How AS or Autism affected your life?

Post Reply New Topic

Negative:
Cause me some problems with school
Have a hard time making friends
Bad Coordination

Positive
Many interest
Being unique
Being a nice friendly person
Open minded

Negative:
Caused me all sorts of problems in highschool
Can't deal with people
Have a tough time on the job because I don't have the skills normal people do

Positive:
None

I have no idea. It's like saying how has being me affected me? Possibly it has affected me very much and if I'd been someone else, it would have been different...

I have no idea. It's like saying how has being me affected me? Possibly it has affected me very much and if I'd been someone else, it would have been different...

negative
speech delay
hard time making friends

positive
unique
poetry

negative:
no friends
no education
no definite prospects
stress
anxiety
depression
alienation

positive:
Maybe if I find something I'll fill this out later.

We live in a society, so it's other people and how you deal with em which dictates your opportunities in life. I couldn't give a f**k about any wise ass remark that says something like "But happiness comes from within". Besides the obvious fact that having social skills gets you further than mere attitude towards your circumstances, social benefits are physiological.

Negative:
Social life... (and all the depression, anxiety, boredom, lack of self esteeem, sexual frustration, and anger that comes with it)

Positive:
Whatever fills the void of a sh***y social life...

PS: Ignore the above.. I'm a pretty moody person and I was just feeling really depressed at the moment I posted this, so it's more negative than necessary...

So here's a more balanced pros and cons list...

Negative:
My social life and the burden from being disadvantaged
The rigid pattern of thinking that comes with AS can make me close minded and stubborn
Over-analyzing things make me miss the fundamental simple things and side track me
Neuroticism (You can argue that neuroticism is different from AS, but I believe it goes hand-in-hand since people who have AS or are just introverted are known to have more cortical arousal which is responsible for the main traits of both groups)
Can't think on my feet very well
Can't put 2 and 2 together fast enough (related to the above)

Positive:
Once I find the balance between over-analyzing and over-generalizing, I can be very mentally and practically efficient
I'm a pretty open minded person (yes, critical thinking isn't exclusively an AS thing, but we do have an advantage)
I am logical in a way that isn't counter-intuitive, so it's the best of both worlds hah

Well there's still more negatives than positives, but those are things that I can work on. My situation is pretty sh***y right now, but I feel that I can make things better for myself.

Last edited by AceOfSpades on 03 Aug 2010, 12:27 am, edited 2 times in total.

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.
-Kurt Cobain

Negatron:
Anxiety
Depression
Obsessive compulsive tendencies
Not enough outside support systems

Positive:
People underestimate me. I use that to my advantage
I've thrown my obsessive energy into a future career path (that = $$$)
The people that I end up with for friends that can tolerate me are really legit people
Its made me closer to my family than most people I know

Negative:

Bullied and misunderstood most of my life
Executive function issues which waste my time
Sleep issues that have wasted even more of my time


Positive:

Career success - this might actually be a negative. My career is based on a special interest of mine and has led me to a lower paying career than I probably otherwise would have been capable of.

Last edited by Molecular_Biologist on 03 Aug 2010, 8:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

It's completely affected the way I live my life.

Most teenagers, at the moment, will be loitering in the streets with their stupid friends, basically doing nothing all day.

At the moment, I'm in my house reading up on assembly code. I teach myself new stuff all the time, from technical analysis of stocks to programming OS X.

This question is hard to answer properly because I have no idea what I *would* have been like if I was NT. How many of our personality traits or caused by our Aspergers, and how many would we have had anyway? But for the sake of staying on topic, I'll try my best at answering this:

-

- Having an extremely hard time keeping and maintaining friendships throughout my life, coupled with a real desire to have close friends
- Over-analysis of virtually every social situation which has contributed to my being anxious and depressed
- Poor physical coordination, meaning I can't do team sports or practical stuff
- Can't think on my feet or improvise
- Tendency to being alienated and isolated. At times when I've really needed support from other people, that's really counted against me
- No idea what I can do for a career because of my many limitations

+

- Ability to focus and concentrate on things that I enjoy, which is why my university grades have so far been excellent
- Knowledge that the few friends I do have are genuine, because they've seen both the best and the worst of me and vice versa
- Unique sense of humour

buryuntime wrote:

I'll second this and I would add much, much, more to the "negative" category.


I'm not entirely sure if I can blame AS/NVLD for all, or even most, of any of this though. In spite of the six full neuropsychological evaluations i've had which suggest nothing "more" than NVLD/AS, (and schizoid/schizotypal PD, depression, dysthymia, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive features) I believe I have serious cognitive/memory problems which most people with NVLD/AS don't share
and which have yet to be determined/dx-ed.

I believe that, for whatever reason/s, these problems simply don't manifest themselves on any of the standard neuropsychological tests.

I honestly can't add anything to the "positive" category. When looking at my circumstances in a balanced and realistic fashion, I can't fathom the reasoning of anyone who would say there's something positive about them. This just seems like the brutal reality of my particular situation.

Negative:
Emotional meltdowns, in the form of crying jigs.

Positive:
I have unique special interests, that should not be tampered with.
I'm able to enjoy my own company.
I'm the only person raised in the lower mainland of British Columbia, to speak with a Cockney accent.
I have a very androgenous apperance to me, pretty much like my role model, who's also an aspie.
I don't believe in strict, traditional gender roles.
I'm not afraid to let people know, that I like the British 60s, and The Kinks, through my style of dress/identity. The days before free love.
I'm a very punctual person.
I can get by, having a toy rat, for a pet. :O)
I know not to give out sarcastic cheers to people who are different from the mainstream, because I'm different, myself.
I know not to hurt people, in any way.
I don't like swearing, or people who swear, no matter who they are. Yes mum, you heard me right, and stop acting like a teenage girl. You're only pushing me away, by doing that, and that's why I'm living on my own.
I'm willing to talk to people, and help them out.
I don't need a man, the way that I need Jesus.

Positive
Focus in my area of special interest, an area of special interest that came as a massive surprise given that I hated the subject at school (maths)

Negative
Over-compensating to such an extent that I got divorced 16 days after I got married in 2007.

What kind of memory problems? I seem to be unable to visualize things in my head, or keep things in my head very long (poor working memory), and I couldn't recite what anyone says word for word or when something happens I can't put the events in the correct order. I don't know if these are autistic things or not. It's kind of like trying to recall a dream.

Negatives:
-social anxiety
-depression
-poor self-esteem
-Problems making friends
-Distrust of most other people
-Feeling like an outsider
-The EIQ of a brick


Positives:
-Independent minded
-Going into a career involving my special interest
-Not caring what other people think of my interests
-The friends I have made tend to be pretty good people.
-I know better than to make fun of others.