Hmmm, not sure how to put this all into words but we'll see how it goes... It's something that I've thought a lot about on and off, and it came to the surface again last night at work. I work in a group home and right now there's an extra person staying there for a couple of days (respite) - no dx mentioned in our information package on her, but I'm sure she's autistic. So anyway what I'm talking about is a feeling of truly being able to connect with certain people, in ways that don't happen for you with 99% of the people you come into contact with. It's random, it just happens on it's own with certain people and you don't have any control over when it does or doesn't happen. With most people I don't feel any real interpersonal connection (as much as I'd like to, it just doesn't happen), I can't read them, I don't feel much of anything at all in terms of human relation. I can certainly interact with people well enough to get by and live a "normal" life, but it feels superficial. There's definitely something big missing... But then when I'm around certain people (it's rare, I've only experienced this with maybe 10-20 people in my life and they've all been on the spectrum at least somewhat) it feels like a whole network of activity gets triggered in my brain - it's like a switch gets turned on and I'm experiencing the same things that I'm guessing nt's probably experience all the time with everyone they're in contact with. I'm wondering if it's the mirror neurons. I feel an ability to connect with the person, I'm getting a whole flood of nonverbal communication from them that I wouldn't notice in other people, eye contact is very natural... I could go on but I'm not sure how else to describe it. And I get the feeling that it's one of those things, if you've experienced it you'll already know exactly what I'm talking about. Anyone? Any thoughts on it?
28 Aug 2008, 7:08 am
