My opinion on Aspergers

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We are all individuals, so not everyone's AS is the same as everyone else's. Still, there must be some common threads. Otherwise, why claim a label that also applies to others? Why get together to discuss things as a group if we don't even really belong to a group? Do we not tend to be analytical? Do we not tend to collect information? If I'm getting something specific wrong, please tell me. I didn't start this discussion to irritate people.

Thanks, for the clarification. It sounded a little like BPD, and yes, a contradiction of the description of how you described your experience of Aspergers. I was thinking it was not a literal statement, but some of us have a hard time of not interpreting things literally, including me.

The research on self awareness issues with Aspergers also relates to theory of mind and alternate methods of determining anothers social intentions. I also learned to consciously study social cues and nonverbal communication, however while one may learn to do that, the other individual can often pick up on the fact that it does not come natural, from the facial expressions they observe.

Interestingly, for a person that is more consciously aware of the details of social interaction, they may pick up on some things better than others that don't have to exercise that conscious attention to the details of communication to understand it.

Having to consciously determine peoples intentions, is a tax on executive function that others don't bear, and moreover that part of the thinking process is an adaptation, not necessarily an overall objective advantage over those it comes natural to, that are able better able to pay attention to other things at hand, during social interaction.

There are advantages and disadvantages common to both methods of thinking between the Aspie way and NT way.

The way of thinking for a person with Aspergers may be more efficient when the task at hand is better suited for the Aspie way of thinking. In cases where public speaking or verbal direction to a group of people is required, the conscious attention required to understand the multitude of varying social cues from a group of people, can be quite distracting from the focus on what a person is intending to say.

Some people with Apergers are able to overcome this with additional adaptations.

Yeah, you're a new member and you need to improve some social skills if you expect to get along with people here. Maybe you should read the courtesy rules that Alex posted? There's no need to get all worked up and throw around personal attacks.

I didn't think you'd be able to do it. Oh well.

The way I see it, the NT way is advantageous only in social situations. It seems to have to do with automatic emotional reactions that they have, but I'm sure there's more to it than that. I was talking to my sister once, and she said that when she sees certain things, she can't help but react emotionally. This would make sense if people's way of interacting with each other was naturally emotionally based, like the NT mind's emotional parts were fully integrated with its intellectual parts. This is all just based on observation though. I've observed that emotional passion has a dampening effect on a person's ability to think rationally (kind of an obvious observation, really), and thinking in a very rational and logical way tends to dull the emotions. When people interact, it's as much an emotional interaction as it is an intellectual one, so those with a more integrated intellectual/emotional mind have more smooth interactions. That being said, when emotions take over, even NTs experience social friction. Aspies can get very emotional as well, but it seems to me that under normal circumstances, our minds are ruled mostly by intellect.

But maybe I'm just talking about myself here. Does anyone else out there experience long stretches of feeling no emotions at all?

I am curious about your signature statement: "Everyone is an individual except for me. I'm the only one who is just like everybody else". There is research that suggests that Aspies don't have the same sense of self that others do. Do you feel like your sense of self changes depending on who you are around?

I guess if one were to use the computer analogy; it would be like your software changes, when you are around different people. I think most people experience it to some degree, but others experience it stronger.

I've noticed some people who have very strong personalities, that don't significantly change when they are around different people. And others, who seem to take on the personna of the other people they are around.

The computer analogy seems to be very relevant to this. Long before I knew anything about Autism, people told me my mind works like a computer. And, that was before I started using a computer. Obviously they saw that I was analytical, and didn't express emotion the way that most people do.[/quote]


I relate with this. I DO tend to be, to an extent, a social chameleon. I mimic those around me in an attempt to fit in. Those who seem to get the best feedback, I mimic more than those who get the "look of scorn". I do, however, frequently clown, quite frequently at my own expense of slight humiliation. But being happy-go-lucky, it doesn't affect me much. Whatever it takes to not be looked down upon as a little kid. It helps compensate for the constant accusations of "reading too much into things", "trying too hard to fit in", and the dreaded-- "YOU'RE WEIRD". On that last one my usual response is "THANK YOU FOR STATING THE OBVIOUS!" With my mimicking capabilities I am quite successful in replicating "famous" personalities and several accents, again the human chameleon thing which seems to impress almost all NTs. I can easily break a conversation away from annoying topics such as who is besting who in football (I can't stand football as when I get involved in football I end up AS the football) by breaking out in a Steve Irwin monologue or telling jokes in a Donald Duck voice.

Research shows that about eighty-five percent of people with Aspergers have a co-morbid condition called alexithymia ranging from where they don't understand their emotions to not feeling much emotion. Humans are emotional creatures, and research shows that emotion is behind most of our decisions whether or not we realize it.

In your disagreement, earlier in the thread, what in your mind was the initiating factor in defending what you said, emotion or intellect? If you are one of the many people with Aspergers that experiences alexithymia, you may not be able to put into words the emotion that motivated your responses.

Indeed. Suggesting that someone sounds like a "pompous fool" sounds like a direct appeal to emotion to me.

I know I used to make the same argument to people, that since I called their argument stupid and ignorant, that they should not take it to mean I was calling them stupid and ignorant, but the thing was that whenever I found myself needing to argue this I never managed to make the point I wanted to actually make because they would focus on the emotional content rather than the intellectual content - and calling something "stupid" is emotional content, whether I felt that it was emotional or not.

Someone referenced a study in another thread here a few months ago in which people who didn't have emotions at all couldn't make decisions. Alexithymia seems to interfere with the ability to identify and feel emotions, but it seems that the emotions are still there, and people still react to them.

I think between this, particularly when one becomes numb, and having to consciously focus to understand social cues, it is no wonder that some with Aspergers have so much problem with executive function at times.

I read a study recently about Aspergers and self awareness that was interesting, that went a bit further in saying that it's not just that people with Aspergers don't have the automatic process to decode social behavior in others, but some with Aspegers may also have difficulty in understanding their own thinking process, that may be an easier, automatic process for others.

Obviously, though when it is the way one has always experienced the world, it's all they know; this particular study took the time to ask people how their thought processes worked on an everyday basis and found they were much different in people with Aspergers. This may be why external routine, special interests, and structure are so important to people with Aspergers as an adaptation to a mind that works in a different way.

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ruveyn