What is the most "non-autistic" thing about you?

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Sense of humor.

Although mine can be dry, I get other people's humor (most of the time) and like all different kinds of humor.

I also read people well. I pick up a lot from them and have gut feelings that usually turn out to be right.

Also, I can switch between introversion and extroversion without a lot of trouble.

On some days, this isn't the case. and I probably appear very GET THE F*CK AWAY FROM ME to most people. but most of the time I can fake charm and extroversion pretty well.

Anyway, I was saying in another thread that I probably have NVLD because I am the opposite of an Aspie is some ways.

My biggest things are sensory issues(fragmented perception),not understanding people when they speak (about half of the time), and being generally weird(possibly awkward, I don't really think so. Just "weird"), and going mute for long periods of time.

Two things: (1) I have learned over many years to fake eye contact really well and (2) I do very well in school (getting as close to perfect grades as I could when I was in school was one of my obsessions)

~Kate

I find it amazing that someone on the board has both and is up there on the top shelf in employment.......

I'll say I can walk the walk as Pat2rome when peaked, and I enjoy deep conversation; and never small/ idle talk unless it's funny or witty and clowning around with spoofs/ or parodies.

On the 'un-peaked' coin side two; No.... you (one) is/are mired in a confused state of mind. Forget everything you know about Theory of Mind 'in the slump.' It's like walking around as a Cherub from another realm, standing there amongst people, unable to predict behaviors, and you say to yourself, " I've lost my freaken mind." There is some 'significant loss' that I experience in this up/ down cycle, even with treatment. It's all executive because it permeates into doing things such as tying your shoes in the proper place, rather move to an inappropriate place and tie them there, and track stuff all over..... you lose a coherence in organizing your thoughts. It's like a roach sprayed with Raid; it has a temporary identity crisis and its cognition is scattered under this doomed spell.

My shoes

I don't think people when they first meet me think of me as Autistic or Aspie. I probably freak out people as I'm a little "odd," but generally I come across as an NT person in social situations. I still have problems with eye contact and understanding everything about a conversation, but I'm much more adept at socializing than I used to be and I can usually understand the basic feelings of people. I also ask people many questions and I relatively enjoy small talk, which is unusual in Autistic and Aspie people.

I don't have a problem with change and when I'm happy I'm very chatty and expressive.

I have a good sense of humour and I am very sarcastic. To balance it out though I rarely pick up on other people's jokes or sarcasm!

Duality in what I believe/feel is an important part of who I am, in part brought forth by the expectations set upon me by others. (versus my own.) I'll agree with you that if I'm ''in a slump'', it's harder to reach those expectations. An handicap to clear thought, if you will. But I'd be a fool, I think, to base my expectations for myself based on what I do when I'm ''in the zone'' communicating easily and being almost normal. Those instances aren't the norm and it would be unreasonable of me to base my behavior on that.

Now, in regards to employment...being hired is easy. But resisting the assault of sound, social expectancy and overall ''stupid behavior'' is an entirely different thing. If I could do that, I'd be CEO somewhere, already. It's more complex than that, being successful at a job.

I hope I interpreted what you said in a way that makes my response acceptable. It not, feel free to elaborate or correct me.

P.S: I love your sig,

Thanks.
My sig makes me laugh because it is so true. I'm laughing hard by just typing about it.

My duality has been labled " bipolar" by people that are close. Once, I mentioned to a friend I thought I had Aspergers, and he said, "________ , I thought you were bipolar." Wife too.

Yeah, It's an identity both ways, and since I know exactly what it is, I get along much better with it. I had hoped at one time it was endocrine related, but knowing that it's not, shot the hope of a cure down in flames-- t-3 and t-4 are not it.

I talk alot and I enjoy public speaking.

I am oftentimes sarcastic and I can interpret spoken sarcasm very well (and sarcasm online just as well as anyone can.)
I wasn't good at this as a child, though, but I think that's just part of being a child.

I've been here for along time ( almost 2 years) under a different SN and have see a chit ton of sarcasm on these forums.

I've posted about that in the past, seems like a misconception about autistics, although OF COURSE, it varies.

And you're right, even NT kinds don't get sarcasm. I didn't get it around 8 or 9 and I see some NT kids older than that who don't pick up on it.

I will say that sometimes I miss jokes and sarcasm due to not paying attention, but that's a seperate issue.

-I am not at all literal-minded. I can be when I need to be - but I recognize when a literal interpretation is important/correct, and when it is not.

-Never had difficulty with metaphor, sarcasm, figurative language, irony. I grasped these things well before beginning school.

-Along with the last one, never had a problem understanding jokes. I understood/understand them on multiple levels as quickly as I have processed the literal meaning of what was spoken (at least, the time is so short that it appears immediate). However, due to auditory processing problems I am often the last to laugh at a joke; however, the delay isn't any more than the delay between someone asking my phone number and my understanding the question.

-I'm highly attuned to my emotions as well as the emotional impact of what I say/do on other people. However, I tend to put practical matters on a much higher priority than addressing wounded feelings, so when there is a time-sensitive problem going on, as a teenager I frequently would do nothing to address the other person's feelings until the problem was solved. After a few times of this, I realized that when dealing with an irrational person who refused to put emotions aside for a short time (and in fact held emotions as a higher priority than logic or facts), I had to address their feelings first or it would overall take more time to solve the problem.

