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I am an NT diagnosed with ADD in middle school, and having personality traits commonly found in autistic-spectrum people (my father said I was really Spock's daughter and not his, but appropriately, that would make me 3/4ths Human), and who has a friend with AS from whom I heard about this place. I actually kind of envy autism-spectrum people - most of the high-functioning autism/AS folks I hear about sound smarter than I am, and they have very unique and independent minds and very intense focus. I can have intense focus intermittently, but I don't feel like I ever obtain much expertise on anything, and wish I could re-spark some more passion for the stuff I'm studying in school (but I wouldn't be surprised if Aspies also have motivation problems)


My user name is a tribute to my essential non-autisticness. See, I was reading Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation, and was looking at the bathroom wallpaper at my grandparents' vacation home, and started seeing angry ghosts and puppy dogs in the vine pattern. Then, I noticed another section of wallpaper in which I wasn't seeing the same angry ghosts and puppy dogs, although I could see other ghosts in it. I pondered and puzzled, and protested that the wallpaper looked the SAME everywhere! Eventually, after maybe 20 minutes or some other inordinately long time, I finally got the idea of comparing a specific feature, the bunches of grapes, between the "normal" and "freak" sections of wallpaper, and I discovered that the "freak" section was upside down. From what I'd just read about autism - at least the HFA variety that Temple Grandin has - my experience was NT squared: hallucinating/filling in vague holistic patterns that aren't there, and being painfully slow to notice the essential details. Were I on the autistic spectrum (or HFA at least), none of that probably would have happened. Temple's right: we NTs are in our own little world. Can't see the trees for the forest. Other non-autistic traits include a lack of sensory oversensitivities and scramblings, lack of a need for rituals and sameness (although I may do many routine things out of convenience), and a much smaller than average head.

I find the subject of cognitive and perceptual variation among people and its implications to be a fascinating one. I might share more thoughts I've had about cognition and perception and the like at other times. I'm always up for some interesting note-trading. I enjoy talking about myself, something I probably have in common with a lot of you folks.

When I was a kid, we had wood-grain patterned wall paneling in some rooms. The pattern was obviously repeated, and there was a certain "wood knot" that looked like the face of an old lady, even when upside down. People with AS can see this kind of thing, it's not just an NT thing.

Where there were tiles on the floor, such as in the kitchen, I would imagine a checker-board pattern and only be able to step on certain tiles (red or black). All the tiles looked the same in reality. Ok, now I'm rambling.


We don't get a lot of Earthlings out here. Hope you enjoy your stay on our little planet!

i can notice patterns in somethings too, like in my dad's car on the handle it mimics the look of wood,and i see pig faces and pig noses in it.

Welcome to Wrongplanet! Glad to have you here!

My parents have wood floors in their house and I could never help but notice the pictures I could see in the knots and grain of the wood. In fact I tend to be more infatuated with the flooring than the people in a house. Oriental rugs...don't even get me started on oriental

Welcome!

Lack of motivation does happen with aspies, too. I'm suffering from a lack of motivation, too. I think it's common to be able to see things in meaningless patterns. I can see them in the bumps of dried paint on walls, the random discolorations of wood, etc. I usually interpret them as faces of some kind.

Welcome to Wrong Planet!

Well, my experience was still NT to the first power at the very least, in that it took so long to get to the critical details. Perhaps there's variation in the "seeing 'big' pictures that aren't there" trait depending on the degree of your autism or lack thereof. It's interesting to know that Aspies can also see things as something other than they are...I've heard that autistic spectrum people do see patterns in things, but I figured that such patterns would be small and geometric, and less vague and large-scale - probably not like the ghosts in the wallpaper. Maybe that extreme would be further down the spectrum though. I'd definitely be interested in hearing about and trading notes on various elements of perception. There's just something about the idea in itself that captivates me. It's hard not to procrastinate when you've got cool stuff like this to ponder!

I found your imput interesting because, sometimes i see patterns in many things, and other times i think that i might be hallucinating or something. I have a question for anyone willing to answer- Do you think there is a correlation between Autism and Schizophrenia?

