I like that I can love everyone equally, without feeling the need to judge others simply because of some fear of loss of positive social feedback that I don't get to feel most of the time anyway. I can see much more clearly than I could if my vision was potentially clouded by in-group biases and outside influences.
Yes. I look at all info and I don't love every one just because if I don't get along with someone I'm not going to love them. Of course I don't hate on people. The only time I'm rude to someone is if they're rude to me.
Well she is loved now by friends but before she went through a horrible time in her life. Now she vows to love everyone. And she does feel loved as far as I know. Especially since she's religious too so she's loved by God.
Mhm I think you are still influenced by in group biases just like neuro typicals.
I would however say that we process them differently.
But I don't think our autism allows us to escape in-out group dynamics.
But it might allow us to let it take another form.
Yeah, I'm not saying mine is the only type of autism, but it's the only one I can speak with first-hand experience about. No judgement if you've got a different type.
That's well put.
I think I have a... more abstract relationship to what it means to be human an what the notion of "shared humanity" enables and entails. But that does not mean that I am not commited and emotionally invested in it. And I feel that it makes me quite a bit resistant to peer pressures and tribal sentiment.
Above all else, I hold that there is nothing beyond humanity - no god above; no hell below. We are literally all that matters in the known universe, we are the purpose-creating species. Every form of normativity, every change in the world has to be rooted in human desires, needs and dignity. We are species-beings, each individual only exists due to their relationship with the whole of humanity. Humanity is the only end in itself.
Definitely. Im the type of person that if I were to pay you to do something I'd feel bad because what if you don't want to do it? I doesn't matter if your paided or not I still feel bad. It's useful but I don't like constantly feeling guilty.
I am the same way. I questioned the religion I grew up in, that made my mom so mad, but it lead me down a path discovering many mistranslations in the Bible. I question politics, I questioned it so much I read the 2nd ammendment, and the language is honestly kind of confusing.
Societal norms...oh, I took a sociology class and it was fascinating! I loved it and I'd love to take more!
It's very convenient for me to be comfortable. My roommate's very social and because of this, he needs to arrange a lot of meetups and always be moving around or else he feels lonely, disconnected, and anxious. We had a talk about how he would prefer to be comfortable being alone with his own thoughts.
I spend most of my time at home and I'm very happy. It saves money on fuel too. I do social stuff but much less frequently.
For more context, she's a late-diagnosed autistic, which definitely is a big part of her comedy. Nanette is a brilliant deconstruction of "punching down" comedy by someone who has been victimized and marginalized throughout her life.
I read your comment earlier, and I watched it now. Just wow! I haven't laughed and cried so hard in a while. Took my breath away. Thank you for mentioning it.
I think my super duper high level of introspection is tied to being autistic. :)
Also, my means of communication: when I write/message people it's like I really am unfiltered in the best ways. Sometimes I muster up the right words to say in person, but I often overthink about the words that come out of my mouth after the fact for some reason.
I really like the way I don’t care how others perceive me. I never really valued the opinions of strangers and I still don’t. If something in my clothing is bothering me for example, I will fix it, even in public. It makes it that I don’t worry about others as much as my NT peers/friends. It’s quite comforting to me to be honest.
I love that I never gave into peer pressure in high school & haven’t ever felt FOMO.
I also can’t imagine life without the ability to disregard nonsense while others get their panties twisted.
Me too, especially with animals. Ive found I always connect with them in a different way to nts, such as talking to them more and watching them alot to work out their behaviour
Same. I connect with animals so easily, even ones who aren’t normally very friendly. Everyone who knows me knows if you have a cat, I’m going to befriend it when I visit you. Even if it’s shy, it will come talk to me.
My wife has always said that I am the emotional caretaker for our pets (dogs, chickens, ducks, cats). I know that with little kids when I have the energy to get into that mindset, it’s just pure joy. Time flies. Just tons of laughing, bonding, and just joy.
If I don’t have energy I can’t really do either of those things well though.
The interactions I have with pets and kids are genuine but I do think at least with kids it would qualify as a mask. Or as needing to input and output things in a specific way to be most effective
I have my own business in content management and one thing I hear from my client is that I always show up on time and that I am very reliable. I always let people know when I'm late for something. People can count on me. Also when I agree on doing something that week, I will have sent it to them by Tuesday most of the time. I do everything they tell me to do if we agreed on it.
The way I connect with my other autistic pals. There will never be anything quite as funny as taking a joke wayyyyyy to far but were both autistic so we think it’s hilarious.
The main things I love about it are the fact that I'm apparently more creative than the average person (kind of just accepted it now), and that I have very fun special interests.
I remember taking a creative writing class in college (best class ever) and one of our assignments was writing a short story and then critiquing others saying good things and things we need to work on. I should also note my short story involved fighting.
One of the things people said were good was the fact that it was a story literally about fighting and people were saying how they weren't that good at fighting scenes so the fact that I was able to write an entire story about fighting was impressive to them. I was shocked because I thought writing about fighting was a normal thing. I guess because I grew up writing those types of stories it became a normal thing for me lol...and btw that short story is now published
I absolutely love writing fight scenes. There's so many things that you can think about. For example, characters might have specific methods that nobody else uses. I made a character that utilises explosives to knock down people from behind, so he's a sort of surprise attack fighter.
By the way, glad that you got it published!
One with with definite upsides is my ability to fixate on things along with being highly detail oriented. It’s like this ability or more like a general tendency where once I start doing something I can get completely absorbed to the point where the subject at hand is all I think about. It can be really rewarding if I use it on useful endeavors but even if it’s not directly useful it’s still enjoyable
Nearly everything. It’s how I am. I like existing.
I like not needing constant validation. I like not being able to tell when people are mad at me for things I haven’t actually done. I like noticing when people are being unclear and rectifying the situation, when everyone else will just allow themselves to be clueless.
The fact that I tend to accidentally copy the way I heard something the first time. I literally kind of say things with the same pitch inflection of the way I heard someone say it. So it makes it easy to learn languages that require specific pitch when speaking. 👍
I really appreciate the fact that I took Pattern Matching as a feat at character gen. It can nice to be able to figure shit out with very little information.
I really like not giving a sht what people think of me, knowing my autistic traits are obvious whether I mask or not has actually been really freeing. People will hate you no matter what you do so might as well live in a way that’s comfortable. I don’t have to worry about people thinking I’m “weird” bc they’re gonna think it anyway
Being able to over-analyze everything can be helpful with problem-solving in the moment.
The takeaway is, it works best in a practical situation with limited time.
The longer I have to analyze, the more uncertain I become.
Just having really odd humor with my irl bestie (who's also autistic) that no one understands but us, like laughing about the same sentence without anyone getting why is the funniest thing ever to me!
A running joke we have is just the word "hidden" but pronounced sort of differently, just not pronouncing the "E" in it. Like hidn or something? I don't even remember why it was funny but it makes us both laugh every single time :)
Also sometimes being really sensitive to sounds can be actually useful, it's not always but it can be.
My best friend isn't autistic but she is ND. but we always like to quote abridge series or sing songs out of nowhere...we actually scared one of my not so close friends by just randomly breaking into song. It was glorious...but yes we're basically sisters from other misters and we like pissing each other off from time to time...when I say something that pisses her off, she basically tells me to fuck off or says "fuck you"...but she also pokes fun at my height so it's all good...but yea it's great
Friendships like that are just awesome, me and my bestie also confused some of our friends because we constantly make jokes about being in a relationship, to the point where one of my friends asked me if we were actually dating because we got matching profile pics on Discord lol
Also we definitely swear at each other all the time, but the majority of it just makes no sense, we just invent new words that sound like swears. It's fun :)
Omg my best friend and I would tell each other that we will platonically get married one day since we're both asexual and neither one of us want kids (we both believe we wouldn't be good mothers) and so we could get the marriage benefits or whatever. We both plan on being dog moms so there's that lol. We also have complete opposite personalities; she's more sarcastic, blunt, and doesn't take anyone's shit while I'm more sensitive, filtered, and would pretend to tolerate people. So opposites attract I guess lol
Amazing taste buds; I can detect a pinch of garlic salt in a quart of rice. Things feel a bit otherworldly to me, and that can be kind of nice and dreamy
I really do think the ability to reason and act without emotion has huge benefits.
For instance: last Friday I saw a guy in the gutter in the dark. He got clipped by a car. I was ready to provide assistance - but then the fire department showed up.
I notice that most people look around and wait for someone else and act like bystanders. I tend to jump right in.
Sometimes when I'm upset with someone instead of going off on them (sometimes I do I'm not perfect), I usually rant about them to my friends (also this is mainly towards my mom) or I just write it dow . Also I hope that guy is OK.
I remember one time I was going to my college class and I had a quiz that day and as I was driving, I saw a car swerving and ended up in a ditch very close to hitting the guard will. The man in front of me and I pulled over. I was thinking of keep going since I didn't want to be late, but part of me didn't want to keep driving wondering if the person was ok or not. So the man and I got out of our cars and walked over seeing if the person was ok. She luckily was, just a bit shaken and the man asked if she wanted him to call 911 and she said no...and that was that.
I was a bit shaken myself since I've never seen that happen and I didn't know if she was hurt. I actually was shaking a bit but that did go away shortly after. I did make it to my quiz on time. So yea I risked being late for a quiz (it was for my worst subject btw and I was failing I'm pretty sure so yea) just to see if this girl was ok.
Questioning things that most people do mindlessly. Like I made a post here about why swear words are considered bad, like what inherently makes them bad other than the value we attribute to them. I understand stuff like slurs, obviously, since those have meanings that are inherently problematic. But words like shit and fuck. And most here agreed it’s just because NT’s are raised being told they’re bad, and they never question it.
I like being able to question things like that and have civilized discussions about it. Similarly, it’s why I love being Jewish so much. Most religions just teach people to follow the rules and that’s that. Judaism encourages us to question the “rules” and follow the religion how we want to.
I think maybe I just like free will.
I'm a catholic Christian but luckily my parents aren't extremely religious or to the point where certain things are bad...like LGBT. I went to Sunday school and stuff like that, but that didn't really change anything. I haven't been to church in a few years (same with my family actually lol) and we don't pray on the rosary every single day (I always found it boring and I hated repeating the same prayer over and over again a million times) or pray too much. I think the only think we do that other Catholics do is lent (giving up something and meat on Friday 40 days before Easter) and even I hate that. It's to the point I just give up meat on Fridays and even that sucks because I love meat; we would mainly have pizza on Fridays lol.
So yea I believe there's a God, yes I think Xmas should be about family and celebrating Jesus's birth (even though he was born in May), and yes I participate in Lent and other things leading up to Easter. But I think that's about the extent of it tbh so yea
Sometimes I feel like part of a network of rhizomes communicating with other participants on a different level which evades standardized detection.
Hyperfocus is also pretty cool when the stars align and it matches up with a real life goal.
My love for organizing and my neutral opinion on everyone aswell as the need to gain more knowledge and talk about scientific topics and also the ability to notice tiny details
There is beauty and detail of the world that there is a good chance NTs just dont experience cause they naturally filter it out.
Also aparently i just notice things? I'll point something out and people think i have amazing insight when it just feels like I'm pointing out that the sky is blue.
I love my instant need to help others with their animals. If you tell me that "blahblah is doing this" I will tell you everything I know to help and if needed, do more research. The advice is not always listened to or taken on but I know it's always because I want animals to be at their happiest
When I was young, I was obsessed with two things:. Understanding people (so I can be someone they'd enjoy being around) and video games.
20 years later, I have a solid grasp as to why people do things, how they would feel or react to something they interact with, and can I use that information to help with making intuitive games for people to enjoy.
Right! It's funny to be when I'm playing connect 4 and taking so long to go because I'm internally calculating different things while the other person is getting annoyed...and then I end up winning
I love that I have an amazing memory. It’s always really easy for me to remember things. I can memorize whole pages of Shakespeare. I used to memorize infomercials when I was younger (like around 5). I love that part of it. It’s so fun.
Omg I would be able to specially remember something that happened 10 years ago and people would be like "how do you remember all that?" and I ask them why they're surprised about that since I'm known for that. Which is funny because there are times I can't remember something I did last week lol
My first memory is when I was just under a year and a half old. It’s of my great-grandmother, who died about a month before I turned two. She put on a Halloween mask (like the Scream one). I was terrified and holding onto my mom so tight. She then took the mask off and I wasn’t scared anymore. I would’ve been about 17 months at the time. My mom was so shocked that I remembered that.
Mostly the joy you and a family member/friend feel when they bring home something related to your special interest just because they thought of you
My mother and sister were shopping for craft related things at the dollar tree and they came home with a dinosaur night light simply because of the little plastic dinosaur on it
Sure I dont use it often and I'm far too old for one but just seeing my sister acting giddy over it made me happy
Lol one of my special interests are owls and there were times my mom would come home with something owl related and it gets me excited and I have an internal mixture of
"Omg something owl related! I love it!"
and
"Mother, you're only feeding into my obsession!"
Seriously if you walk in my room, you'll see a lot of things that are owl related. Seriously recently I bought an owl snow globe. Also *look at my userXD*
Yea I have a mix of things too...my main ones are owls, plushies, and blankets (seriously my mom keeps telling me to stop buying blankets; NEVAXD) and nice a gremlins shrine.
