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sunshower
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17 Jul 2009, 2:16 am

Maggiedoll wrote:
Wow.. if Greentea doesn't have a personality, who does??


^ That


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Greentea
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17 Jul 2009, 2:45 am

My dad used to say when I was a child that I have lots of personality. He meant that I wasn't swayed/influenced by what everyone else does, and that I was original. But these, again, are symptoms of AS...


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Sora
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17 Jul 2009, 7:44 am

Before I got into autism, I was very confused about my personalty. It didn't help that people kept telling me that my symptoms and behaviours were my personality.

Often, they were not. Every time my autism and ADHD were noticeable, it wasn't my personality of traits and how I am that was making an appearance but these neurological conditions. Introversion because of being? No, in an ASD friendly environment and interaction I'm the total extrovert. Irresponsible because I forget and can't focus? No, I was taught to be very responsible all my life and it's just ADHD messing that up at times.

Then I started to realise how my personality was often in conflict with my autism especially, how that meant I was restricted and impaired by autistic symptoms. These days I recognise or can figure out after some time whether it's me or my neurological condition that makes me behave a certain way, say certain things and do certain things and I even see how my personality is really obviously genetic to some extent but also environmentally influences and how distinct these traits that I call personality actually are.


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DonkeyBuster
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17 Jul 2009, 8:17 am

Greentea wrote:
Donkey, that's a good point, hadn't thought about it. But still, my strengths, weaknesses, things I used to be proud of like language learning talent...they all stem from the symptoms...


Oh horses**t... if that were the case, then NTs couldn't learn other languages... and what languages did you choose to learn? And how do you use your language skills? And why can't I learn another language if I'm AS?

Our personalities are brain/body based. Big freakin' whoop. I can have 6 labrador dogs and every single one of them will have a different personality... what motivates them, what frightens them, what they are most talented at... Even identical twins, for all their similarities, have different personalities, maybe subtly different, but different none-the-less.

I mean, NTs have those creepy, needy touchy-feely personalities based on THEIR wiring...

With all those millions, billions, trillions of neurons and connections in your brain, and statistical variations, you haven't got a chance of not having a personality!

Guess you'll just have to find something else to beat yourself up about... LOL Another theory shot to hell [Dang, and it seemed like such a good one...]



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17 Jul 2009, 10:01 am

These 2 posts really got me thinking...can someone on this thread mention some personality traits of theirs that are not:

1. caused by their AS
2. a product of living with AS and the experiences caused by that?

I'll try to think of some myself... Responsibility does sound like a good example in my case.


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fiddlerpianist
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17 Jul 2009, 10:27 am

Greentea wrote:
Donkey, that's a good point, hadn't thought about it. But still, my strengths, weaknesses, things I used to be proud of like language learning talent...they all stem from the symptoms...

How are any of these not your personality traits? How does associating them with AS symptoms make them any less valid as traits?

I have an uncanny ability to learn music by ear. Music is a central part of my life and my personality. Part of that ability stems from my having absolute pitch, which is far more common among the autistic than the general population. To suggest that I am lacking personality because my life is, in large part, based around these traits is just plain silly.


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fiddlerpianist
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17 Jul 2009, 10:33 am

Greentea wrote:
These 2 posts really got me thinking...can someone on this thread mention some personality traits of theirs that are not:

1. caused by their AS
2. a product of living with AS and the experiences caused by that?

I can't even imagine how you could possibly sort this out. How do you know which aspects of your life are derived from having AS and which aren't? Everything is likely derived from it. Even your sociopolitical views are likely to be derived from it.

That's kind of like asking what your personality would be like if you simply haven't lived long enough yet to develop one.


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17 Jul 2009, 11:03 am

in my opinion "personality" is distinct from "character".
i do not need a personality, so i do not have a describable personality.
i do have "character" however.

"personalities" are filters that are constructed in an attempt to glean societal approval and to satisfy societal expectations of "style". they are learned from about 5 years onwards.
personalities are "adopted".

"characters" are essential and not learned. they are either "brave" or "timid", or "adventurous" or "retiring"... etc etc etc .
personalities are "hooks" designed to catch the endorsement of others (and they are constructed only with the motive of appealing to other people).

"characters" are whole environments of innate instinctive tendencies that are existent without influence from others.

if having a "personality" means i collect people like thorns on my socks, then i relinquish my personality with trivial abandon.

but i can not relinquish my character. eg: if i see a poor life suffering some brutal cruelty, i will intervene because i can not refuse that instinct to help suffering lives.
it is just one example, but it is an example of character and not of personality.

i do not need a personality and that is why i do not have any distinct personality.

