Is mindblindness a problem for everybody on the spectrum?

Post Reply New Topic

Does everybody on the autistic spectrum experience mindblindness?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from those who are somewhere on the spectrum other than Aspergers - from what I understand it's a defining characteristic for Aspies (although, please correct me if I'm wrong), but I'm unsure about Auties.

What are your personal experiences? - Is it always a severe problem or is it possible to be on the spectrum and mindbliness isn't much of an issue, if at all?

What's mindblindness?

"what is mindblindness?" - I can't say I'm 100% sure, but I've often heard that people with Autism struggle to read body language, lack empathy and can't intuitively recognise emotions in themselves and others - although I'm not sure how true or accurate this is.

I think the mindblindness relates to the problem that many aspies have of not being able to judge correctly the emotional state of another person. I am an aspie who is married to an aspie woman, I sometimes have to ask her verbally about her emotional state, I think NTs are able to use tone of voice, face expressions and body lanaguge to do the same thing.

_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

Oh yeh! I understand what you mean now.

Is it that you can't perceive tone of voice, face expressions and body language at all?
From what you know, is that always the case, even with those who have some other form of Autism other than Aspergers?

HFA and I have issues trying to read people's facial expressions and it's hard for me to pick up on social cues thus leading me into social faux pas

I don't know that someone's upset until the point where tears are streaming down their face. At which point I panic and send someone else to go and sort it out.

This sort of thing happens quite a lot in my life.

I think I might be have some sort of HFA, but I was a very affectionate child and I don't think I lack empathy either. There are times, mostly when drunk and arguing that perhaps I'm impaired at reading people, but in general I don't think it's a big problem for me.

Then again, I used get annoyed by my ex-girlfriend who expected me to be a mindreader, that somehow it would ruin the moment if you asked what she wanted, but would chastise me for getting it wrong.
When we split my brain worked overtime to find a rational reason, like it does when I'm stuck writing computer code, but it was an emotional problem, I knew an answer couldn't be found, I just needed time, but when you can't stop thinking about it, it takes most of a year to finally get over it.

If I am mildly autistic, then I don't think mindblindness can be the reason, rather it's the use of logic as a default mode of thought - do you think that could be correct?

It doesn't seem like I have as much trouble with mindblindness as I did when I was younger. I'm still not perfect but my updated assessment that I got a couple years ago might explain why I don't have as much difficulty with this particular thing as I would expect given my diagnosis.

There is a 30 percentile gap between my verbal communication skills and my nonverbal communication skills. My nonverbal communication skills are drastically lower which is evidence of my disability. That kind of gap is typical of people with Asperger's. My verbal communication skills rate in the 98th percentile so even with such an extremely large gap in my nonverbal communication I still fall somewhere in the average range in that area.

That's not how it was when I was younger. I was 100% mindblind up until grade 6 or 7. Some things change and some stay the same.

Deficits in social cognition partially (wholly) define autism, so yes, the set of social cognitive deficits commonly called mindblindness is a universal problem for the whole autism spectrum.

"Deficits in social cognition partially (wholly) define autism" - but to what extent? What if you've spent a lifetime fixing things? Essentially doing what I'm doing here, trying to improve my understanding.

I've tried a few tests.

My EQ = 74 "ok, but could be better"
others on this site report 55 to 73

My AQ = 26
control group 16.4, 80% of those with an autism diagnosis get 32+

I don't really know what to make of that - Seems inconclusive.

I am certified dyslexic, albeit mildly. That came down to my low literacy percentile of 34 compared to my visual-spacial 98, but tbh I can read perfectly fine. My issues are mostly about organisation, very poor working memory and a propensity to end up in drunken arguments about the forbidden topics of politics, sexuality and religion. I understood that these might be autistic problems, but now I'm less sure.

Don't know what pseudo is taking over, but aspies read body language better than anyone. It is the prime reason we don't look much at people in conversation, esp. not in the eyes. We simply do not wish to see the individuals characteristics > usually pain, we can't afford to worry about everyone when hardly anyone worry about the same things themselves.

If you call self-protection for mindblindness it merely indicates your inexperience or severe narrow mindedness.

It's also common to call an autist insensitive and in-compassionate. Couldn't be more wrong. We don't care about neuts pity problems and focus on the bigger perspectives. If the neut individual show no care for bigger problems they will be treated thereby as a insignificant person. It's how autists generally are spoken about and treated in addition, so it's a lifelong game we love to play and are experts at. Irresponsibility is a worldwide problem where majority even expect miracles from above while troubles are exaggerating at alarming rates all around us. And the most important issue for the average person is to have likes on his facebook site. Can't believe there are still so many expecting respect in our insane societies. I need not mention more than the sick display in eurovision.

Drunken arguments are forbidden topics are not the social cognition problems of the autism spectrum.
It is strange that you think that they are.
Where did you get this idea?

No, as I'm living proof of that.

Reading this thread, an irony occurred to me. In the NT world, people who go to therapists for help with relationship problems are advised to recognise and avoid the mistake of "mindreading" - ie, assuming they automatically know what someone else/their partner is thinking or feeling, because (the 'experts' say) - it is impossible to ever know that with any certainty, and relationships based on those false assumptions tend to fail.

Hmmm... yet we are stigmatised for NOT being mindreaders? (Actually, I'm quite good at it). There is some weird double standard going on here that I never noticed before.