What makes you different?

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Never realised until I watched the DVD of Temple Grandin's story that one of the things that I take for granted is somewhat different to NT's. I count things.

Whilst I don't believe that I exhibit any of the 'signs' of autism that Temple had, nevertheless I do feel a strong empathy for how she felt. What was interesting is that she thinks in pictures, whereas I seem to think in numbers. I know exactly how many holes there are in the pattern on the top of my house shoes, how many tiles there are on my kitchen floor and numerous other things of particular interest to those who count things. Plus I know how many spare golf balls there are in my golf bag - 11, and how many high tees - 23, etc. Whenever I enter a room, for a meeting, social gathering, seminar, conference, or whatever, within a few minutes I will have counted how many there are in the room.

Nearly fifty years ago I was working for an avionics company in Sunbury on Thames England. One day I was stopped by the Divisional Manager and asked to get a copy of the list of part numbers that were necessary for a modification the engineers were carrying out. There were 11 parts in all and each number had 9 digits of the form 1710056.24. I wrote out a list there and then and handed it to the Manager. He was dumbstruck and went away to check their accuracy. I was 100% correct. This was in 1968, and I can still remember some of the numbers. Isn't that terrible. Bit of a sad case. <sob><giggle>

Any other counters here? And if so what kinds of things do you count?

Alison

I don't have extraordinary mathematical ability--but I do count such things as the tiles on my bathroom floor. I also see number patterns fairly well.

What makes me different, really, is my utter disregard for social convention. I meow and growl in the subways. I don't have much restraint when I talk to people--I might relate my life story to a complete stranger! I also frequently feel a strong urge to stop babies' crying. Mothers tend to be very private with their babies, so they might not like it if I make a "funny face" to them so they could stop crying. Some parents understand, though. Others get paranoid and think I'm going to kidnap their kid or something.

I memorize rule sets. Games, contests, clubs, software environments ... all are rule-based, and easily memorized.

Religions, political parties, and corporate organizations have too many unwritten rules to memorize, but the rules that are written down are easy to memorize and manipulate to my advantage.

I am different because I don't eat breakfast in the morning.

Also I'm a half-cooked egg and don't have a real personality. I'm more like a piece of clay constantly being molded. I will usually act on the current moment. If I'm feeling nice/kind that will warp how I act, think and interpret myself and would seem alien to me once I'm not so happy. When I explain this I feel I have no idea what I'm talking about because it's always changing. My personality is like a messy bowl of spaghetti.

I am very egocentric unless I am in a mood where others have made me very emotional, but that only really occurs with random, eccentric acts, not the typical. For example, I saw an old man with no teeth smile and the shape of his mouth when smiling melted me in a way that has not occurred for years, and I have no idea why. Nothing has come close to making me feel that degree of positive emotion in a long time.

I guess that's actually the strangest thing about me that I don't know anything about. I have intense emotional connections with very weird things (such as plates that smash or sounds associated with specific events) but not so strongly with most humans, by default.

_________________
Unapologetically, Norny.
-chronically drunk

I have no special abilities. I'm not sure what makes me different, I just know that I am. I am able to focus intensely on something that interest me. I see in pictures, so sometimes it takes me awhile to remember something because it is stuck further back in my digital photo bank.

I'm not sure what exactly makes me different from anyone else. I must be different though than most because a lot of people point it out. I know I don't act like them, move like them, perceive things as they do or have interests in the way they do. When they point out our differences it's never a good thing, always something negative in their eyes. It's kind of sad in a way that so many see me in such a superficial way because I actually have a lot to offer. Their loss, I guess.

Different than what exactly?...I suppose most people this day and age don't listen to vinyls and cassette tapes, I don't like popular music of today but its popularity implies a large amount of people like/tolerate it, thus liking music outside of that is another difference I guess...and maybe most people don't even care that much about music and its just background noise to them. I also dress rather interestingly I do not see most females that seem to be in my age group dressed how I am usually I don't go for as feminine as an appearance I guess. Then I suppose just the over all aspergers traits make me come off as unusual and maybe even akward...I don't make eye contact or not to the right amount, and takes me a while to get comfortable talking to new people IRL but I am not content to just be alone with special interests, isolation does bother me(I guess some people with autism don't mind it so much).

I guess for me if I dare to say I'm not interested in sport people look at you like you have two heads, I find sport boring, or if someone says about a singer these days and I say Nah never heard of them.
Also like Sweetleaf said about Eye contact I find it hard as well as I find it uncomfortable.

I'm extremely emotional and tend to cry a lot. I act more on emotion than on intellectual ideas, though I still cannot read people's expressions, body language and their tone of voice.

I associate songs, games, movies, TV shows and the like with specific days / events as well.

i'm not a loud extrovert

The only thing I count are buses and/or cars while on the bus on the way to school, but that's only because I'm bored.

My odd taste in music
Wanting to save objects in a fire
Feeling sorry for everything
Feeling attracted to men 3 times my age with grey hair

A sidetrack: