I truely believe

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I just thought I would post this since I have been thinking about it for abit:

I truely believe that people with Aspergers, Autism, and other nuro conditions have a gift. Screw calling it some type of curse it is a gift. Because of our conditions we are required to learn more about people and mannerisms, and all other such things. But what I am getting at is I think the line between Autism/Aspergers and some sort of ultimate existance is not as wide as it is for NT. Sounds odd I know but do you sorta understand what I am trying to say.

Yes, I understand. No matter what you call it, some people experience and express life out of the mainstream and I think of that as a positive thing.

I call it a gift, as well. The reason that I call mine a gift, is because I've learned never to hurt another person, mentally, physically, or emotionally because I was hurt in those three ways, when I was a kid, growing up, by all kinds of people.

I tend to think of it as being a double edged sword because it cuts both ways. It gives me certain abilities that are way beyond the average NT but severe weaknesses as well.

Agreed. For me, I feel compelled to open doors for every single person within my line of sight. I fidget with my hands and stand out when merely walking, I'm incredibly gullible, I choose erratic movement patterns and can never maintain eye contact or speak more than a few words to a person that I know very little.

The good things? Intelligence beyond the average person's wildest dreams, honesty, honour, politeness and a lot of rational thought. However, that doesn't seem to help us much socially...

I view being Autistic (AS) as a gift now. Before I knew what was different about me, I definitely didn't feel gifted though. The process of getting to know myself better helped illustrate the positive gifts that coexisted with difficulties. I think it was a choice to view the sum of these things as a gift. Doing so has helped me tremendously.

I also view the realization that I was born different, followed by the process of getting to know myself and others better, as a gift itself. A friend of mine, that I've shared my differences and the process I went through to understand those differences with, said that allot of people never go through this type of thing. He said they come to an understanding of things and never reconsider their understanding or perspective. It seems like a shame to me. It's really difficult to understand everything correctly the first time... especially with insufficient information.

I understand that there are many people who are also different in some way; that struggle with some aspects of life more than I did or do. I would like to use my gifts to help those people in some way. Figuring out how to accomplish such a goal, with the gifts and weaknesses I have, is a hard target to hit, but I'm going to do my best to accomplish it.

There is no doubt in my mind that AS is a gift, and it must be one of the blessings God gave me. While, my social problems get me down, and people even go so far as to call me "creepy" because my best friend is a teacher - I still value my mind. I have a high IQ, which makes me hard to socialize with peers (I am in High School), but I can do some pretty amazing things. I can paint, and have increased focus. I am kind to strangers. I love reading and learning. I can see beauty in things other can't like Math and Space and Science. I am peaceful and rather docile. There is nothing more I could ask for, except being less awkward. It all levels out it think though, ya know, we are awarded with this amazing gift, but we have to sacrifice social skills.

I do know what you mean.

I believe that I have a gift too, infact I believe that AS actually allows me to excel in my chosen vocation/business.

I also know that some of our brothers and sisters on the Autism Spectrum do not feel this way, quite the opposite in many cases and it clearly pains some people here when they read about another AS career success story.

I have learned a lot about people an manerisms through my work and I do use NLP in business settings; it has involved many years of hard work.

But for the life of me I can't seem to transfer these skills to social settings.

The best way to apply those skills to social settings is just to treat them the same as you would business. That way everyone will just think your friendly lol.

I don't like the word 'gift' to describe people. It implies better than everyone who does not fit into this category. That's why I hate the term 'giftedness'.
Having AS for me is good because I can learn about things that my friends can't because they are too busy with their social lives, but then there are a few things about it that irritate me.
If it is a gift it's like a really interesting videogame that after a few cruisy levels has some really difficult ones.

As is often the case, the best solutions are usually the simplest.

I think the issue for me is mostly unwilllingness to make the effort.

It takes a lot of effort for me to apply my 'skills' to my business as I am required to use my intellect/logic instead of intuition, which is tiring.

It's like cycling up a steep hill in a high gear. I am strong enough to make it to the top but it would be much easier if I used a lower gear.

Outside of work (and my family) I just want to unplug.

That said, I don't socialize very much so I could start by applying my skills to (both of ) my friends.

Having 'conquered' the social domain with friends, I could then extend it further into my (already) limited social domain.

Thanks