(i know i repeat myself at times in this post but i left the repetitions unedited because i need to repeat myself to reinforce some things i say)

disclaimer: this is all my speculation and not a report on what i have recently researched on the net.



Greentea
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17 Jul 2009, 11:22 am

Do you mean that a personality is like a signature, a calling card, a face we have for society and character is the outward expression of our real values?

Now that you mention it, I'm not even sure what a personality really is...


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Michjo
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17 Jul 2009, 11:29 am

Greentea wrote:
These 2 posts really got me thinking...can someone on this thread mention some personality traits of theirs that are not:

1. caused by their AS
2. a product of living with AS and the experiences caused by that?

I'll try to think of some myself... Responsibility does sound like a good example in my case.

I am impusive, instinctual, completely unorganised, highly ritualistc and extremely expressive. I hold myself to a much higher standard the other people, what is not okay for me to do, is perfectly fine for others to do. Does my autism cause this? I could never accurately answer that question, but i do know there are aspies out their who are the complete opposite from me, so that would suggest that they are mere personality traits.



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17 Jul 2009, 11:34 am

For me I think it would being courageous, confident, calm and balanced on the inside (experiences supposedly should have made me the opposite according to a professional, but I've always been like this/already as a toddler, so that's where the genetics come into play I think), being absolutely stubborn, being a keen and curious observer (that's something the disorders both help with and impair), being a rather adaptive character (autism gravely impairs that), ability to be a loud-mouth (hehe), a know-it-all and so on

These traits may or may not be in some way connected to the underlying neurological condition of the behaviour that we call autism, but seeing how many people have the same behavioural symptoms of autism but have so different traits the connection can't be that simple. And of course, there are all these non-autistic people with the same traits as autistic people so whatever 'causes' personality traits and their at least partly genetic component isn't exclusive to autism or lack of autism. Both a person with autism and one without can for example be gentle, responsible, concerning and honest. Also, expereince can have modified these traits in many different ways for both of them.

So there may or may not be a connection between neurological disorders and personality traits, but I think that's not as important because autistic people can have every personality trait known to us - as do non-autistic people of course. Think about it, everybody can be gentle, bitter, insistent, there's no known pattern for us to know what personality a baby is going to have right now. And all personality traits serve a purpose and there's no 'bad' personality trait, all can be bad and good (courage can get you killed, insecurity can save your life when you stay away from a dangerous situation). Autistic people do have as much (or as little?) personality as non-autistic people too, it's just that the normal ways of identifying personality traits in normal people sometimes don't work for autistic people because they have different abilities and impairments to deal with and behave differently than others so that personality traits can show differently.


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Maggiedoll
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17 Jul 2009, 3:15 pm

sunshower wrote:
Maggiedoll wrote:
Wow.. if Greentea doesn't have a personality, who does??

^ That


See, I'm not the only one who thinks so!

Greentea wrote:
LOL Maggie, what do you mean? If I have a distinct personality, I'm not aware... :?


I don't know how to describe it.. it's just the you-ness. Personality traits aren't personality.. they're traits. Personality is more distinctive, it's hard to put into words.. that and I'm just not good at putting things into words to begin with.



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17 Jul 2009, 3:30 pm

Mmmm...I'm more curious now. :D


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millie
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17 Jul 2009, 4:02 pm

Quote:
sunshower wrote:
Maggiedoll wrote:
Wow.. if Greentea doesn't have a personality, who does??


^ That


ahem...cough...cough...splutter.
Greentea, trust others on this one.
:) :wink:



Greentea
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17 Jul 2009, 4:21 pm

Can someone explain, please? I mean, we're Aspies, we surely can explain this intellectually rather than by intuition? :D


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millie
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17 Jul 2009, 4:30 pm

In my case, I see no point in separating out my ASD from my personality.
I actually do not know where one starts and the other finishes, and so i perceive myself as a kind of symbiosis - a merging of autistic traits AND personality.
I do have a particularly strong presentation of some autistic traits, and a milder presentation of others. And then, I can be exceedingly extroverted at times - so i do not fit with the traditional assumption that all people with ASD's are shy and introverted. (Where did that erroneous notion come from??)

So perhaps what I am saying is that I have an autistic personality that is all mine. :)