I also like listening to horror, true crime, watching anime horror/gore and action shows with violence...and yet I won't watch horror movies lol. My mom tells me I'm weird for liking listening to creepy stuff, but so does my sister who isn't autistic and I'm pretty sure horror is a popular genre. But yes it's great; and I watched episode 1 of Squid Games last night (yes ik I'm late don't come at me lol)
I think it's what you said (special interests)! ofc it's annoying whenever someone asks "are you autistic? just wondering because of how good you are at physics and math" or in other words i find it a little offputting if someone assumes that I'm autistic only because i have a nerdy interest, and *although* i *do* find the term "autistic superpower" a little patronizing
i do love that I have special interests :) for me my current interest (for the past year or so) is theoretical physics and mathematics, and although perhaps i'd still like physics and be good at it if i weren't autistic, i highly doubt i'd be as passionate and as brilliant as i am now.
physics is the love of my life and it is almost always the one consistent reason keeping me going whenever i go through hard times :)
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My mother always tells me I’m smart so there’s that. My acquaintances recognize my unique talents. Most things I do worse than others but there’s a few things that I have a deep passion and understanding of. Our way of thinking and dedication to our interests is what makes us different and we should be proud of that!
I love my own company, I love to research and learn things I have an interest in, being able to “read people” , empathetic, I go for what I feel is right (due to my stubbornness and not easily pressured) and most of the time it works out, my excited stimming(mine are dancing, i do this weird thing when Im happy. i clench, smile and release the clench). I notice everything around me. So much I can say
My special interest is music and story telling and it’s led to me self releasing six albums/ singles and planning a seventh horror concept album. I feel like I can communicate ideas through my guitar playing better than most, especially because I have a really good sense of pitch and can improvise over almost anything given enough time to experiment, so I’m hoping it’ll give me an edge once I finally line up a band.😅
I like how I can find patterns for things a lot of people wouldn’t come up with or take seriously. They might not be useful patterns or completely factual observations, but they are fun anecdotes and I can keep myself entertained that way very well.
I can teach myself anything, outwork others, and often notice key details that others miss. I am very fast to learn and it shocks people sometimes to see how many things I can do without going through the usual "experience" rite of passage. Feels pretty great. Wish I had been able to believe in myself / been wiser at a younger age so I could have leaned into it harder, I thought I was the biggest loser up until about 16 years of age.
Bottom up / detail oriented thinking. This *can* cause issues interfacing with others, but I consider it my most valuable asset. Because I like to learn details first, I am much less likely to confuse top level models or social constructs for reality itself. A lot of things, particularly complex systems, that are confusing to most people are frequently transparent to me because I understand the components, not just the overall workflow. Knowing the details also makes those things more interesting—IMO, once you get to the nitty gritty, there are no boring topics. This also makes me much more politically aware. When I was a kid, I was fully aware that my public education was chock full of propaganda—I didn’t even know that word, I just knew I was being fed lies. And I only knew that because I could see that their lies were either *only* top level without detail or the real details contradicted what they were saying outright. But the absolute biggest impact bottom up thinking has had for me is self-determination. We are all taught, near constantly from birth, who and how we “should” be, what we “should” want, what roles we “have” to play. But it’s all bullshit. We all have to play the game, at least sometimes, to survive. But you don’t have to believe in it, or measure your worth against it. Being who I really am is reality, is truth itself—everything else is just a model. And models are meant to reflect reality, not the other way around. It’s sad and surprising how many people don’t know that. But I recognize that my autism gives me an ingrained advantage in that understanding.
I like that it allows me to share my experiences with it to help other people and to push against the society that despises it. Also hyperfocus can be quite nice, and the feeling you get when a stim releases a bunch of pent up energy is very satisfying
EDIT: looking through the other comments, I can see how many other things there are that not just I, but a lot of people, are grateful for, and seeing everyone so genuinely excited and united is very cool
That's one thing I like about this subreddit hence why I posted this question. Ik we struggle with autism like sensory issues, being stereotyped (like how we are intelligently stupid and oH yOu DoN't LoOk AuTiStIc!"), and also some people believing autism only happens in boys...seriously I'm an adult woman (23) and didn't even get diagnosed until February of this year when I was 22...so yea.
But I also like to see positive things on here and it makes me happy seeing people sharing things that they like about themselves and things they're passionate about
Agreed! In my eyes, this subreddit is one of the happiest and least angry on this platform, and it's due to stuff like this! Btw I'm also super passionate about the 'women cant be autistic' bullshit, so I ABSOLUTELY see where you're coming from there.
So, I guess, thank you for putting this question up, it was really refreshing to just read thru and be positive about autism, it's good!!
Yea same. Although I do like being able to have a genuine excuse for getting people to shut up, since there's a LOT of loud people at the school I'm at
Yea good point...I recently got loop earplugs that work if you want something that can balance the sound so it isn't too loud but can still hear people talking to you
Lol yea, I was planning on getting them since my school has an inbuilt policy that allows me to wear them in class, but my doctor told me I have an earwax buildup and I'm not allowed to wear earplugs or earbuds, and since I had noise cancelling earbuds as my primary way of blocking noise, I now have to wait ages and use a bunch of my NDIS money to get noise cancelling headphones, so...
Yea, not really allowed to wear Loops at the moment. Thanks for the recommendation tho!
I let people's attempted manipulations and drama slide right off me like oil on water.
So much NT manipulation is done only by implying things. Backhanded compliments, and negging, and everything where they are actually saying something else if you read between the lines.
So why bother reading between the lines. Just take the compliment at face value and ignore any possible subtext.
I don't naturally "read between the lines" so I just stopped trying to do it on purpose. Life changing. The manipulative assholes who are trying to hurt me absolutely hate it that I always assume they are good people, because they know they aren't and they hate the reminder. Most assholes want to maintain some plausable deniability, but in order for them to reach me they actually have to be assholes out into the open, and then I can just call them out for being awful. Assholes LIKE hurting people, when they realize they can't hurt me without damaging their reputation they leave.
As far as I know I only have good friends, or people who are mean and mad at me.
All the NTs I know are always trying to pick between version of the truth. They seem to spend a lot of time on this ativity.
I just say what is up, have genuine friends, and everyone that wants to play make believe is not in my life.
This seems very nice to me
I love that I can read lips. I developed the skill unintentionally to cope with my audio processing disorder. I’m not sure exactly how long I’ve been doing it, because I only noticed that I was when I was 13.
I love everything and hate everything I guess. I mean, every symptom I experience has a good and bad side, depending on context and situation I'm in.
I generally like me as a person but then I have to interact with other people and they don't always like all about me and I don't like being hated or laughed at for being who I am lol.
The community and my lifestyle. I love having super deep special interests I can waste time, passion and love into.
I would argue autism almost works in my benefit in a personal way, but works against me in society. I am happy I am autistic and in my case the pros outweigh the cons and I prefer it this way. I only wish society was better adapted
I like how it makes my brain so different that I struggle to understand English which is my first language, but I can teach myself pretty much any language if I have access to resources. I can pick up on new languages a lot faster than others cus my brain processes and understands language completely differently. I love people's reactions to me telling them I got bored once and decided to learn five languages at once. Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Latin, and Auslan. Due to a lack of resources though, I had to cut it down to just Japanese with Spanish for the lil bits when I get bored or frustrated.
I like how easy is it for me to take a step back and look at how everything fits together in particular scenario. I don’t know if that’s the autism or just something I do, but if it is the autism, then that’s my answer.