-I've never been preoccupied with a singular interest, or select few interests. I am, however, very interested and knowledgeable in about a half dozen subjects any given time. If a stranger at a party overheard my conversation about one topic, they may well think it was my favorite subject and that I'd spent a lot of time learning it, but it may be one of my least favorite subjects with little time spent studying, because everything is my favorite subject, so most things are on an even playing field in interest level with a select few exceptions that are more interesting. Then the next person I talk to about something totally different with the same depth of fascination.

-I am excellent at lying, and have done it successfully far more often than I am proud to admit.

-Apparently a subset of Aspies are overly trusting. Not me. I'm typically suspicious of the motives of others (before I started school and bullying was an issue), and was cynical by the age of 8. I can't tell you how many times my mom was about to fall for an obvious scam and I had to talk her out of it when I was young.

-I hate routines and love spontaneity and surprises, provided they are for the better. That always confused me when the resource room teacher would take me aside early and tell me we were going to do something different that day, like music instead of reading, because transitions only bother me if it's transitioning to something worse.

-I never had a monotone voice, except when pretending to be a computer (as a child I pretended to be a computerized encyclopedia - in effect playing Wikipedia before Wikipedia existed). I did have that "formal speech" thing, though. I just spoke it in a rhythm more like a documentary narrator, or like Frasier Crane (even now, when I am talking to someone with less education, when trying to use simpler synonyms, avoiding jargon, explaining concepts that seem obvious to me due to differing levels of familiarity with the literature on the topic - occasionally my dad will point out to me later that I need to cut down on that specialist vocab, because the other person probably didn't understand it). The thing is, since I rarely spoke with "average" people as a kid, I have little idea what level I have to change to.

-Something that isn't specific to AS, but I never felt a great desire for companionship. IOW, I never felt like I really wanted to connect with others and feeling pain for not having friends. I just made that story up to my parents once they found out I didn't actually have a lot of friends, since I didn't want to look anymore abnormal than I already was, so I told them what they would expect to hear from a kid without friends. I dreaded psychological evaluations back then because I thought psychology was so well-developed a science that any lie would be detected and they would know your true thoughts and feelings no matter how you acted (this was when I thought "lie detectors" were 100% accurate mind-reading devices). I had already begun to doubt this position by the fourth grade when they evaluated me, but all doubt was removed when I had the psychological evaulation. They really thought I was desperately sad to not be friends with my peers (I have no idea why, when my friends in college made much better friends than a bunch of ten-year-olds), and I had always feared that I was a sociopath because my dad said he thought he might be one (turns out he didn't understand what that entailed).

I enjoy having a good friend, but at other times I don't care. About 90% of the people I meet I have little interest to converse with later beyond the superficial social protocol to use with anyone. I realized in first grade that it was unrealistic that I would find friends who shared my interests in entomology, etymology, or epistemology, so I associated with various people, but nobody ever seemed to want to talk about education, neuroscience, political systems, modern physics, or underwater basketweaving.

Now that I'm an adult it's way easier though, since more people are looking for meaningful relationships beyond a shared activity and it's easier to find peers who want to have a conversation more substantive than what clothes or hair styles they want, or the progress of their favorite football team so far. Yeah, I talk about those things too (even though my interest in fashion is about the lowest of all my interests, as it is generally uninteresting to me except in a historical or analysis of popular trends context), but fifteen, twenty minutes tops before I am mentally screaming, 'Shut UP! This is inane and boring; can we PLEASE move on to something ELSE?'

ETA: Forgot sarcasm. In second grade I made ample use of sarcasm.

I'm kind of the same way. On one hand, if a stranger even accidentally brushes up against me I get anxious, but on the other hand, if it's someone I'm attracted to, the right kind of touch can make me melt. In the right situation, if someone sort of slowly combs their fingers through my hair it's hard for me to keep from purring like a kitten . I guess that's somewhere the oft mentioned aspie "hypersensitivity" thing comes into play. Touches that might make a normal person just a little bit uncomfortable make me completely panic, but touches that might feel good to a normal person send me into complete ecstasy. I'm not really sure that's completely "non-autistic" really, other than, perhaps, that I can get into the frame of mind to allow that. The hypersensitivity sword cuts both ways .

As for something that I think is a bit uncharacteristic of AS, I'm kind of experimental. I like my routines, but I also like seeing new places, trying new things, etc., and sort of taking new things I've learned I like and working them into my routine.

I have a strongly sarcastic sense of humor that helps me bond with others, so having friends has never been an issue, and over the years I've taught myself to exaggerate my facial expressions for comedic effect. I have friends who will say ridiculous things just to see what my face looks like when I hear them.

I can do the Eye-contact thing these days. You have to do it in Job Interviews afterall, or you can kiss the job you want "goodbye"! But it took tons of practice. And I still don't like when strangers try to do it. In other words, its ok in the situations that absolutely require it, but its not something I enjoy..

Matt