aspergers cognitive framework or worldview

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i am wondering if someone can help me with this. i haven't been diagnosed with aspergers and haven't read books about it so i don't feel like i have a clear understanding. i've thought i've had it though.

what i am trying to figure out, is that if the way i view the world does seem like i have aspergers. i've been going to a clinical psychologist, but she does not have a speciality in AS or ASD, so it's been hard. and hard for me to explain the things to her about myself.

i have seen that the books for aspergers focus on social skills or interpersonal skills. i don't look at that as what my issue is, though i know i do have issues with those things. but, it doesn't bother me as much as the problems i have THINKING - and that's where my question comes in. do these problems that i have seem like AS or ASD?

i have trouble understanding the world, especially in a career context.
i have trouble knowing how to get things done in the world - where to go, who to contact, etc.
it's like i don't know what's out there.
to me, it's like i am not able to visualize other places in the world or types of workplaces - to know where i would like to be. i haven't experienced much either which doesn't help. and maybe that is bc i had been afraid to do new things bc of not knowing what to do in a social context and having anxiety about it, so i avoided it altogether.
(i know i may be able to describe my cognitive framework better than this, but i am not able to get it all out right now)

i know i am really intelligent and i think have many talents and abilities, but i feel stuck inside of myself, and don't know where to go in the world to make use of myself. i even have trouble being able to identify what i can do and articulating it.

is this how someone with AS views the world? are there things you can suggest to help with this, like advice, or a particular book?
thank you : )

Well you have an official diagnosis, read it through and talk with your psychiatrist about it.

I don't have that much knowledge about books on AS.

That does sound a lot like me, or more how I used to be. I don't have so much fear anymore, but I sometimes have no conception of how normal people get things done, where they go, who to talk to etc.

actually i don't have an official diagnosis.

oh, i also have the issue where i have trouble connecting things together. the "larger picture".
i have trouble seeing how things fit together, it takes quite a bit of effort for me. but when i can do it, i think i must think a hundreds times better than some other people out there.

for years of my life i was so stuck in the details, and can still have a tendency to do so, though i've learned now about the larger picture.
lol, but in doing so, i've gone way out in the beyond with my imagination (as i have always been), and have trouble connecting the two together sometimes. the practical and the theoretical/abstract.

Ah, I misread - it's getting late

Try the autism and the Asperger's Syndrome page on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome

Detail thinking and thinking in an other way (for example visual thinking) are common in autism.

Please look out for jumping on a diagnosis, not only of hypocondriac behaviour but also misdiagnosis can be very problematic.

Cheerfully,
Wallourdes

As an adult I thought I was looking at the "big picture". But in the last couple months I realized I forgot about the details of my own life.

I'm not even sure I was truly looking at the big picture now. I had naturally deconstructed a major part of this society and had to handle it by getting theological scraps here and there and sort of put them together with my critique and worldview, so that I could handle the tension. I focused on the main critique I had and the theological answer to deal with it. But I forgot about the major details of my own life that people just do, I feel like a kid in some ways. It can be hard to function like a normal person. And then I don't even know how or what to do. I never even thought of a career or higher education because I've been looking at it all from the outside and people and work are really hard for me to handle (which is part of the reason for my critique).

Now I think my critique focused on one major detail of the big picture and my theological answer to dealing with it was also detail of the larger theological whole but it was just a major detail of that big picture.

I think true big picture thinking would be focusing on the whole. Both details and the larger picture. Do you think so?

My counselor says I don't "compartmentalize" discomfort. He had said most people have some sort of filter which allows them to focus on the details of their own lives. I believe he related it to sensory integration problems but I'm not sure I even understand him correctly. Plus, I either forget, don't think of it, or don't really know how to ask some questions, during the sessions sometimes. I wanted to ask people here about this but I don't know how to articulate so people understand what I'm trying to say and starting threads and even posting can make me nervous.

I had and have been feeling like I'm trapped in 'their' belief system. Sort of like the movie, the matrix, but it wasn't the matrix, but a belief system which is completely foreign to me. I can't see how people can handle living in the world the way it is.



Yeah, I'm not sure I know how to be practical with my ideas going on in my head.

I'm not sure if this relates to what you're saying at all.

Does what I tried to say above sound like autistic spectrum stuff?

I have a very innocent view of the world.

CockneyRebel wrote~

I think people might say my view of how the world should be is very innocent.

Maybe they'd say it is a naive view of how it should be. I don't think I agree with them saying that though. Well, I sort of have been told that.

Personally, and rather than viewing the world in any specific way (other than maybe something like "baffling"), it is more like I do not even really have a view ... so I do not know where or how my own abilites and talents could actually fit for anyone's benefit even though I am quite sure that must be possible somewhere. The last job I had was a good fit, but I had looked for an opportunity like that for many years before finally finding it.

i get what you're saying, how wonderful! well written as well. i have trouble writing in an organized logical, succinct way.

i get what you wrote about thinking you were looking at the larger picture but it just being a major detail. but also about the holism. i discovered that a few years ago, though i didn't get it at first. maybe i still don't completely get it, but i think i have, i've seen things very clearly before. that was bc of spirituality though - focusing on truth, reality, etc.
and i did have the concept come to me that you mentioned- that it's about connecting the details and larger picture, and i thought it was some ability that people don't normally have. haha. i realized though that i have an issue doing so sometimes, though i have been able to before, and i loved it!

i'm not sure i quite understand what you were saying about the details of your own life. i could sense a twinge of understanding, in that when i focus on the larger picture, i'm not focused on my personal life. and how most people focus on the details of their lives and the filter. ugh. i don't really understand sensory integration. i think i get overstimulated so i put on music or something to help provide some focus.
i'm confused - bc i do focus on the details - too much at times. how do i know if they're the details of my life or just details. i think i have related everything to my life. sometimes i think i just don't understand people at all or anything, i just get some gist and go with it. bc otherwise i have to hyperfocus. it's like i have to hyperfocus just to have a cognitive framework (at times), to write, etc. otherwise it's like my mind is blank. which is good in a way. it means i'm open. bad in other ways.

oh my lord you sound so much like me - i completely understand about not being able to articulate what i am trying to or what i need to, and in my therapy sessions, not expressing what i need to. not being aware, etc. i have gone most of my life not communicating well with people, just not talking much at times.

i can't answer if it sounds like autism spectrum stuff, because i am not good with putting things into categories to say for sure if something is one thing or not. i am not good with seeing abstract differences. to me it's like everything is the same and there are no categories. what matters to me is how i feel, i need harmony. things are just somehow connected in a huge mess, and it's all intuitive (i guess). so maybe i do see things holistically in a way. but maybe that is just how i see life, bc i feel like i don't really understand the world (meaning society). i think i understand being human, because of emotion. but not categories, etc. which is good in a way. bc it means not seeing or focusing how people are different, which seems to cause alot of problems.

i don't know what of that made sense, and i know it's really disorganized.

i have tried to put everything together, but it seems like alot to put together. sometimes i really even wonder if the "normal" people in the world even have things together. i don't think they do. i think people with autism or aspergers can learn to cope in different ways, and are shaped to become different people. it's hard to see all the details, at least for me, and aspects of personality, even within autism or aspergers. it makes me think i just need to do the best i can with how i am, rather than trying too much to learn all this other stuff about how to be the same as everyone else.

i know i have found some sanity and clarity in counterculture and unconventional thinking and higher truths. unfortunately i think the world is the way that it is, and acceptance is key, and you can find peace within yourself. i think what matters in life has nothing to do with society.