I find written communication to be even quite troublesome since I got more into talking to people. I feel as if the more thought you put in what you write, the more likely it is that people don't read it like that. And then, people don't listen to exact wording much either, but at least there's a chance I'll notice face to face. When talking to someone face to face, most people quickly respond so I can get an idea what goes on in their heads.
If a friend asks me where a magazine is and I tell them it's under the table, they might quickly respond that it isn't on the table. So then I know they for whatever reason they didn't listen to me. If that conversation occurred in E-Mail or SMS, it's likely that between me telling them about the magazine and they responding hours go by. That's a long time for them to get upset.
I was pretty bad with exams too. The teachers kept saying they didn't understand what I wrote. The one thing that kept me from just getting the worst grade about my apparently surreal, empty and useless argumentations was that my introductions and conclusions or solutions were usually correct. Some teachers also claimed that they did understand but were actually talking about completely different topics that I had supposedly wrote about and focussed on. Needless to say, I had not written about the things they claimed I had.
I tried figuring out the problem there, but I didn't find any leads.
I prefer talking to people face to face by now, although there's just a world of just as big problems. I'm not good at giving a socially appropriate and thoughtful responses fast. I need time to try to do both. I mean, I need time to think about how to put my thoughts into words, I have to think about what words mean what, about whether the words that fit are socially appropriate and then go over the process again and again until I got my answer. That does take more time than the typical pace of conversation allows.
By now, I can respond fast. But if I do, it's likely superficially socially appropriate but without much meaning and thought. If I just go by what's normal to me my wording is reflecting my autism but (I think) then it's also full of meaning and thought seeing how I can spend my time thinking about the topic on hand.
I hope there's going to be a way to balance this out eventually, but I'm not hopeful. I can't imagine answering as quickly as everybody else while delivering my thoughts in words that are as socially appropriate as that of all the other people.
Written communication offers that time, but well - as I wrote, written communication offers yet other difficulties to me.
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Autism + ADHD
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The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. Terry Pratchett