How do you explain Asperger's in 30 seconds or less?

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it means i'm missing about 70% of this very conversation due to some wiring issues.

it means i'm always in the middle of something, so i can seem a little absent minded. and would prefer to never be interupted. by food, sleep, toilet breaks... people.

it means i'm as good as deaf and blind and is fairly indistinguishable from actual blindness (true - apparently it's very hard to diagnose a blind kid as autistic!)


I think telling people you're odd and have no social skills is fairly redundant. No one really knows what no social skills really means anyway. People mostly don't know that they're intuitive about body language and tone of voice. And that they're judging you, or how they're judging you. Trick is to hope they're lovely, and accepting of differences in people. Then it doesn't matter what you say. Actually either way it doesn't, cos people who judge and rule against you, well they can bugger off.
As long as you're nice enough for someone so inclined. No snapping at people or greasing them off allowed when explaining aspergers people!

i dont, people in those situations, i feel no need to dilvuge anything about myself

If you can tell a story, NT's love stories and associations that are clever... I say one of two things.

If they are smart I say something like, "It's like having one foot inside our shared reality and one foot outside of it; it is often associated with an incongruous relationship between the executive functioning of our brains and the executive functioning brains of the rest of society. " Yadda-yadda-yadda.

If aren't academic I say something like, "Please interact with me like I am from another country and English is my second language."

Right away you create a boundary and something tangible that they can work with and those who have friends whom English isn't their first language will most likely have the patience to see it through or have an understanding more intuitively that non-verbal communication is likely to be less effective and that you are more likely to accept literal interpretations of language.

If they want to know more about high-functioning autism, tell them to watch Tony Attwood question and answer videos on Youtube - the guy is great.

I tell people that I have a neurological disorder that results in a triad of impairments: social communication, social imagination and social interaction. If I have the time (and the other person doesn't look like they are chewing their own leg to get away) I explain how those impairments affect me.

Well this is a interesting post and very interesting comments.

I find that the best way for me to explain it to nt's and I have had to deal with a lot of this recently is to try and explain it in a way they can understand without too many follow up stupid questions

"Asperger's for me is like having part of my brain communicating in german, and other parts in french finnish and chinese, I am stuck in the middle with a translation book, I can understand most things and deal with others exceptionally well but I have to work harder than most, but when I try to deal with body language and hidden suggestion from interacting with people my translator hits (file not found) and I can grind to a halt"

but I think "social dyslexia" and "I'm complicated" as mentioned before hits the nail on the head but can lead to more questions.