Are people with Aspergers more creative?

Post Reply New Topic

Basically I can be mature in certain ways and immature in others. Mature in a sense that I want to help others(especially down trodden people, even when I feel the same way), immature as in watching cartoons, playing with action figures or prank calling.

I go from baseball obsessions(just statistics and trades, I frequent MLBTradeRumors dot com), I don't care about the actual game. I then go on to politics, I then go on to various dog breeds, I have always been obsessed with geography and read my first atlas at age 7.


I enjoy going for things that are unpopular(much of the time they become popular after I have already been interested), I usually like going for the under-dog. I am sort of an original hipster as I could say on many things "I did that before it became mainstream".

I remember in elementary school while I was still on a similar mental level as my peers, they looked to me as a leader, I would create rug forts and card games which they all emulated.

In my teens I made various abstract paintings and drawings out of boredom which my teacher(s) found great.


I also am very good at making up fake but realistic sounding stories, I lie about itty bitty details that make no difference and can tell them with a straight face. I usually tell the person(a family member or good friend) a couple of days later and they say "what?!"


I also get many compliments on my casual attire, my father is natural dresser with good taste so that could be part of why I have a natural sense of style.

I have found generally weird or social outcast people to be more interesting and creative than really nt people who seem to follow convention in eberrything from telling jokes to working on projects.

I'll use my dancing experience as an example. Usually when learning a new dancing style or steps I tend to over study the whole movement sequence, therefore appearing clumsy at the beginning.
As I warm up to the idea though i.e. gather enough details, the whole picture that appears in my mind allows me to excel in what I'm doing beyond what most NT's believe possible considering my initial "clumsiness". It is possible to add elements to what I've learned then (improvise), in a way that is seamless/natural to the casual observer.
NT teachers that have no prior experience with me will often accuse me of over thinking. They usually grow "wiser" by my side and just allow me to do things my own way after having known me for some time.
This is true for me in pretty every interest area that I pick up and develop an obsession about. NT's simply accept things as they are and then try to pinpoint a single detail as a causative force underlying the "big picture" to see if it can modify it. ASD's tend to obsess about the details in order to develop the "big picture" and then use combinations of details in order to modify it.
I guess it's simply a different take/perspective on creativity.

^^^Yes, this is makesensical description and applies to me too. It's bester for me to do things my own way. My teachers let me do that from grade school, probably it made their jobs easier. This approach does include a period of high incompetence followed by a big improvement when all the details suddenly complete the big picture.

Last edited by btbnnyr on 03 Feb 2013, 12:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

I agree with both. I do things best my way. My math teachers were amazed at how I could solve complex arithmetic in my head yet could not show it on paper.

I don't think I would call it creativity. It's more that we simply don't start from the same point that NTs start from, or process things the same way we do; so if they did what we did, it'd be creative--but when we do it, it's just what comes naturally to us; we'd have a lot of trouble doing things the way that comes naturally to NTs. I don't think we have any more mental flexibility than NTs do; possibly we have less, what with the tendency toward routine and repetition. Still, that doesn't mean our contributions are useless. Even with less flexibility, our natural differences would give us a pretty good head start when it comes to thinking of new things. That's why diversity is so useful. The more different viewpoints you have, the more possible solutions to any problems.

I was always head of the class in art, I don't think aspies are anymore creative then others however are more prone to be creative for meny of the above listed.

And one more thing. NT's tend to underestimate us, because aspies may seem naive in areas they have no prior experience with. Let's just say I enjoy both the underestimation and the surprise that follows. Be it nasty or pleasant. NT's who feel superior need to get their noses rubbed in from time to time just as we do in order to retain some humanity and appreciation for other people. I prefer to surprise people in the pleasant manner personally (gives me that warm feeling inside).

Why are we creative? We don't fit in with the sports bunch or the "normal" social bunch. That leaves us to our own devices. If we're inclined to be artistic or scientific we develop those talents as best as we could in our simple effort to just stay alive.

IDK about more creative based on what you said.

Creativity is a funny thing. You have some people with AS who can draw extremely well but make nothing original.

You have people like me who are called "creative" and really aren't. l would say l have free associations but am really never producing anything new, just reworking old things. That's an autistic trait.

Anyway, yes l think some can be but creativity is misunderstood, usually as something "feely" types use to justify their emotional spillage into the public domain.

l'd say many people with disorders like ADHD, AS, dyslexia...and some forms of mental illness are definitely outside of the box thinkers, though.

And many of us are original hipsters( minus the part where hipsters have no identity of their own and are inferior beings).

That's quite correct. We're a part of the rat race whether we like it or not. I think we are a more subtle mindset if you get my drift. Although our "eccentricities" make us a bit more visible to the NT's (making some think we might be overly naive,) as we try to often be invisible, we have our tricks and manage to get by and often succeed.
We tend to become overly adept at our specialized interests and to others that might be a source of both admiration and envy/spite often disguised as derision. Don't mean to sound narcissistic or defeatist, but that's how most folk tend to perceive us in this world, that many (including us) think belongs to the human race and "believe" that people have to power the mill (or the meat grinder) of things.

Since we think differently, we can look at the problem from a different angle which is very helpful if you are working in the design or art industry.

It's just another AS stereotype.
There's a stereotype that is: people with Asperger's are more creative than NTs
And the other one that is: people with Asperger's are totally uncreative
It just depends from the person.
Just because some people with Asperger's are creative it doesn't mean that everyone with AS is.
Just because some people with Asperger's are uncreative it doesn't mean that everyone with AS is.