Does anyone ever use their "special abilities"?

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I suppose I should begin by clarifying "special abilities". For instance I have hypersensitivity, something I never thought of as different when I was growing up(I always thought everyone was like me.) I am currently working at a job where it is coming in handy. I work as a propane service man, so detecting gas leaks is an everyday thing. My jacked up senses pick up leaks that everybody else don't even know about.(jacked up senses!? I still can't understand why people don't hear high pitched squealing noises and smell bad odor!) Anyway, do any of you use your "special abilities" for useful little things perhaps at work or just life in general? I'm very new to all of this Asperger Syndrome, Autism what not. So far I've only been able to scratch the surface of all this with my current research. Any help is welcome.

I'm conciously trying to redevelop my ability to sence other people's emotions in terms of whether or not they are feeling ok - and to get the sence of the mood of a room or place . . .

I rather like the high pain tolerance thing since it makes me look like a tough guy!

I have really hypersensitive hearing. I can easily hear the 15,575Hz whine that TV monitor HV circuits emit, but not as good today as when I was younger. I can also pick up on certain sounds that others would easily miss. The other week I was over at a friends house watching TV when I heard his younger brother snooping through his room which was right upstairs from where I was sitting via the subtle creaking of the floor boards.

I used to be married to a very social person, who always wanted to have parties. I observed people's behavior at the parties and experimented with different ways to alter their party experience.

For example, I found that if I arranged the furniture in a way so that people had to walk around things and pass through bottle necks to get to refreshments, bathrooms, etc, they enjoyed the party more. I think the additional walking and forced contact points increased their socialization opportunities so they enjoyed themselves more. I think the obstacle course type setup also helped people who were socially ill at ease by preventing them from standing around and by increasing their chances to talk to people.

I tried many different set ups and also lighting and sound variations over the years.

People would say "good night, thanks for the great party!" and I would smile and think "thanks for being my guinea pig, and I'm glad you had a good time"

I'd say my only "special ability" is to detect gum in the room/area I'm in. I hate gum!

Mich

I can smell people. It doesn't matter if they're wearing cologne (which I hate) I can still smell individual people's smells. Their smells change when they're sick, so I can smell when a friend isn't feeling good and be appropriately sympathetic.

The strangest ability that I have is a built-in compass. (If you chuckle now, it simply means that you don't have it! ) When I was a teenager, my family traveled a lot across Europe, and I was - naturally - a designated navigator (I am also handy with maps). My compass helps a lot getting around in cities, and during mountain hikes. I like hiking in a difficult, unobvious terrain, but I never carry a magnetic compass - what would I need it for?
Geographic directions are available to me at all times, without any thinking. My earliest childhood memory contains them, so it is possible that this ability is innate. Yet I have never met anyone who would understand what I am talking about. I have also never read anywhere that humans could be capable of having such a sense. Birds - yes, but humans? So here I send a message in a bottle: Is there anyone among you who would have the same "savant skill"?

Great to hear you guys share your special abilities here! Keep 'em coming!

That smell thing taineyah described is really interesting - because I've always found it really comforting when I'm sick or just feel strange or something to borrow one of the people I like to be around's shirt or jacket or something because it smells like them - I had never thought of that as an AS trait . . . but maybe it is - no one else I know seems to do that . . .

I can also feel someone's energy clinging to their clothes - I love to wear my favorite people's jackets and things because I can feel their presence in them . . . does that make sence?

And, Magic, how I wish I had your compas! I can get lost in a parking lot . . . a lot of the people I like to be around are male, and men, as a whole, have better spacial abilities than women (of which I am unfortunately one) and so they will say 'go up to 820 and go north' and I have to say 'Is that right or left? I'm female, remember!'

One time when my truck broke down I got a rental car that had that little direction finder thing on the rear view mirror and I nearly had a couple of wrecks because I was so facinated by it!

this is great i love hearing about the special abilities!
for years i thought everyone had it, but when i turned 10 i realised not everyone was as sharp as i was.
i have tons of special abilities, these are usually a burden aswell as a gift (ie hearing, smelling, sensitive to touch)
but my best ability i thank the world for is my sense of distance!
i think i must have an inbuilt ruler in my eyes or something crazy like that because everytime i need new furniture, or are moving house, i just KNOW the width and distance of the rooms, and everyone else is like "no that cant be right, the living room in the old house is way longer than this one..." then i prove them wrong.
also, my mum depends on my smell for finding the catpuke and catpoo first before we have guests, as they always do it in obscure and hard to find places.
there are probably tons more, but i cant think.

I can never follow verbal directions! When someone tells me "left then right at third lights...", I just draw a map. My compass is neither visual (I don't see any lines) nor verbal (it doesn't work with words North, South etc., but rather with something like < ^ > v ). So when giving directions to people, or listening to theirs, I need to translate. And the funniest thing is that I tend to mix up words East with West, and also left and right. When we were traveling through Europe many years ago, I was actually forbidden to say "turn left" or "right", because in half of cases I would tell it wrong. Instead I was saying "dad's side" (left - driver) and "mom's side" (right - passenger). I still have problem with that and need to think hard and check three times before saying things like "Southwest corner". The problem is with words, not directions.

Another hidden skill I've just thought of. I happen to be very good at judging time. If I'm not near a clock for any extended period of time, I can usually guess the time to within +/- 15 minutes.

Scoots5012, I just read your post and recalled that I am also good at judging time, but only during sleep! It's as if had an alarm clock bulit-in. I always wake up 1 or 2 minutes before the alarm beeps, then I push the button to make it stop and return to sleep. My internal clock is really this accurate, but I must set a real alarm anyway - this action somehow also sets the one in my brain. When I am awake, unfortunately, time often flies unaccounted.

I think I can smell gas leaks when no one else can too. I am also familiar with the smell of people I am close to and notice a different smell when they're sick. I don't notice the smell of most people though because I don't get close enough. I also smell the cats to see what they've been doing and if one jumps on my bed in the dark I can tell which one it is it by its scent. Recently I've occasionally been smelling things (e.g pizza) that don't seem to be present which is odd.

Also, I have a good memory for written words but a terrible memory for spoken words (probaby because I have an auditory processing problem). O also seem to have a fairly photographic memory; even if I've thought I've forgotten a word I'll hear it years later and a picture will pop into my head.

My favourite 'skill' is being able to flick only once through a pile of cards for a trivia game and then remember all the answers. Even if I don't remember the wording of the answer I can say, 'it was the third one down.'

I also have that internal alarm clock. I usually just repeat the time to myself about 5 times before I go to sleep(if I go to sleep!) I wake up at that time without any help from an alarm. Also the human compass effect, if I recall correctly, has to do with a tiny amount of metal in the end of our nose. I wonder if the large amount of trace metals in our body's have anything to do with that special ability. (I need to look that up.)

This is great talking about things I've had to keep secret for so long. Usually I have to pass my abilities off as dumb luck, so people won't get mad. Now I don't feel crazy when I tell people I can hear those sonic pest chasers.