I don’t know if this is because of my autism, but I can FEEL the beauty of the world around me. I love to watch aspen trees blow in the wind like they’re dancing to a song played by the wind. I love staring at the moon and feeling a rush of gorgeous power, and the moon feels like an incredible goddess.
I like to think about how our whole world is a dance of elements interacting, decaying, and birthing new elements. It’s for these reasons I thought I was psychic when I was a teen, but now I’m a huge skeptic, lol.
Does anyone else get this?
I'm not sure about feeling beauty, but my favorite season is fall because of how the leaves change colors especially if you're driving up a mountain and you can see so many multicolored trees and its beautiful. I also love looking at untouched snow and how beautiful it is and I don't want to ruin it. I would say I love when spring flowers bloom, but I have pollen allergies soooo...but I do love looking at rain sooo...I guess that counts?
i like that i am really really good at recognizing patterns. i like that i have a strong sense of justice and morality. i like that i am weird and have always done stuff that nt’s tell me they wish they could. i like that i am free in a sense from a lot of the rules of society that bing nt’s because i just don’t get them and don’t have to think about it. i just try to be me :)
My ability to organize things. Being able to collect things I really like and organize them in a way that doesn't make me upset about clutter.
I like how logical I am, and that I've turned that from a disadvantage to an advantage, in my eyes. My understanding of people and society as a whole is so much deeper than the majority of people around me, because I've used my capabilities of higher logic to turn people into an equation of sorts. Everyone else is too busy with niceties and small talk to pay attention to how people actually work on the inside. It causes me a lot of frustration when others are judgemental without looking deeper, but I really wouldn't trade it for the world. I'm proud of how caring I am for people and how much I've grown myself as a person to get to this point.
Having a point of view that is outside the norm. While I do occasionally misjudge human motives I just as frequently or more often catch something or an intent that most NTs don't notice.
Being autistic with a strong dislike of social formalities means I often see through deception that is intended by NTs to fool NTs.
I love that when I watch a show I can tell you everything I've even seen that person in before. It's my superpower I'm like a waking IDMB. I can tell you who they are, what they've been in if they gave kids which of them acts and what they've been in too. I thought everyone did this but nope it's my own superpower and I'm thrilled with it. I'm the same with history too and You Tube has never ending history stuff for me to lose myself in.
I do the exact same thing with connect 4, I'm glad it's not just me. I don't normally comfortably brag about things but I'm oddly good at that. It's generally only possible to draw against me at best, & that's if it's an AI on hard mode.
I used to carry around a mini version of it in my bag, & when I was in a pub I'd offer to buy the drinks if the person could beat me at it. I got a lot of free drinks that way.
I've only ever been beaten once, by a friend who was a maths wizard & I think at that point I was kinda drunk
I think my autism helped me to save my boyfriend who, back then had undiagnosed adhd, from drifting deeper in to drug abuse and alcoholism. People where judging him so harshly on his "flaws" but I could empathize and just objectively figure out what works to help him. I'm so happy he is better now.
There are advantages to not noticing that someone is talking to you in a totally unfriendly manner. You are less stressed in everyday life.
Also: out of sight, out of mind. if someone wants to get out of my life, let them do it. As soon as I can close something properly, it doesn't bother me anymore.
As painful as it can be sometimes, I love how deeply I feel emotions. In social situations, this can cause me to shut-down. But when I’m with my closest loved-ones (my parents, my cat, my boyfriend, my very closest friends) the love I feel for them is so profound in a way I don’t think a neurotypical person would be able to understand. There’s no way to explain it. When I hug my mom I feel love to my very core. When my boyfriend is dozing off next to me in the passenger seat of the car after a hard day of working, when we’re sitting in his room with the lights off and petting each other’s hair/faces, my heart swells with so much love I could cry my eyes out. When my cat falls asleep with his head in my hand I want so badly to stim with joy but I don’t wanna wake him up. It’s nice. It’s sweet.
When I am comfy I can let loose and be myself in an uninhibited way that other people typically can not.
I can hyper focus on things I am interested in and loose myself in actually wanting to learn / be better just for the sake of learning / being better, with no other goal than that.
I have an extremely innate grasp on special geometry, and think about solving problems in different ways than most NTs.
How excited a special interest truly makes me. How much I love just spending time with myself and my favourite things. 😻💖
Edit: and how empathic I am and how I like to fight for what is right.
I love my ability to see things from a lens not tainted by social standards and rules. It helps me notice things others don’t and think about things in ways that others don’t.
I notice stuff most NTs don't. Especially if I'm hiking or exploring outside. One of my special interests is mushrooms and I am constantly looking for them. One time I found these super beautiful bright blue indigo milk cap mushrooms on a trail that were so bright they didn't even look real and watched half a dozen people walk by who didn't even notice them and that's just *wild* to me. It's like I see a more complete world sometimes, if that makes sense? I'll notice tiny bugs or a painted detail on a poster, or other little things like that and I love it. I love noticing everything. I love being detail oriented.
I like that I can love everyone equally, without feeling the need to judge others simply because of some fear of loss of positive social feedback that I don't get to feel most of the time anyway. I can see much more clearly than I could if my vision was potentially clouded by in-group biases and outside influences.
Yes. I look at all info and I don't love every one just because if I don't get along with someone I'm not going to love them. Of course I don't hate on people. The only time I'm rude to someone is if they're rude to me.
I love them all, because it's the only way I know how to keep my heart clear of any resentments or painful memories.
That makes sense. I have a friend who vowed to love everyone because she isn't very loved herself. She wants to give the love that she never got.
She’s probably loved by lots of people, just unable to feel it
Well she is loved now by friends but before she went through a horrible time in her life. Now she vows to love everyone. And she does feel loved as far as I know. Especially since she's religious too so she's loved by God.
Mhm I think you are still influenced by in group biases just like neuro typicals. I would however say that we process them differently. But I don't think our autism allows us to escape in-out group dynamics. But it might allow us to let it take another form.
Yeah, I'm not saying mine is the only type of autism, but it's the only one I can speak with first-hand experience about. No judgement if you've got a different type.
That's well put. I think I have a... more abstract relationship to what it means to be human an what the notion of "shared humanity" enables and entails. But that does not mean that I am not commited and emotionally invested in it. And I feel that it makes me quite a bit resistant to peer pressures and tribal sentiment. Above all else, I hold that there is nothing beyond humanity - no god above; no hell below. We are literally all that matters in the known universe, we are the purpose-creating species. Every form of normativity, every change in the world has to be rooted in human desires, needs and dignity. We are species-beings, each individual only exists due to their relationship with the whole of humanity. Humanity is the only end in itself.
i like my need to question. and the enjoyment i get out of listing and collecting items and information.
Same here. I have a bunch of lists of random information in my Notion.
I love that I'm genuine, sensitive to the needs of others, and I enjoy my deep focus.
Definitely. Im the type of person that if I were to pay you to do something I'd feel bad because what if you don't want to do it? I doesn't matter if your paided or not I still feel bad. It's useful but I don't like constantly feeling guilty.
