about it? In how far do you relate his/her perception?

Last edited by Eloa on 17 Nov 2011, 6:40 pm, edited 3 times in total.

The filmmaker is missing the point where you stop and touch something or just stare at it for a minute. Or looking at a cloud too long and tripping over that crack in the sidewalk. Or encounter a strong smell and cross the street to escape it.

Really neat idea for a vid, though.

Oh yes!
But it did it more when I was a child. I lived in a small town and my school was 10 minutes walk from home and my mother told me that I was always one hour later then the other children passing by. One day she followed me secretly and I touched all the trees at the side and "investigated" everything. I still can remember it and the feeling at my hands.
But now I life in a big city without many trees and I walk much faster.
The smell sometimes I taste it in my throat...

It's one of the many reasons I prefer bicycles to feet generally. Less impetus to stop and touch, better facilitation of escape that smell.

Thanks Eloa, this is very interesting and I am always on the lookout for something that could be an insight in my son's day to day experiences.

P.S. your english is better than some of the 'english speaking' people I know

that's about it, but I spend alot more time investigating and noticing the little quiet wonders around me.

Have you ever folowed a trail of ants to see where they are going, or notice the shadows of a wrought iron fence and felt speechless at its beauty? What about wondering how a tree's roots can break and lift concrete when it grows so slowly? When vines capture a broken down car that has stood it one place for years...the yin of industry becomes the yang of nature. One hot tear drop of mother earth bursts with life swimming through an abandoned car...revenge of the natives.

Thats how I go on a walk, I miss nothing, however in a crowded setting, I cant filter out anything either, so its like the world is turned up full blast in my face. I prefer quiet strolls with the ants.

One of my fave quotes on the subject:

"The miracle is not to walk on water, but the earth"....Thich Knat Hanh

I'm frustrated whenever I see videos like this because it's impossible to really get the point across what it's like, sort of like when astronomers try to put the vast distances throughout the universe into perspective by using metaphors. And yet I still find myself e-mailing videos like this to people, because it's the best I can do.

if i didn't wear sunglasses always when outdoors, everything would look that dazzlingly bright to me. and the world is indeed a noisy place, even out in the sticks where i live now, there is lots of noise- barking dogs, wind rustling through the trees, chirping birds and chipmunks and animals slipping through the brush, not to mention the noisy humans out here with their whining 2-stroke engines buzzing about and their guns and noisy machinery, and endless shouting and hooting.

I too am curious about all my surroundings so I stop and look and touch and like Jojo wonder about them. I can feel the texture by just staring at say a brick wall sometimes but I prefer to touch.

It's also a great way to distract yourself from anxiety of the many sounds and people. I struggle to walk on my own street because it's instantly a small city street with shops and traffic and people walking about but just looking away from all that and focusing on some type of land mark, either natural or man made really helps get me through it.

I'm currently trying to get over a migraine because the world is too bright. I need sunglasses.

One thing I like to do when I'm walking down a street like that is run my hand along the wall next to me, to feel the texture.

Without sunglasses, it's not quite that bright or washed out, but it does get really bright and hard to look at things, which is why I never go without sunglasses if I can help it. If I don't have them, there are some colors (like green) that I can look at for a mild bit of relief.

I run my hands along walls too, particularly down school corridors. I absolutely agree with the part about brightness, I hate bright lights!

Living in the city is really hard for me, not quite as awe inspiring...which why I prefer small towns and out in the country.
In some ways feeling is important as seeing, touching something can distract me from all the visual and auditory stimuli of the city.

See in a small town...life is softer, but for me, in a big city, life is cranked up on full volume with window rattling bass.
Pensieve.... touching the walls does gets me from point A to point B. too Somehow touching something grounds my senses while all this comotion is going on.

I need sunglasses on sunny days. I dont have as much trouble with brightness as many of you do, but sunny days make me squint so much I am suprised I can still see.

However, I just got my hearing tested for the trillionth time (getting new hearing aids). The audioligist said that I indeed have a hearing loss, (which I do 45db, with a central auditory processing dysfuction) But she said that my hearing is sensitive too because of the autism. So I am getting special hearing aids that make sounds clearer, but not much louder and will muffle background noises.
So hopefully this will straighten out my paradoxal ears. I often wont wear my hearing aids cuz they make everything so loud and in my face, but these are for ppl with hearing loss but with problems with background noise.

I hope they work as well as she thinks they will.
Most of the time, I hear sounds and some can be overwhelming and I am unable to filter them out, but when it comes to talking to someone, I hear the sounds of what they are saying but cant make sense of the words unless they look straight at me and I then lipread what they are saying. See I have an excuse from making eye contact, I am reading lips to understand you But I hate making eye contact.
it feels freakish.

Anyway, I managed to ramble off topic. I will shut up now.

Jojo

Oh, yes, school corridors. Sometimes, lockers are the best part.

When I go for my walks, I always look around and notice things. I also have ran my hand along things too and someone once asked me if I was ret*d. I was in middle school then and I don't know what I was doing any different so perhaps that was it. I was feeling the lockers and looking at the handles as I was walking by. But I don't see myself as being distracted because I walk fast and I always stayed with the group as a child. Sometimes I get behind and then someone would call my name. I can choose to not look and just stay looking at the ground as I walk or keep my face straight ahead.

I have no issues with brightness though unless it's summer but it's not that bright as the video showed.

I'm one of those people who finds noticing things as I walk to be positive. What normally bothers me is what I might be missing. Brightness is sometimes a problem, though, but not so much as is depicted in the video. That's a good thing, because I hate looking at the world through glass or plastic, I get pain from having sunglasses rest on my nose and ears, and it bothers me if my eyelashes touch the lenses.

I found, however, that the bouncing image of the video was hard to watch. I also find it painful if I'm reading something on a computer screen and someone makes the page scroll or if someone is holding something on paper while I read it and their hand moves at all.

I like to stop often to touch and smell many things, mostly plants. I also like to converse excitedly with myself. Sometimes, I stop for a few moments to focus and think about something.