Limitations of Aspergers can be overcome!

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Well, I think such "limitations" vary wildly from one individual to another. On my own case, I fare much better than most Aspies in regards to socialization (I have done quite a bit of effort) however, dealing with women beyond casual friends conversation is still a big challenge for me. That's certainly a limitation produced by AS and perhaps a severe case of shyness/fear of rejection (I guess I was rejected twice in school and I can't still get over it in my subconscious). On the other hand I have no fear regarding conversations with unknown people or public speaking, copywriting, or trying to create an interesting conversation. Your case could be the opposite of that... you get the idea. It's a very individual subject.

What I think about this whole Spielberg / AS thing is that, yes, he having AS is by now a well-known fact, but that didn't stop him from keeping in perpetual creative motion. What he couldn't express with casual talk, he commited himself to do it with moving pictures, and at some point he did strike a chord with the feelings of everybody out there (E.T., for example) and from there the rest is history. He was able to create a profit out of his own fantasy world, overcome his social failures (it's Hollywood anyway), and just being on the right place at the right time. That, and an overzealous dedication to what you want to do are the key to reach any goal you can imagine I guess. Now if I only could figure out a way to apply that to my own life...

I still think Spielberg's supposed AS is a rumour too many people took to be a fact.

I remember reading something by an autistic guy who knew him, who said he definitely seemed autistic. And this is from a guy who usually frowns upon celebrity-diagnosis sorts of things.

Those feeling uncomfortable with this kind of thing might find their reactions explained here:

http://www.geocities.com/dhcpolwnk/articles.htm#supcrip

I don't mind that Steven Spielberg or other successful people are autistic, or even that people realize that they don't have to define themselves by someone else's version of their limitations. But the "Anyone can do this kind of thing with enough work" thing also ends up driving a lot of autistic people to ignore things like (for instance) overload, with pretty bad consequences.

I don't want to be Steven Spielberg, and I don't want to have a goal of succeeding on the terms of a world that defines success in the bizarre way that much of the social world defines success. Steven Spielberg can be Steven Spielberg. I just want to be whoever I'm supposed to be, do whatever I'm supposed to do, and do well at that, whatever that ends up looking like to most people's versions of success. I don't care if I'm rich and famous in "the-world" terms or have a "bit part" in the world as long as I play the part I'm supposed to play.

If we can avoid the idol worship digressions for a moment...

It's perfectly normal to have some regression after being diagnosed with any type of mental or physical disorder. It's usually an over-reaction, in that a person who tried too hard to reach a goal that was impossible now tries too little and fails to set and reach realistic goals. Self-pity may be involved, but for the most part it's just a matter of taking the time to integrate the information and create a new view of the world and our place in it. Eventually your natural personality and desires will reassert themselves. Those who accept the diagnosis and have a positive outlook will find new ways of facing the world. Those who deny their diagnosis or feel doomed by it will obviously have a much harder time.

I guess the point might be with the Steven Spielberg example is that confidence can make a big difference in the success of one's actions. And perhaps sometimes a diagnosis can resign one conforming to a certain hopelessness. Such examples, whether Spielberg does or doesn't have AS, can show many people that Aspergers and other disorders don't have to be a death sentence for them to living a life they don't want to live.

Confidence isn't necessarily a guarantee to reaching life goals, but it seems to aid in personal achievement more than without it.

(Arrogance is another story though.)

All of us aspies can overcome obstacles. If Spielberg can do it so can we.

Yes, that can be true but we shouldn't have to feel pressured to do this on somebody else's timetable. It's up to the individual how much they feel they can cope with at any given time and if some of us aren't coping quite as well as some famous person seems to be, we shouldn't have to feel bad about it.

All of us have our own set of circumstances, personalities, and mindsets and what might work for one of us mightn't for another. I guess in some ways I've regressed since getting my diagnosis but maybe it's because I'm not pretending so much to be someone I'm really not.

If movies were your obsession, and all everyone ever wants to do is talk to you about movies, it might not be so hard. If all anybody ever wanted to talk about was my obsessions, I would be pulling everything off a lot better than I currently do.

I'm one of those annoying 'little Hitler' people who are easily irritated when ignored or selectively listened to. I'll try again and just hope that people don't carry on posting as if I never said the following:

Steven Spielberg has a confirmed Asperger's Syndrome diagnosis.

