If you could be non-Autistic for one day, would you try it?

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I would like to be lots of different things for a day, so I guess that I would also try this out for a day, but only one day and not forever because then I wouldn't.... be myself anymore.

Oh, I never thought of that... a "shrieks and loud clappers don't bother me" spell or something. I was going to say pill, but they have things like that and people become addicted to them so I thought it rather creepy... Mother's Little Helper as the Stones called it.

I can be "that" for a moment , and in a glimpse as in only a second or two; I do see it through their eyes....

I can/do empathically climb into another perspective here.

Wutz up dude!- Is an emotional bandwagon ride in the day to day celebration of living life, not much more. It's the joy of sharing the experience/adventure. Jump on! It's an enabler- substitute special interest for this ^.

I've understood this but was never much envious of it, other than it was a hindrance in landing a mate, and the lack of 'security.'

Essentially what you're asking is "would you like to be another person for a day?" How you perceive the world and organize your thoughts are so intrinsically part of who a person is that changing it, even if your physical exterior remained the same, would change who you are. Several of you have said as much when you say what else you might like trying to be for a day. And of course, within both the categories of "Neurotypical" and "Autistic Spectrum" are huge variations of experiences- and there are plenty of people who are neither, but different kinds of Neurodivergent (I think there is a tendency to equate Non-Autist as Neurotypical in many discussions here.)

So there is no Neurotypical "version" of a Neurodivergent person that they might experience, but rather a vast (hypothetically infinite) number of possible brains within the range of neurotypicality that you might have for that day, with as many variations on experiences. I'm sure some neurotypical "versions" of myself would be hellish to experience, and some very joyful.

But (.. and yes, I am getting to a point here...) I think there would be great value to experiencing the world through different wiring and neurochemistry. I think a lot of people experimenting with hallucinogens do so they can have an entirely different subjective experience that they can remember and compare to their baseline experiences.

No. As ElfMusic stated, what you are basically asking is to be someone else for a day. Although the experience itself would be nice, it wouldn't be the autistic 'me' who has experienced this but someone else, with different a perspective and view on things. Basically, I would be gone and someone else would take my place for a day.

Although, playing Role Playing Games are very similar to being a non-autistic person for a day, in a certain way, although fake. Even fictional stories which are written in first-person perspective has a similar effect. Therefore, my answer is a big flat "no".

The method to try be a non-autistic person while being essentially yourself is already there, you are just overlooking things which are right beside you, I guess?

YES! YES! YES!

Absopositively yes, I would!

And here's why.

That would be the ONLY way I can think of to discover how my AS actually, and REALLY causes me to be different.

Even for but one day, the experience would be an eye opener, giving me a "baseline" by which to compare what I supposedly "should" be like, as opposed to how I am. It would clear up all those nagging doubts about which idiosyncrasies I have are just normal "me" quirks, and which are clearly part of having AS.

The MOST important reason I would to it, if it were at all possible, and it sadly never will be, is that I would then understand how it is I would "rather be." Knowing that would give me a "target" to work toward.

I'm not naive enough to believe that through therapy and/or drugs I would necessarily reach that "goal," but at least I would know for sure how close I am coming, or if whatever methods I am using are actually drawing me away from it.

With NO idea what it's like to be "normal" I have no idea whether anything is really working, and am left at the mercy of those around me TELLING me whether what I'm doing is working. The problem with that is that I am never sure I can trust those who are telling me. How am I to know whether they are telling me "Hey! It's working!" only because what I'm doing makes THEIR life better around me, and not because it's really helping ME function better and really improving my life?

Being able to see life without the fog, even for just one day, would give me the perspective I can't ever get any other way.

EDIT: On an IMPORTANT side note, I may also learn that I totally HATE IT, and decide I would never want to be "normal." The experience could, I suppose, forever convince me NOT to ever do anything at all about my AS.

ANOTHER EDIT: I also have been diagnosed with ADD, and would try for a day being ONLY AS but NOT ADD, and vice-versa just to discover which symptoms I have are only from AS, which are ONLY from ADD, and which come from both.

Knowledge is power. So far, and this will never likely change, I've ONLY known what it is to have both and see life through the eyes and mind of one who has both. I have no clue what it is to have neither or both, so I have no idea how I REALLY differ from those who don't. It's all guess work, and probably always will be. I would give my right eye to take the guess work out of the equation.

Definitely. I hate being an Aspie.

I've thought about what it would be like to live a day or two as another person besides myself. I would like to spend a day or more being supermodel gorgeous and very popular just to see and have a different point of view.

Do you suppose that that would that make you happy?

Keep in mind I would still be who I am on the inside, just change the physical appearance and height (I'm average size) and maybe get an injection of glib banter, so I can sparkle socially. It's not like I don't want to be autistic, because some autistics can manage this sort of thing.
The majority of my autism I don't view as a bad thing. There's just a couple of things I want to change.
I think I could be happy this way, but I would have to experience it to be sure. I would want a choice, though, of whether to stay or not.

Last edited by ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo on 20 Jan 2011, 3:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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I've no reason to want to. So no, I don't think I'd want to

I did, and I get your point. I just would like a choice about experiencing life as someone else. Most people probably wish they could at one point. It might just be a normal part of
being human.

I don't know if I would want to be a celebrity. I wonder what it's like to experience the things others take for granted that I miss out on socially. My social experience is so different from most people's.

I don't think you get my point. It's the wondering that makes you unhappy. Don't wonder, just be, and you will be happy.

It is possible to wonder, and still "be."

I wonder all the time, and it doesn't make me unhappy at all.

I'd try it, just because I think it would be an interesting experience. I'd also answer the same to being able to turn invisible, fly, or see in x-ray vision for a day.