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Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD): Compendium Thread

Delightful said:
Oh I don't beat myself up. I'm quite happy about most of the things I am :)
Though it surprises me to think that I would not be considered different to most. From my experience of people they are clearly different to me, and a fair few are happy to tell me so.
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I enjoy interacting with people who are "different". It would be very boring interacting with people who are considered "normal". Lots of the conversation would look like this:

First person: Oooh. That's such a cute purse (enter any item or piece of clothing that people think defines them).

Second person: Thank you. I looked all over for this. I got it on (insert any random online retailer) and it only cost me blah, blah, blah.

The sameness of people who like to fit in is boring.

If you have random facts or information, I find that conversation much more interesting (until the same thing is repeated too many times:)). It tells me more of who you are and I do remember what you've told me and next time, I may have a fact that will interest you.
 
I like cute purses as much as anyone else (mine has a secret sleepy fox picture on it that you only see when you raise a flap) but a whole conversation about it would stretch my ability to cope.
 
Step back.
There must be others who he can call upon.
If you know that he's calling on 'all his friends' then you aren't the only one.
If you can't help then don't worry. Don't discount the idea that he's artificially being 'needy' and wanting succor.
Be there for him but don't be used.
 
Yeah. He is hundreds of miles away so at least he won't end up at my door (the horror) and there are friends I think he would call on first because they've known him since the 70s. Hopefully i will get over the upset at such a nice couple splitting up when I thought they were really solid soon.
 
The important thing to bear in mind is that ...
it's not your problem!
They're great people and you've got a good relationship and such ... but you are not involved!

Be good, be supportive ... but in most circumstances it is not good for you or them to take part.
 
'Over-identification' - perhaps a surfeit of empathy - seems to be a massive problem for many autists (or so I've read time and again). But it's very difficult to detach oneself from strong emotion.

More personally, less generally: my mum was curiously passive about unfairness regarding herself, yet would get distressed about injustice done to others.
 
Do you guys have strong emotions? I am pretty much dead inside.

Staticgirl: Your friend is hurting. Show him that someone cares, you don`t have to take sides.
 
Apologies for yet another of my unimportant questions, of which I have so many:

I know hardly any jokes (let alone be able to 'invent' any). If I were asked to tell one, this would result in embarrassed silence; is this lack typical or untypical of autistic people?
 
Steven said:
Apologies for yet another of my unimportant questions, of which I have so many:

I know hardly any jokes (let alone be able to 'invent' any). If I were asked to tell one, this would result in embarrassed silence; is this lack typical or untypical of autistic people?
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I do understand jokes. I can't usually tell a joke. I quickly forget them, especially the bad ones. Unfortunately, forgetting the bad jokes causes me to have to listen to them more than once. When someone asks me "Have you heard the joke about...?", it's like when you watch a movie and you only realize once it's started that you've seen it before.:)

I can do jokes involving puns, double entendres, and sarcasm (sarcasm, very well), but to tell a joke other than a riddle (is that a joke?), no.

I don't know if not being able to tell jokes is only a problem for autistic people. Perhaps it is more a problem of understanding jokes. As I understand it, people who are autistic take words literally, so my sense of humour would be lost to them because of the play on words as well as tone and any facial cues (sarcasm especially).

I do know people who are autistic who enjoy riddles.

I know someone who enjoys making up his own jokes. He will ask "Do you want to hear a Matthew joke?" He then will tell you a joke that he thinks is very funny.

I don't understand what is funny to him. I appreciate that he is being funny and enjoys making up jokes. I laugh with him because he enjoys telling jokes.
 
Many NTs find many Autistic's sense of humour impenetrable - and vice versa.

Many humans find jokes unfunny.

Some autistic males learn jokes because they think it's a way to make friends or is What One Does. It's neither and the jokes are even more cringeworthy.

Most people I know (most of whom are autistics) like word play, puns and running gag humour.

Now you tell me that I've been too literal about you meaning jokes - set up, story and pay off line - and that will be funny! :twothumbs:
 
Frideswide said:
Now you tell me that I've been too literal about you meaning jokes - set up, story and pay off line
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Unfortunately, that's not the case. :D

I'm not especially worried about this, in truth; I was just interested, chiefly because the autistic folks I've met online have had such varied senses of humour. :)
 
I am mistress of the double entendre. I like funny noises and surreal visual jokes. I love music played at the wrong speed. I love cartoons. I don't like formal joke telling, cringe humour or pratfalls. I would imagine every autistic person is different though as I bet some are comedians. That sort of job needs a bit of passion to keep going.
 
Frideswide said:
Oooh yes @brownmane ! riddles are excellent!
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In God of War: Ragnarok, there is a riddle which I was pretty sure I'd heard, but couldn't for the life of me, remember the answer. Thank goodness it is eventually answered, but only after you attend a funeral for one of the characters.

What gets bigger, the more you take away?
 
A hole?

Fern Brady is a stand up comedian who says she is autistic.
 
brownmane said:
What gets bigger, the more you take away?
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Haha! That reminds me of one of my favourites: "What five letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?"

I used to know a vast encyclopedia of jokes, largely for the reason Frides mentioned, although I suspect in my case it was also a coping strategy for what I otherwise lacked in social skills. I remember once meeting a bunch of Royal Navy sailors in St Petersburg, and spending hours trading jokes with them - there's not much to do off watch at sea, after all.

I'm much less interested in a traditional joke with set-up and punchline these days, but I have always loved wordplay and puns, or plays on words. I have what is either a reflex or an addiction to creating puns: the more obscure, the better. One among many reasons to admire EnolaGaia was his username. ArthurASCII was a pretty.good effort, too. Somewhere out there on the Internet there's a forum user called Peter Pun, which I'm fairly envious of. As I've mentioned elsewhere, my own username could be loosely described as sort of a bilingual play on words. Pun-ish, at any rate.

I'm expecting to have a clinical diagnosis of autism, and hopefully AD(H)D, confirmed on February 22.
 
I have about 3 in my family with autism and i love them all, nowt wrong with em at all
brownmane said:
It's like "What is the longest word in the (English) dictionary?"
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Is supercalafragalisticexpealidotious in there. :)
 
Frideswide said:
each colour is an axis - representing a function. So green is executive functioning and so on.

You answer various questions and then your answers are scored and added up, the total for each function being plotted on the relevant axis.

The person illustrated has exceptional sensory skills, very good language skills, average motor skills and poor executive functioning.

Three things to note

* I have no idea what happened to the scote for perception. I think that the person making the picture didn't understand what they were drawing?

* Terms like average seems to relate to normal- or NT people.

* You can find an version of the test here :)

https://embrace-autism.com/aspie-quiz/
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I was going to do that quiz but I didnt want to answer the personal questions on a site i dont know ( my opinion, others might disagree, Im paranoid :p and the where you came from wasnt in alphabetical order, i was looking for the UK or England, guess im impatient or thick. :D
 
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