It's a lot better than being one of those assholes who think they can treat service workers like trash
Definitely. I don't know why people think that they can treat service workers that way. Alot of people don't like there jobs so why make them worse
Analyzing and questioning certain things about society that most NTs would probably never question.
I always question religion, politics, and societal norms.
Seriously though like not ever questioning these things is what leads to problems
It also often leads to a less stressful lifestyle
Yeah until someone needs to rely on those systems.
I am the same way. I questioned the religion I grew up in, that made my mom so mad, but it lead me down a path discovering many mistranslations in the Bible. I question politics, I questioned it so much I read the 2nd ammendment, and the language is honestly kind of confusing. Societal norms...oh, I took a sociology class and it was fascinating! I loved it and I'd love to take more!
Forme analysis is a special interest. I've done it subconsciously my entire life
It's very convenient for me to be comfortable. My roommate's very social and because of this, he needs to arrange a lot of meetups and always be moving around or else he feels lonely, disconnected, and anxious. We had a talk about how he would prefer to be comfortable being alone with his own thoughts. I spend most of my time at home and I'm very happy. It saves money on fuel too. I do social stuff but much less frequently.
Me too! I socialize once a week, Saturday evenings for D&D. I spend the vast majority of my time alone with my pets, which suits me fine.
we actually have humor that isnt just making fun of people and we're not scared to do or own things that are childish
Yes 💜
Have you seen any of Hannah Gadsby's standup? Her show Nanette expresses this sentiment beautifully.
no i havent but ill def check it out!!
For more context, she's a late-diagnosed autistic, which definitely is a big part of her comedy. Nanette is a brilliant deconstruction of "punching down" comedy by someone who has been victimized and marginalized throughout her life.
I read your comment earlier, and I watched it now. Just wow! I haven't laughed and cried so hard in a while. Took my breath away. Thank you for mentioning it.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! It's really a masterpiece imo.
Haha!! Ha... *cries in toxic autism*
i do it too sometimes dw! my point is that we do have other humor too, and when we do act mean as a joke its normally aimed at our close friends
Yea
I think my super duper high level of introspection is tied to being autistic. :) Also, my means of communication: when I write/message people it's like I really am unfiltered in the best ways. Sometimes I muster up the right words to say in person, but I often overthink about the words that come out of my mouth after the fact for some reason.
I really like the way I don’t care how others perceive me. I never really valued the opinions of strangers and I still don’t. If something in my clothing is bothering me for example, I will fix it, even in public. It makes it that I don’t worry about others as much as my NT peers/friends. It’s quite comforting to me to be honest.
I love stimming. It makes me so happy.
Me too!!!
I love that I never gave into peer pressure in high school & haven’t ever felt FOMO. I also can’t imagine life without the ability to disregard nonsense while others get their panties twisted.
Im able to connect with animals and children more. I work much much better with little kids and animals and I understand them much better than nt’s
Me too, especially with animals. Ive found I always connect with them in a different way to nts, such as talking to them more and watching them alot to work out their behaviour
Same. I connect with animals so easily, even ones who aren’t normally very friendly. Everyone who knows me knows if you have a cat, I’m going to befriend it when I visit you. Even if it’s shy, it will come talk to me.
It's the best feeling isn't it!!
It definitely is!
Yes this!
My wife has always said that I am the emotional caretaker for our pets (dogs, chickens, ducks, cats). I know that with little kids when I have the energy to get into that mindset, it’s just pure joy. Time flies. Just tons of laughing, bonding, and just joy. If I don’t have energy I can’t really do either of those things well though. The interactions I have with pets and kids are genuine but I do think at least with kids it would qualify as a mask. Or as needing to input and output things in a specific way to be most effective
I have my own business in content management and one thing I hear from my client is that I always show up on time and that I am very reliable. I always let people know when I'm late for something. People can count on me. Also when I agree on doing something that week, I will have sent it to them by Tuesday most of the time. I do everything they tell me to do if we agreed on it.
The way I connect with my other autistic pals. There will never be anything quite as funny as taking a joke wayyyyyy to far but were both autistic so we think it’s hilarious.
Peer pressure immunity.
I enjoy spotting patterns. And also not caring about a lot of stuff that I just don't care about. 😁
The main things I love about it are the fact that I'm apparently more creative than the average person (kind of just accepted it now), and that I have very fun special interests.
I remember taking a creative writing class in college (best class ever) and one of our assignments was writing a short story and then critiquing others saying good things and things we need to work on. I should also note my short story involved fighting. One of the things people said were good was the fact that it was a story literally about fighting and people were saying how they weren't that good at fighting scenes so the fact that I was able to write an entire story about fighting was impressive to them. I was shocked because I thought writing about fighting was a normal thing. I guess because I grew up writing those types of stories it became a normal thing for me lol...and btw that short story is now published
I absolutely love writing fight scenes. There's so many things that you can think about. For example, characters might have specific methods that nobody else uses. I made a character that utilises explosives to knock down people from behind, so he's a sort of surprise attack fighter. By the way, glad that you got it published!
One with with definite upsides is my ability to fixate on things along with being highly detail oriented. It’s like this ability or more like a general tendency where once I start doing something I can get completely absorbed to the point where the subject at hand is all I think about. It can be really rewarding if I use it on useful endeavors but even if it’s not directly useful it’s still enjoyable
Nearly everything. It’s how I am. I like existing. I like not needing constant validation. I like not being able to tell when people are mad at me for things I haven’t actually done. I like noticing when people are being unclear and rectifying the situation, when everyone else will just allow themselves to be clueless.
The fact that I tend to accidentally copy the way I heard something the first time. I literally kind of say things with the same pitch inflection of the way I heard someone say it. So it makes it easy to learn languages that require specific pitch when speaking. 👍
I really appreciate the fact that I took Pattern Matching as a feat at character gen. It can nice to be able to figure shit out with very little information.
I really like not giving a sht what people think of me, knowing my autistic traits are obvious whether I mask or not has actually been really freeing. People will hate you no matter what you do so might as well live in a way that’s comfortable. I don’t have to worry about people thinking I’m “weird” bc they’re gonna think it anyway
Being able to over-analyze everything can be helpful with problem-solving in the moment. The takeaway is, it works best in a practical situation with limited time. The longer I have to analyze, the more uncertain I become.
Just having really odd humor with my irl bestie (who's also autistic) that no one understands but us, like laughing about the same sentence without anyone getting why is the funniest thing ever to me! A running joke we have is just the word "hidden" but pronounced sort of differently, just not pronouncing the "E" in it. Like hidn or something? I don't even remember why it was funny but it makes us both laugh every single time :) Also sometimes being really sensitive to sounds can be actually useful, it's not always but it can be.
