What's it like being Autistic?

 

Well, it is different for everybody, in fact it is as different for every autistic person as it is to be different is for everyone else.  Facts are facts, one thing people need to understand is that difference is the only commonality between people. It does not matter if you have a diagnosed learning difficulty, ADHD, ODD, bi-polar disorder, autism, SAD, anxiety disorder, PTSD, Or any number of the fifty besquillion currently listed "disorders" you are just as different from the next person as they are from the first person who in turn is just as different as another person who also has the same difference as you.  To illustrate my point we should try and consider people to be like trees. Image a debate between and Mountain Ash, a Weeping willow, a Boab and an Acacia pine about which one is normal. The Mountain ash would say they are normal because they are big and strong, the Acacia would argue they are normal because they are the most proliferate of trees. The Boab would argue they are normal because there size and shape allows them to survive in a desert environment and the Willow would argue that they are normal because there attributes allow them to survive in very wet soil where as a gum would fall over and a boab would drown.  As you can see it can become very difficult to define "normality" when there are so many difference and each difference has strengths that the other do not.  Given that to define something as "abnormal" you need to define "normal" it would be very difficult to define a tree as abnormal simply because that trees genes tell it to grow short and tolerate excessive water.  Using the same logic, we shouldn't label someone as "abnormal" simply because their genes cause them to develop with a social impairment or anxiety disorder. Especially considering this social impairment usually co-develops with an unusually higher intelligence.

 

When it comes to definable conditions, like Autism, we can see so many differences between individuals that the only real differences in a diagnosis of Autism is the severity of the associated traits and not there existence.  One classic example is anxiety, everybody will suffer anxiety at some stage in their life, but if you are autistic the chances are you will suffer it more frequently and that it will be more severe (almost constantly and it can be debilitating for some). The same can be said for intelligence, If you are autistic then your intelligence is likely to be at lease on par if not higher than the national average, It is not different, just higher.  See ** for references.  This one seems to be forgotten when dealing with autistics. Probably this is due to the fact that another trait of autism is a communication deficit, thus it is not obvious to people that autistics are intelligent as they can come across as usually of sub intelligence.

From personal experience it is really easy to argue with and feel superior to an autistic person. This is  simply because (speaking as an autistic) we will give up on the argument as it is apparent you are not smart enough understand and too self assured to listen to someone who may not communicate as absurdly as you do.  To many Autistics nonverbal communication is inefficient and highly inaccurate. Saying "yes but not always as it depends on A, B and C" is a lot more efficient and accurate than nodding your head sideways with a diagonal eyeball twitch.

 

Now that we have established that difference is normal and that for autistic people difference is also normal. We can now establish that what it is like to be autistic is also different. For me I am reminded of the Jim Carrey Movie "The Grinch", There is a scene where he is going over his to-do list for the day. One of the items is to solve world poverty then tell no-one!  For me this is exactly what it can be like to be Autistic.  I have the presence of mind and global understanding to solve problems (like world poverty*) yet I lack the communication skills to be able to tell anyone in a manner they understand how the solution would work. I guess the only real difference is that I would tell somebody, they just wouldn't understand as opposed to the Grinch who just wants to relish the fact he knows and they don't.  

 

I have friends who are Autistic and I find them to be very good communicators, so I know that not every autistic has this problem. Some could argue this is purely because I am Autistic, this maybe true but I refer back to my earlier statement about not getting tripped up by inferred non-verbal language.
One thing I am starting to observe repeatedly is that there seems to be a very personal and very switched on cognitive understanding of our environment even if it seems so completely irrational and illogical to outside observers. One could be forgiven for assuming there are paranoid or schizophrenic components to autism, I can assure there isn't but a very superficial surface observation could lend you the idea.  

 

There is more to come,  As I better understand and can communicate, I will publish more experiences.

*o.k I may not be smart enough to solve world poverty but it is an example and have always said (to my wife at least) pray that an autistic doesn't solve world hunger coz no-one will understand or believe them.

** WebMD: not exactly a scholarly article but a good starting point: http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/high-functioning-autism

The scientific American, a slightly better regarded journal and a much more in depth look at Autistic potentials: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-hidden-potential-of-autistic-kids

The Cambridge Journal (a well regarded authority) has a good read on IQ testing and the processing speed of Autistics, Although the paper doesn't strictly reference IQ levels it does show the lack of reality in current testing methods: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract;jsessionid=14F05910606A0764DDCFF4B1E9E6E5F1.journals?fromPage=online&aid=43397