2. areas of difference
One of the most amazing discoveries post diagnosis are that some things I found difficult, confronting or misunderstood were actually part of the spectrum's diagnostic criteria according to the book called the DSM-IV TR - an accurately forbidden name with a list of nearly 300 mental disorders.
Sadly its no Anthropologist on Mars..<which is an amazing page BTW>and so I am going to try and explain the 3 parts of my spectrum below.
Scroll down, hit the next button or click on art to skip the text and feel it through Art.
running on sensory overload
You might have heard that a normal person is subjected to 6 - 10,000 advertisements per day (!). Did you notice any of them?
Probably not as most people have a filter that disregards irrelevant information and stimulation.
However many autists do not have this filter. And this extends beyond ads, to environment, bright colours and lights, sounds, touch, smell and taste. Hearing your own heart beating is kinda freaky too.
The net effect of this is potential overload or exhaustion as our brains are quite busy processing *all of this information all at once*.
people are exhausting
This is the hardest part of being Autistic for me. For example I don't know how to make close friends and never have - I feel so lucky to have to ones I do.
Think of it like a bookshop missing a few books. Many of an autists social issues are due to the fact we don't understand or know many common social conventions. Or we misread situations and are socially rejected.
This can be as simple as using the wrong tone, or not meeting eye contract.
But the assumptions made from these lack of skills can be far reaching
what is FOREST ANYWAY?
This is not from the DSM IV, but as this is all about my spectrum, it is pivotal. And also because this is how I learned about the world - Plato, Camus and Kant were close guides during my early 20's.
However to save you from a trip to the library/Google/Chat GPT, I can paraphrase to talk about theory of mind - the understanding of others perspective. Or to be aware even of our own existence.
Adding to this is the concept of central coherence, the ability to derive meaning from a mass of details. You have heard the saying 'can't see the forest for all the trees'?
In my spectrum, its more a matter of seeing each tree and every detail, all at the same time.
