Dad asked a question not sure I can answer.
Maybe you can find some good videos on YouTube of people describing it, that would help him better. Those books can be confusing. Him listening to someone talking about AS in plain firsthand experience language might help him get a better grasp of it. This is one I pulled at random. I found a lot of these by typing "My Aspergers" into You Tube. Good luck.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-NatnbPGy4[/youtube]
Re: "what it's like to be an aspie".
First of all, I think this question is too broad. It'll be difficult for anyone to answer that.
So in this context, briankelley's suggestion is a good one. Otherwise, I'd suggest that he break the question down into smaller questions about specific situations and conditions. These questions you could answer yourself.
Asperger’s is a spectrum disorder. It goes from the very mild to the very severe. And every permutation in between. One answer will not suffice. Personally, I think you and he, needs to focus on what it's like for "you", not for aspies everywhere. Focus on question you can answer, then both you and he will be getting somewhere.
The big challenge for you however, is that you don't know what it's like to be NT. So your descriptions will be biased toward what you think is normal. I'm trying to say you'll leave out descriptions of things that are normal and unimportant and trivial stuff; whereas these details matter when comparing personnel outlooks on life, actions and reactions to events, what triggers specific emotional responses.
Trivial things like background noise (lawn mowers, children playing) drives me crazy. It's these detail, specific to you that you need to get to. These are the outward things that make you different. But there is a large host of inward things that make you different also. How you think (pictures, sound, smells, colours). From what I've read on these boards, everybody thinks in different modes, therefore everybody's focus and conclusions will be different. What matters to you (eg: making progress on weekend projects, matters to me more than relaxing or socialising. I get angry in wet weather if I can't progress whatever project I'm working on outside).
Then there is the psychological differences. You and your father are likely very similar on a basic background level. Your likes and dislikes, favourite colours, foods etc.
Somewhere in your psych is a natural you, and an Asperger’s overlay of wants/needs/reactions. You have some work cut out for you separating the two I think.
wow, I wrote a book. lol.
Ask your dad "what is it like to be neurotypical?"
See if he can give any kind of answer.
Lol!
However there is one simple metaphor someone used on a TV that I thought was good. The narrator said that NT's were like cars on a road ( and can change lanes at will) and aspies were like trains on tracks running on rails. Thats not a bad start for visualizing the differences.
tbh I don't conceptualise myself like this (If I'm understanding this correctly). There seems to be this idea that inside every autistic is a neurotypical and if you can just reach them through their autism, then Bam, they're cured. I don't see it like that. Aspergers is part of me just in the same way that being female is part of me, and being European is part of me and being athletic is part of me. There is no 'truer me' underneath all of that - all of that is me.
And regarding explaining it to your Dad, there's a sticky post on this board, "greenturtle74’s Cartoon Guide to Asperger’s" with a neat little comic-book cartoon thingy that I modified, printed and gave to my mother and it was a terrific starting point. It seems simplistic, but you can't just go bombarding people with mass amounts of information; starting simply usually works the best.
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http://linguisticautistic.tumblr.com/
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