Aspies "Experience the world differently" from NTs

Post Reply New Topic

I don't think that Aspies are born with a unique world view. Everyone has a unique way of seeing the world. But for me, I was able to view the world as an outsider, never able to fully be part of social groups. As a result, I became the observer, so I learned a lot about social communication. I also learned to read between the lines.

I have wondered about this myself. Even before finding out about Asperger's Syndrome and Autism I was told I viewed the world very differently. When ever I asked how, they would never tell me.

Even now my room mate and best friend tells me this all the time. She also tells me that I think differently from most people. I can understand some things that I think differently. Such as how I view friendships, or try to view how friendships work and everything... Which I still have a hard time grasping. But just doing different things, such as cooking and what not. She will see me do something that, to her doesn't make sense, but once I explain my reasoning behind it, she seems surprised, but understands and will generally tell me that most people wouldn't do it that way. I would ask why and she would just say something like "it's easier" or "that's just how it's done."

I don't know what NT's experience when they do such things, but I think it is a very different process. Since we are a small minority in a world that tends to think one way, we are going to be the weird ones. Even if the way we do things are more logical and reasoned.

I think for me, theres a lot of things about human behavior I dont notice for one. Theres a lot of things that used to not make sense for me. But overall, I just think differently then most about a lot of issues. Im a deep thinker, I have different opinions then most of the mainstream.

Here's how I have trouble making sense of the world (in typical terms):

Unless I am actively thinking about it, when I look around me, I don't see like... okay what is this stuff. Computer, hands, cat, bedrails, bead maze, etc. Instead I see sort of a jumble of colors, shapes, visual textures, etc. And the same is true in every one of my senses. (Which usually have to happen separately from each other, like I can only attend to one at a time.) I get the sensations, and I get the patterns within the sensations. But I don't get the ideas, the abstractions, the other stuff that most people take for granted cognitively/perceptually. It takes effort to "make sense out of" these things, and I can't always do it.

Here is a post I made that sort of relates to this:

http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=642

Which also talks about the fact that underneath all that "making sense of the world", are abilities that most people who can "make sense of the world" in typical ways, are unaware is even possible because it's not necessary for them to use this way of understanding the world. It's a very different way than typical understanding or thought. To someone unfamiliar with it, it would probably feel like losing all ability to think (not just not thinking clearly, just not thinking at all, for their usual definition of "think") and being flooded with sensations. When I can find patterns in those sensations because of thirty years of practice, and because I have had to learn this method of understanding the world, because idea-based methods don't work for me.

I'm only one autistic person though and while there are many with experiences much like mine, there are many more with totally different kinds of experiences. But these are the ones I know sort of how to describe, having worked at it for a really long time, and having experienced it. This is also just one way but I'm falling asleep as I type so I might have to go now.

I like the way you explained that!



Since you mentioned cooking, I've always noticed how everyone I knew could prepare a big meal (like a Thanksgiving meal for example, or any big meal with different things to eat) and have everything ready at the same time (or almost), and I try to do that but so far have not been able to, its never ready at the same time, there is always a few things cold when the whole meal is ready I'm glad I have a microwave

I guess they are just better at scheduling then me.

I feel like i get a glimpse of how NT''s experience the world every now and then, but it's like a mirage, something that looks inviting but can never be attained.
I've often wondered how an NT would react if they experienced the world as we do, even for just a day. I think they would probably just curl up in a fetal position with their eyes shut and completely freak out

I like the "English and Cantonese" analogy someone mentioned (though perhaps two closer languages might also be a good analogy, so that the concept of "false friends" can be included - words which are the same (or nearly the same) in similar languages but have very different meanings - like English gift (present) and German gift (poison)) To take it further, there are as many different versions of English (etc.) as there are English speakers, plus dialects and accents and all the rest.

I like your post, I think this rings true for me.

Some things other people do doesn't make sense...like...why do we have these conventions that we have? I have trouble understanding capitalism and why everyone needs money just to be motivated enough to do something. It's a mystery to me. Why does life have to be so hard and complicated?
It seems unnecessarily so to me.
I experience the world in a much simpler way.

RE: Details

I don't think this is true for me, I tend to just totally miss details. I have been told that my drawing or writing isn't detailed enough. Also, when people get "stuck" on a detail, I am always thinking "What difference does this make?".

I have trouble understanding the need for racism, why do some people think that their ethnic background is the best? Seriously, what difference does it make?

It seems my experiences are different than a lot of people on this thread.

"We are literalists"? I'm not usually a literalist. I have great difficulty getting to literalness in the first place. By which I mean... to me language is just sounds and squiggles, it's hard for me to squeeze the literal meanings of the words out of them. And once I do understand them, it's not so much that I know the meanings of each word. But more that I experience each set of words in terms of the contexts where I have heard them. The same is true when I use words which is why I can use words I don't know the meaning of. This is also why some autistic people are known (it even used to be an example in the diagnostic criteria) for "highly metaphorical" language use. So I don't use words for their literal meaning as much as what sensory experience the groups of words go side by side with most often.

I don't think autistic people are as uninfluebxed by culture as some believe. You soak in the culture all around you even when unaware of it. That's why places like this will always have a lot of autistic people spouting autism stereotypes, racial stereotypes, gender stereotypes, disability stereotypes, etc. Even rejecting such things is not enough to get them out of your head. Nor does even not noticing them mean you haven't absorbed them.

I'm also seeing a huge difference between how people say they have trouble understanding the world, and how I have trouble understanding the world. People are talking about having trouble understanding social conventions or racism. And... wow. It's a difference of a whole different level or two. I have difficulty even getting to the idea that the world is not just a swirling mass of chaotic sensations. It is cognitively painful to identify what objects and people are, the whole notion of categories hurts my brain. Beyond that is understanding the words people are saying (by which I mean trouble finding meaning and that kind of stuff, not trouble hearing which word) and stuff like that. And beyond even that is all this stuff about social conventions and stuff. Their existence, that is, not the understanding of them.

So... yeah. That last one really threw me because to me trouble understanding the world means something far more basic.

It's true those with AS see the world in a different way, focusing in things many people don't, big or small. But this statement is based on the incorrect theory that NT's, or anyone else for that matter experiences the world the same. While we all get mostly the same info, everyone is influenced more or less by all sorts of things.

Though I've often wondered if everyone else's colors are the same as the way I see them. Is blue in my mind the same as blue in everyone else's, I'm guessing it's pretty close if not the same, but it's provided me with lots of pondering.

Me too! I once was thinking "Does everyone see red I see red?" how do I know the way I see red isn't the way I see blue?"

My dad used to have a bathing suit that everyone thought was red but he thought it was orange. Same with a tent tarp.