What are the benefits/good things about having aspergers?

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Logic, creativity, memory, and obsessions, to sum it up quickly.

Having Aspergers makes you unique, makes you who you are.
Think of who you would be without it.


I have Aspergers pride!

I'm very unique in a world where everybody is unique.

Amazing rote memory of facts pertaining to my special interest.
Great independent skills.

It gives me an opportunity and challenge to learn communication skills everyone should be learning.

I just finished listening to an online workshop call, part of a series of ten, about communicating with asperger's. The workshop is run by a social worker who has asperger's and has three sons on the spectrum. this week's lesson was about clarification or checking in with others.

He talked a lot about how people -- not just spectrumites but neurotypicals as well -- assume they got each others' message and then operate on faulty info. He said that people learn early not to clarify because so often people get angry when questions are asked. Next week he will talk about how to negotiate clarification with others so that they are less likely to get angry and more likely to give the information we need.

Clarification and negotiation are valuable communication skills that *everyone* would do well to learn. Because I have asperger's, I am more able to understand the importance of these skills and less likely to assume I can read other people's minds and "just know" what they really meant. The difficulty that *everyone* has in communication is more apparent and clear to me because of my asperger's and as a result I have the opportunity to become a superior communicator than most *because of* my communication disability.

I'd say that's quite a benefit and opportunity.

Here is a list of some of the upsides that come with Asperger's syndrome:

-Higher default IQ.
-An ability to hyper-focus.
-Powerful long-term memory.
-Enhanced senses.
-Cool nickname (aspie).
-Understanding community.
-Ability to pay attention to details.
-We rarely commit crimes and have a strong sense of justice.
-We are very honest.
-We're the Bill Gates of tomorrow.

Here are some of the downsides of Asperger's syndrome:

-Insomnia (sometimes).
-Social incompatibility.
-Co-morbid conditions (ADHD, OCD, etc).
-Overly acute senses.
-Too great a sense of justice (we are sometimes "tattle-tales").
-We can come across as geeks or nerds (not in the good sense - the insulting, degrading sense).
-We can be too honest ("Hey Mom! That person is really big!").

Personally, I wish I were neurotypical, but there is no reason for anyone to feel bad about what they were born with (unless they were born with depression - then they would have a reason to feel bad about what they have).

In my case, I have a high resistance to peer pressure (so, no smoking or excessive drinking, that kind of thing), high intelligence, geek interests, etc.

Here's a link to a very nice article on the issue.

I like having aspergers for many reasons, one of them being my natural creativity and another being striving for individuality. We all have different talents as aspies, we just need to find them and undermine them.