A note for all my autistic-spectrum, Asperger's, and face-blind type friends:

[xiphias]

Just because us neurotypicals are better at this social stuff doesn't actually mean that we're any good at it.

Seriously. I mean, a lot of you folks, having worked on trying to figure out what is socially-appropriate, how to tell what people are feeling, and whether to take some one literally or figuratively, may find yourself in the uncomfortable position of being among a group in which everyone else is NT, and you're actually better than they are at all this stuff.

Just something I was thinking about after seeing various experiences and thoughts that different autistim-spectrum folks on my friends-list were talking about.

Comments

[navrins]

Heh. Yeah. I basically started learning body language and empathy at age 19 or so, and I've gotten better at it than... well, maybe not average, but average for the people I typically deal with. Theater was a big help in that - once I got started, it helped me be more aware of how people communicate with body language, and why they do the things they do.

[fallenkalina.livejournal.com]

AMEN!

I mean, Agree, totally.

[vvalkyri.livejournal.com]

face blind?
Is that sucking at recognizing people except by context? :raises hand:

[tylik.livejournal.com]

Is face blindness austism-spectrum? Or necessarily so, at least?

If I associated it with anything else going on in my poor brain, it was probably more the mild form of dyslexia that still occaisionally crops up.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Certainly the only person I know offline who has face-blindness also has dyslexia and does not show any other signs of being on the autistic spectrum, but it's a small sample to generalise from :-)

Sometimes you learn too well

[deerdancer22.livejournal.com]

As someone on the autism-spectrum I learned to read not just facial and body but the energy. Then I had to learn when I was seeing people's truths that they didn't see. I'd come from those assumptions and they'd get mad. A little later on it would surface which is how I learned I was reading correctly. I made lemonade out of lemons and became a therapist where they usually like it or at least ask you to read their truths (sometimes they don't appreciate it either but it works out well in the end).

Those of us on the spectrum have tremendous sensitivities and we are actually a gift to a world too hardened.

[dancing-kiralee.livejournal.com]

Is it just autism, or would ADHD count as well? Because my experience is that it would (I thinking of a couple of people from our current Friday game)

Kiralee

[deerdancer22.livejournal.com]

In terms of brain waves the autistic spectrum has a high ratio of slow waves to the faster waves that are used for focus and concentration. Theta slow waves in particular are high when awake in people who are neurologically sensitive.

In autism the sensitivity is so strong that the person shuts out the world to self sooth. ADD/ADHD also have too many slow waves functioning when awake so I suppose you could say they are on the far end of the spectrum. That is why stimulants are used. People with ADHD move alot to help them stay focused.

I have a friend who rightly said it should be called the sensitivity spectrum. Brain waves can be trained so medication is not always needed.

[dancing-kiralee.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the information.

And thank you, Ian, for the comment. It was helpful.

Kiralee