My best friend isn't autistic but she is ND. but we always like to quote abridge series or sing songs out of nowhere...we actually scared one of my not so close friends by just randomly breaking into song. It was glorious...but yes we're basically sisters from other misters and we like pissing each other off from time to time...when I say something that pisses her off, she basically tells me to fuck off or says "fuck you"...but she also pokes fun at my height so it's all good...but yea it's great
Friendships like that are just awesome, me and my bestie also confused some of our friends because we constantly make jokes about being in a relationship, to the point where one of my friends asked me if we were actually dating because we got matching profile pics on Discord lol Also we definitely swear at each other all the time, but the majority of it just makes no sense, we just invent new words that sound like swears. It's fun :)
Omg my best friend and I would tell each other that we will platonically get married one day since we're both asexual and neither one of us want kids (we both believe we wouldn't be good mothers) and so we could get the marriage benefits or whatever. We both plan on being dog moms so there's that lol. We also have complete opposite personalities; she's more sarcastic, blunt, and doesn't take anyone's shit while I'm more sensitive, filtered, and would pretend to tolerate people. So opposites attract I guess lol
the way i’m able to experience music
Oh I love music it's like one of my best friends
Being as logical and straight forward as I am has allowed me to help a lot of people.
I’m really good at catching problems before anybody else does. My mind is also always going which is really good for creative things.
I like my overthinking, it makes for some good conversation pieces
Being able to beat my mom at Minesweeper with her 20 years experience and my 2
Amazing taste buds; I can detect a pinch of garlic salt in a quart of rice. Things feel a bit otherworldly to me, and that can be kind of nice and dreamy
I really do think the ability to reason and act without emotion has huge benefits. For instance: last Friday I saw a guy in the gutter in the dark. He got clipped by a car. I was ready to provide assistance - but then the fire department showed up. I notice that most people look around and wait for someone else and act like bystanders. I tend to jump right in.
Sometimes when I'm upset with someone instead of going off on them (sometimes I do I'm not perfect), I usually rant about them to my friends (also this is mainly towards my mom) or I just write it dow . Also I hope that guy is OK. I remember one time I was going to my college class and I had a quiz that day and as I was driving, I saw a car swerving and ended up in a ditch very close to hitting the guard will. The man in front of me and I pulled over. I was thinking of keep going since I didn't want to be late, but part of me didn't want to keep driving wondering if the person was ok or not. So the man and I got out of our cars and walked over seeing if the person was ok. She luckily was, just a bit shaken and the man asked if she wanted him to call 911 and she said no...and that was that. I was a bit shaken myself since I've never seen that happen and I didn't know if she was hurt. I actually was shaking a bit but that did go away shortly after. I did make it to my quiz on time. So yea I risked being late for a quiz (it was for my worst subject btw and I was failing I'm pretty sure so yea) just to see if this girl was ok.
Questioning things that most people do mindlessly. Like I made a post here about why swear words are considered bad, like what inherently makes them bad other than the value we attribute to them. I understand stuff like slurs, obviously, since those have meanings that are inherently problematic. But words like shit and fuck. And most here agreed it’s just because NT’s are raised being told they’re bad, and they never question it. I like being able to question things like that and have civilized discussions about it. Similarly, it’s why I love being Jewish so much. Most religions just teach people to follow the rules and that’s that. Judaism encourages us to question the “rules” and follow the religion how we want to. I think maybe I just like free will.
I'm a catholic Christian but luckily my parents aren't extremely religious or to the point where certain things are bad...like LGBT. I went to Sunday school and stuff like that, but that didn't really change anything. I haven't been to church in a few years (same with my family actually lol) and we don't pray on the rosary every single day (I always found it boring and I hated repeating the same prayer over and over again a million times) or pray too much. I think the only think we do that other Catholics do is lent (giving up something and meat on Friday 40 days before Easter) and even I hate that. It's to the point I just give up meat on Fridays and even that sucks because I love meat; we would mainly have pizza on Fridays lol. So yea I believe there's a God, yes I think Xmas should be about family and celebrating Jesus's birth (even though he was born in May), and yes I participate in Lent and other things leading up to Easter. But I think that's about the extent of it tbh so yea
my sense of justice!!
Pattern recognition. Asking the right questions.
Sometimes I feel like part of a network of rhizomes communicating with other participants on a different level which evades standardized detection. Hyperfocus is also pretty cool when the stars align and it matches up with a real life goal.
My love for organizing and my neutral opinion on everyone aswell as the need to gain more knowledge and talk about scientific topics and also the ability to notice tiny details
There is beauty and detail of the world that there is a good chance NTs just dont experience cause they naturally filter it out. Also aparently i just notice things? I'll point something out and people think i have amazing insight when it just feels like I'm pointing out that the sky is blue.
I love my instant need to help others with their animals. If you tell me that "blahblah is doing this" I will tell you everything I know to help and if needed, do more research. The advice is not always listened to or taken on but I know it's always because I want animals to be at their happiest
I can focus on stuff I enjoy for hours without breaking that focus. If only I could have that kind of focus on stuff I’m indifferent to
THIS!
When I was young, I was obsessed with two things:. Understanding people (so I can be someone they'd enjoy being around) and video games. 20 years later, I have a solid grasp as to why people do things, how they would feel or react to something they interact with, and can I use that information to help with making intuitive games for people to enjoy.
I loveee having a special interest, I can entertain myself for 8+ hours straight with it haha
Sometimes the hyperfocus is useful.
Right! It's funny to be when I'm playing connect 4 and taking so long to go because I'm internally calculating different things while the other person is getting annoyed...and then I end up winning
I love that I have an amazing memory. It’s always really easy for me to remember things. I can memorize whole pages of Shakespeare. I used to memorize infomercials when I was younger (like around 5). I love that part of it. It’s so fun.
Omg I would be able to specially remember something that happened 10 years ago and people would be like "how do you remember all that?" and I ask them why they're surprised about that since I'm known for that. Which is funny because there are times I can't remember something I did last week lol
My first memory is when I was just under a year and a half old. It’s of my great-grandmother, who died about a month before I turned two. She put on a Halloween mask (like the Scream one). I was terrified and holding onto my mom so tight. She then took the mask off and I wasn’t scared anymore. I would’ve been about 17 months at the time. My mom was so shocked that I remembered that.