Autism and schizophrenia...don't know really. There's some overlap in symptoms, as there are with many pairs of neuro-psychological conditions. I once read a hypothesis/theory/whatever that ADD and learning disabilities tend to run in the same families (and often occur in the same people) because quirky people are likely to mate with other quirky people. Oddly, though, my family only seems to have ADD - no learning disabilities, no mental illnesses, no autism-spectrum conditions. My NLD/ADD friend in college remarked that a case like mine of ADD with no "comorbidities" was relatively rare. An autism-schizophrenia correlation, if it exists, could be a case of intermarriage of quirky people with different kinds of quirks. Perhaps there are also genes shared in common between autism and schizophrenia (I've heard of at least one gene that might be involved in ADD, autism, and alcoholism but I forgot what else), but it probably takes suites of genes, and in the case of some conditions such as schizophrenia, also some non-genetic "luck" factors, to create any given neuropsychological variation.

well, there is some history of schizophrenia that runs in my family (in fact an extremely close link) so, i wonder it i inherited this disease maybe. I don't know. It worries me, because i don't want to end up institutionalized (e-gad!!) As far as it goes right now, i'm a self-diagnosed aspie, with social anxiety issues. I'm on anti-depressants, and some stuff to balance out my brain chemicals (not sure what the little pill is for yet) but, i know that i have a difficult time making eye contact with people, and in social situations, i tend to be "peculiar" in my mannerisms and body language (as i've been told) bad posture, kinda closed -in to myself. I don't expect anyone on this site to have the answers but i figured i'd just inquire all the same.

I don't know if there is a genetic correlation but I know that both ASDs and schizophrenia have occured in my blood family. I'd prefer not to end up with the latter. I'm already bipolar (also runs in the family) I don't need anything else on my plate.

yeah, i'm hoping that you don't fall into the latter category either. People who have schizophrenia lead the most awful, tormented lives. They have difficulty concentrating on everything. My belief is that it is because of the "halluncinations" either auditory or visual ones. I know for a fact that someone can suffer from both, and simultaneously. I saw a loved one torn apart from this disease. I've also seen many homeless people who have this condition. I hope neither one of us acquires that illness ..ever!

Hmm, funny; if anything I would have said your wallpaper experience was more on the 'classic Autie' side of things than the 'class NT' side! Incase you hadn't noticed, most NT's don't spend 20 minutes staring at wallpaper and 'getting lost' in it! So you didn't get the difference first off? You knew there was something up! I would put money on the fact that no one else in your family has ever seen ghosts in that wallpaper, much less noticed that one part was upside down!

Oh yeah, and as for me, I have a love heart in the plaster in my room and a 'emu king' on one of the tiles at my first house: I returned there at 19 after being gone for about 9 years and remembered it and yep, there it was, my very own emu king!

There was a backwards map of Africa in the peeling paint of my 2nd grade classroom....

And I do agree, ghosts in the wallpaper...definately classic autie. What NTs do you know that stare at the walls long enough to see that? It's a detail oreinted thing. The only NT comment about it would probably be "nice wallpaper, where did you buy it?"

Interesting. Yes, staring at wallpaper is not a thing that most NTs do, but after just having read that Auties see the details first and foremost and tend not to see big pictures that aren't there, I thought I'd just done an exquisite demonstration for myself of the weaknesses of NT perception. See, I have a personality that could almost pass for that of an Autie (although I probably care what vague "other people" think or value far more than an Autie would), but I seem to have the sensory-perceptive profile of a straight NT. I walk the walk but I don't talk the talk. (Or, not-talk the not-talk as it might be for classic Auties.)

Another reason I'm not an Autie: no speech delay of any kind. And I am more verbal than visual-spatial, I think, but not really impaired in either. I scored 133 verbal and 107 performance on a childhood IQ test, which made me ponder NLD, but I do think that score can be more or less taken at face value, i.e. that my visual-spatial skills are perfectly average, because I've shown no signs of a deficit in them. I do recall getting anxious about the timed puzzle test (I always got anxious about timed tests as a kid), but I'm not sure if that affected my score much.

I gravitated to this place in part to look for relief for my angst about being too damn normal, because among those with atypical sensation and cognition I would be unique in my perceptual style. I've also thought in the past that I seem to have a few things in common with Spectrum folks, and that's getting noticed too. Still, though, I think it would be much better to get rid of the desire to seek a sense of value through affirmation of my oddness than to get such affirmation and then get angsty all over again when I don't get that affirmation.