The continued dependance on reinforcing self-worth by drawing attention to successful people who are or are suspected to be Autistic is a process of building one self up just to be knocked down again. It's the Deus Ex Machina effect of the ego.

A person who improves their self-esteem with retail therapy is doing the same thing. But a person who does so by maintaining high physical health and fitness feels a more permanent and self-sustaining effect and gets much more security in themselves.

If I told you that as an Autistic you could count to ten better than a non-Autistic person, you may not be that impressed and then you will seek to elaborate or exaggerate the effects of what I say. You may ask me "you mean I can count to ten very fast?" and I would reply "No". Then you ask "You mean I can do it without making any mistakes?" and I would say "No, verbal ability has no bearing on your ability to count to ten, you don't have to say it out loud". And then you would be even more confused.

The count from one to ten is a simple and predictable mechanism, therefore an Autistic will find the task a lot more easier to comprehend than most others, even if the task is not viscerally impressive. An Autistic can basically do the simplest things in the world, only with less effort. The trouble is that these things are so simple that no one bothers to dwell on the actual difficulty of them, except developing Autistics who recognise the actual difficulty and take measures to streamline the process at an early age.

I can do anything that can easily be done by anyone else, only I find it even easier. The differences in results can only be recognised if steps are taking to make the discrepancies obvious though, like many tasks over a period of time. I read these questions in a newspaper article about tests employers have to test both the patience and intelligence of prospective employees, it turns out that intelligent people spend longer even on what appears to be the most easiest questions:

1. A bat and ball cost £1.10 in total, the bat costs £1 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?

2. If it takes five machines 5 minutes to make five widgets, how long does it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?

3. There is a patch of water lilies in the centre of a lake. The patch doubles in size every day and it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the whole lake. How many days does it take for the patch to cover half the lake?

It's the fact that Autistics tend to be more hesitant about simple things which gives us an advatage in problems like these.

I have a lot of trouble with many of the things other people find very easy. In fact many of them I can't do at all, others are just very difficult.

I find a few things easy that other people usually find difficult, or don't even realize can be done at all.

Not everyone tolerates my movie madness, at least not for very long. Often my lecturer would see my hand go up at every question and she goes, 'Someone else?... PLEASE?!'

The point was that just because we differ from most people in this world (where being different has always raised eyebrows... now the raising is just more subtle), Aspie's can flourish and thrive. That was my point, and I'm glad some of the readers found some inspiration.

Jetson, what did you mean by this:

Don't know about others but I've never (seriously, not even once!) been able to read between the lines...

Some of us cannot read between the lines no matter what we try to do, so you may as well state the obvious.

Some things will logically be harder for us (those of us with AS) than other things, but this does not mean we cannot do it. Many people believe that AS people are better with technical things like computer programming, but this does not mean that there are no NTs who are excellent with computers. Same thing for making movies. Or pretty much anything, for that matter.

MovieMorgul, you've had people try to stop you from talking about your interests too? Same here.

If you don't try, you never know.

Life isn't a safeguard from failure.

Inaction is.

Aye, I'll drink to inaction!(gulp)

Anbuend,

Well you have to first realise some things: what others may do which looks easy to them is probably not if you can't do it. People can actually be fooled into thinking something is easy if they don't recognise the actual difficulty of a task, that happens all the time. The only way to tell is with problems that have a small twist in them that otherwise appear to be easy to solve, like the ones I posted above. Those who assume that the fastest and easiest possible answer they come to is the correct one will fail. Real life tasks are often like this, which explains how you can do things that others can not.

It's funny how many Autistics find 'easy' tasks hard but 'hard' tasks easy, Einstein worked like that as despite his complex workings in cosmology he often bungled simple arithmetic.

I think its not a realization, as much as it is an assumption. Your whole attitude is based on the assumption that "what others may do which looks easy to them is probably not". It might be a good ego booster, but in all likelihood a 'false positive' in most cases.
You say you have no problem with social interaction. Well, you'd be one of the few AS who can say that. Most of them get diagnosed simply because they have trouble, before they even know about AS. How does your 'theory' that AS has no social impairment factor hold true?