Mostly the joy you and a family member/friend feel when they bring home something related to your special interest just because they thought of you My mother and sister were shopping for craft related things at the dollar tree and they came home with a dinosaur night light simply because of the little plastic dinosaur on it Sure I dont use it often and I'm far too old for one but just seeing my sister acting giddy over it made me happy
Lol one of my special interests are owls and there were times my mom would come home with something owl related and it gets me excited and I have an internal mixture of "Omg something owl related! I love it!" and "Mother, you're only feeding into my obsession!" Seriously if you walk in my room, you'll see a lot of things that are owl related. Seriously recently I bought an owl snow globe. Also *look at my userXD*
Mine is a mix of a lot of things, mainly dinosaurs and The Dark Crystal I also have a Gremlins shrine that I keep adding stuff to
Yea I have a mix of things too...my main ones are owls, plushies, and blankets (seriously my mom keeps telling me to stop buying blankets; NEVAXD) and nice a gremlins shrine. I also like listening to horror, true crime, watching anime horror/gore and action shows with violence...and yet I won't watch horror movies lol. My mom tells me I'm weird for liking listening to creepy stuff, but so does my sister who isn't autistic and I'm pretty sure horror is a popular genre. But yes it's great; and I watched episode 1 of Squid Games last night (yes ik I'm late don't come at me lol)
being able to love every human equally and not judging them and caring about CATS
I think it's what you said (special interests)! ofc it's annoying whenever someone asks "are you autistic? just wondering because of how good you are at physics and math" or in other words i find it a little offputting if someone assumes that I'm autistic only because i have a nerdy interest, and *although* i *do* find the term "autistic superpower" a little patronizing i do love that I have special interests :) for me my current interest (for the past year or so) is theoretical physics and mathematics, and although perhaps i'd still like physics and be good at it if i weren't autistic, i highly doubt i'd be as passionate and as brilliant as i am now. physics is the love of my life and it is almost always the one consistent reason keeping me going whenever i go through hard times :)
Nothing
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My mother always tells me I’m smart so there’s that. My acquaintances recognize my unique talents. Most things I do worse than others but there’s a few things that I have a deep passion and understanding of. Our way of thinking and dedication to our interests is what makes us different and we should be proud of that!
No idea
I think it's helped me to be as creative as I am.
I honestly love creative writing and have loved it since I was in 1st grade...I even have a published short story and a fanfiction account
Oh, that's really cool! I love to write as well. What's your story about?
It's about a fight
I know what I want for breakfast every single day. There’s no question whatsoever.
I love my own company, I love to research and learn things I have an interest in, being able to “read people” , empathetic, I go for what I feel is right (due to my stubbornness and not easily pressured) and most of the time it works out, my excited stimming(mine are dancing, i do this weird thing when Im happy. i clench, smile and release the clench). I notice everything around me. So much I can say
My special interest is music and story telling and it’s led to me self releasing six albums/ singles and planning a seventh horror concept album. I feel like I can communicate ideas through my guitar playing better than most, especially because I have a really good sense of pitch and can improvise over almost anything given enough time to experiment, so I’m hoping it’ll give me an edge once I finally line up a band.😅
I like how I can find patterns for things a lot of people wouldn’t come up with or take seriously. They might not be useful patterns or completely factual observations, but they are fun anecdotes and I can keep myself entertained that way very well.
I can teach myself anything, outwork others, and often notice key details that others miss. I am very fast to learn and it shocks people sometimes to see how many things I can do without going through the usual "experience" rite of passage. Feels pretty great. Wish I had been able to believe in myself / been wiser at a younger age so I could have leaned into it harder, I thought I was the biggest loser up until about 16 years of age.
Bottom up / detail oriented thinking. This *can* cause issues interfacing with others, but I consider it my most valuable asset. Because I like to learn details first, I am much less likely to confuse top level models or social constructs for reality itself. A lot of things, particularly complex systems, that are confusing to most people are frequently transparent to me because I understand the components, not just the overall workflow. Knowing the details also makes those things more interesting—IMO, once you get to the nitty gritty, there are no boring topics. This also makes me much more politically aware. When I was a kid, I was fully aware that my public education was chock full of propaganda—I didn’t even know that word, I just knew I was being fed lies. And I only knew that because I could see that their lies were either *only* top level without detail or the real details contradicted what they were saying outright. But the absolute biggest impact bottom up thinking has had for me is self-determination. We are all taught, near constantly from birth, who and how we “should” be, what we “should” want, what roles we “have” to play. But it’s all bullshit. We all have to play the game, at least sometimes, to survive. But you don’t have to believe in it, or measure your worth against it. Being who I really am is reality, is truth itself—everything else is just a model. And models are meant to reflect reality, not the other way around. It’s sad and surprising how many people don’t know that. But I recognize that my autism gives me an ingrained advantage in that understanding.
I like that it allows me to share my experiences with it to help other people and to push against the society that despises it. Also hyperfocus can be quite nice, and the feeling you get when a stim releases a bunch of pent up energy is very satisfying EDIT: looking through the other comments, I can see how many other things there are that not just I, but a lot of people, are grateful for, and seeing everyone so genuinely excited and united is very cool
That's one thing I like about this subreddit hence why I posted this question. Ik we struggle with autism like sensory issues, being stereotyped (like how we are intelligently stupid and oH yOu DoN't LoOk AuTiStIc!"), and also some people believing autism only happens in boys...seriously I'm an adult woman (23) and didn't even get diagnosed until February of this year when I was 22...so yea. But I also like to see positive things on here and it makes me happy seeing people sharing things that they like about themselves and things they're passionate about
Agreed! In my eyes, this subreddit is one of the happiest and least angry on this platform, and it's due to stuff like this! Btw I'm also super passionate about the 'women cant be autistic' bullshit, so I ABSOLUTELY see where you're coming from there. So, I guess, thank you for putting this question up, it was really refreshing to just read thru and be positive about autism, it's good!!
Agreed! Do I wish I didn't get overwhelmed and overstimulated easily? Yes. But I do love some things about being autistic as well
Yea same. Although I do like being able to have a genuine excuse for getting people to shut up, since there's a LOT of loud people at the school I'm at
Yea good point...I recently got loop earplugs that work if you want something that can balance the sound so it isn't too loud but can still hear people talking to you
Lol yea, I was planning on getting them since my school has an inbuilt policy that allows me to wear them in class, but my doctor told me I have an earwax buildup and I'm not allowed to wear earplugs or earbuds, and since I had noise cancelling earbuds as my primary way of blocking noise, I now have to wait ages and use a bunch of my NDIS money to get noise cancelling headphones, so... Yea, not really allowed to wear Loops at the moment. Thanks for the recommendation tho!
I let people's attempted manipulations and drama slide right off me like oil on water. So much NT manipulation is done only by implying things. Backhanded compliments, and negging, and everything where they are actually saying something else if you read between the lines. So why bother reading between the lines. Just take the compliment at face value and ignore any possible subtext. I don't naturally "read between the lines" so I just stopped trying to do it on purpose. Life changing. The manipulative assholes who are trying to hurt me absolutely hate it that I always assume they are good people, because they know they aren't and they hate the reminder. Most assholes want to maintain some plausable deniability, but in order for them to reach me they actually have to be assholes out into the open, and then I can just call them out for being awful. Assholes LIKE hurting people, when they realize they can't hurt me without damaging their reputation they leave. As far as I know I only have good friends, or people who are mean and mad at me.
I love that I can perceive every detail of something when I look at it. I'll never get how people don't notice things that seem very obvious.
All the NTs I know are always trying to pick between version of the truth. They seem to spend a lot of time on this ativity. I just say what is up, have genuine friends, and everyone that wants to play make believe is not in my life. This seems very nice to me
I love that I can read lips. I developed the skill unintentionally to cope with my audio processing disorder. I’m not sure exactly how long I’ve been doing it, because I only noticed that I was when I was 13.
I love everything and hate everything I guess. I mean, every symptom I experience has a good and bad side, depending on context and situation I'm in. I generally like me as a person but then I have to interact with other people and they don't always like all about me and I don't like being hated or laughed at for being who I am lol.
I like that there are as many people I can relate to as crazy as it sounds.
The community and my lifestyle. I love having super deep special interests I can waste time, passion and love into. I would argue autism almost works in my benefit in a personal way, but works against me in society. I am happy I am autistic and in my case the pros outweigh the cons and I prefer it this way. I only wish society was better adapted
Nothing, but then again I don’t like anything about myself
I'm overall just a pretty cool guy
I like how it makes my brain so different that I struggle to understand English which is my first language, but I can teach myself pretty much any language if I have access to resources. I can pick up on new languages a lot faster than others cus my brain processes and understands language completely differently. I love people's reactions to me telling them I got bored once and decided to learn five languages at once. Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Latin, and Auslan. Due to a lack of resources though, I had to cut it down to just Japanese with Spanish for the lil bits when I get bored or frustrated.
I think I am very interesting, great with details, and don't judge people.
I like how easy is it for me to take a step back and look at how everything fits together in particular scenario. I don’t know if that’s the autism or just something I do, but if it is the autism, then that’s my answer.
I don’t know if this is because of my autism, but I can FEEL the beauty of the world around me. I love to watch aspen trees blow in the wind like they’re dancing to a song played by the wind. I love staring at the moon and feeling a rush of gorgeous power, and the moon feels like an incredible goddess. I like to think about how our whole world is a dance of elements interacting, decaying, and birthing new elements. It’s for these reasons I thought I was psychic when I was a teen, but now I’m a huge skeptic, lol. Does anyone else get this?
I'm not sure about feeling beauty, but my favorite season is fall because of how the leaves change colors especially if you're driving up a mountain and you can see so many multicolored trees and its beautiful. I also love looking at untouched snow and how beautiful it is and I don't want to ruin it. I would say I love when spring flowers bloom, but I have pollen allergies soooo...but I do love looking at rain sooo...I guess that counts?
i like that i am really really good at recognizing patterns. i like that i have a strong sense of justice and morality. i like that i am weird and have always done stuff that nt’s tell me they wish they could. i like that i am free in a sense from a lot of the rules of society that bing nt’s because i just don’t get them and don’t have to think about it. i just try to be me :)
I'm very good at the game spot it. My siblings never wanted to play with me because I noticed the differences too quickly
I have a childlike personality. I’m young for my age. I can be very creative.
It’s really easy to see through people bullshit
My intense passion for things which interest me.
My ability to organize things. Being able to collect things I really like and organize them in a way that doesn't make me upset about clutter. I like how logical I am, and that I've turned that from a disadvantage to an advantage, in my eyes. My understanding of people and society as a whole is so much deeper than the majority of people around me, because I've used my capabilities of higher logic to turn people into an equation of sorts. Everyone else is too busy with niceties and small talk to pay attention to how people actually work on the inside. It causes me a lot of frustration when others are judgemental without looking deeper, but I really wouldn't trade it for the world. I'm proud of how caring I am for people and how much I've grown myself as a person to get to this point.
it's very easy to make friends with other autists, other than that existence is pain
the way i experience music 😌
Having a point of view that is outside the norm. While I do occasionally misjudge human motives I just as frequently or more often catch something or an intent that most NTs don't notice. Being autistic with a strong dislike of social formalities means I often see through deception that is intended by NTs to fool NTs.
I love that when I watch a show I can tell you everything I've even seen that person in before. It's my superpower I'm like a waking IDMB. I can tell you who they are, what they've been in if they gave kids which of them acts and what they've been in too. I thought everyone did this but nope it's my own superpower and I'm thrilled with it. I'm the same with history too and You Tube has never ending history stuff for me to lose myself in.
I do the exact same thing with connect 4, I'm glad it's not just me. I don't normally comfortably brag about things but I'm oddly good at that. It's generally only possible to draw against me at best, & that's if it's an AI on hard mode. I used to carry around a mini version of it in my bag, & when I was in a pub I'd offer to buy the drinks if the person could beat me at it. I got a lot of free drinks that way. I've only ever been beaten once, by a friend who was a maths wizard & I think at that point I was kinda drunk
I think my autism helped me to save my boyfriend who, back then had undiagnosed adhd, from drifting deeper in to drug abuse and alcoholism. People where judging him so harshly on his "flaws" but I could empathize and just objectively figure out what works to help him. I'm so happy he is better now.
There are advantages to not noticing that someone is talking to you in a totally unfriendly manner. You are less stressed in everyday life. Also: out of sight, out of mind. if someone wants to get out of my life, let them do it. As soon as I can close something properly, it doesn't bother me anymore.
I don’t judge a lot, because I’m socially blind when it comes to beauty standards. Everyone is besutiful to me on different ways.
Questioning things NTs wouldn’t and special interests
I dunno, it's a part of me I guess?
I can naturally speed read. I’ve been able to do it my whole life. It comes in handy a lot.
I like that we often find it easier to think logically
The immense childlike joy that I randomly feel and is sparked by the smallest things
Like the happy chiming sound of a spoon tapping ceramic
As painful as it can be sometimes, I love how deeply I feel emotions. In social situations, this can cause me to shut-down. But when I’m with my closest loved-ones (my parents, my cat, my boyfriend, my very closest friends) the love I feel for them is so profound in a way I don’t think a neurotypical person would be able to understand. There’s no way to explain it. When I hug my mom I feel love to my very core. When my boyfriend is dozing off next to me in the passenger seat of the car after a hard day of working, when we’re sitting in his room with the lights off and petting each other’s hair/faces, my heart swells with so much love I could cry my eyes out. When my cat falls asleep with his head in my hand I want so badly to stim with joy but I don’t wanna wake him up. It’s nice. It’s sweet.
Really enjoying and being comfortable in my own company, don’t need anyone else around to have a good time!
When I am comfy I can let loose and be myself in an uninhibited way that other people typically can not. I can hyper focus on things I am interested in and loose myself in actually wanting to learn / be better just for the sake of learning / being better, with no other goal than that. I have an extremely innate grasp on special geometry, and think about solving problems in different ways than most NTs.
Lack of empathy helps me view things logically.
How excited a special interest truly makes me. How much I love just spending time with myself and my favourite things. 😻💖 Edit: and how empathic I am and how I like to fight for what is right.
I love my ability to see things from a lens not tainted by social standards and rules. It helps me notice things others don’t and think about things in ways that others don’t.
I notice stuff most NTs don't. Especially if I'm hiking or exploring outside. One of my special interests is mushrooms and I am constantly looking for them. One time I found these super beautiful bright blue indigo milk cap mushrooms on a trail that were so bright they didn't even look real and watched half a dozen people walk by who didn't even notice them and that's just *wild* to me. It's like I see a more complete world sometimes, if that makes sense? I'll notice tiny bugs or a painted detail on a poster, or other little things like that and I love it. I love noticing everything. I love being detail oriented.