Najakcharmer
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Joined: 5/3/2004
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quote:
ORIGINAL: KatyLied
Can someone with a disability such as this consent? I'm curious because what I've read makes it sound similar to autism.
Yes. I have Asperger's Syndrome (albeit not formally diagnosed), and frankly I wouldn't trade my brain wiring for anybody else's. Asperger's is also known as "Geek Syndrome". It is basically high-functioning autism. Folks with this sort of brain wiring tend to have some significant advantages in functionality, usually in the traditionally "geeky" fields of math or science, but some of us are wired optimally for other things. I can read with full comprehension and retention at truly insane speeds. The average full page in a paperback book is approximately a four-second data byte to my hungry brain, which really does gobble written words at that speed as a normal default. This is annoying as hell when the new Harry Potter book comes out and I spend $25 on 90 minutes of entertainment, and useful as hell when I have an entire textbook to absorb in a couple of hours. Nope, not trading this brain in for a new model.
Now for the downsides. I have slight prosopagnosia (difficulty recognizing faces). I have a real aversion to television as the strange faces, loud volume changes during commercials and flashy-blinky lights are seriously stressful to me. I can tolerate it for limited periods if I concentrate and focus on the show, and if the actors don't change clothes too often for me to keep track of who's doing what to whom. But more than a couple hours of viewing any kind of media and I'm going to be stressed and grumpy. I'm not going to rock on the floor sucking my thumb or anything. I'm just going to do the same thing I'd do if someone was blowing a cigarette in my face and get away from the annoyance. If for some reason I really can't get away, I'll be uncomfortable and probably short tempered as hell. I don't like music much either, with a few rare exceptions, and I have spatial difficulty reading maps, rotating shapes and distinguishing left from right. My brain does not seem to be wired very well for media other than the printed word.
I have difficulty recognizing and applying normal human social cues, possibly in part because of the deficiency in my facial recognition wiring. (Yes, that stuff is actually handled by a discrete portion of the brain). I compensate by being an active student of human social behavior, anthropology and cultures. In most social situations I am effectively behaving as a field anthropologist and counterfeiting appropriate cues, since they do not come naturally to me. I am not always completely successful, but in an academic or professional environment where the social rules are fairly rigid and uniform, and the range of emotional nuance expected from people is narrow and bland, I do very well indeed.
I wouldn't say that I am incapable of lying or misdirecting people, or of being tactful and considerate of the feelings of others, but I am very bad at it. What I normally communicate with is blunt honesty and simple factual statements mostly devoid of emotional content. Also, unfortunately, devoid of sufficient understanding of the effect my factual statements can have on the emotional states of others, unless I take considerable time to think such situations through and apply the logic of an anthropologist. It does not normally occur to me that the act of transmitting, debating or questioning factual data could possibly have an emotional result in anyone else. This makes me good at science and less good at interpersonal relations.
I almost completely lack "normal" social taboos and inhibitions on a gut level. I can never rely on instinct to guide my behavior in a social situation. In almost any social situation, I am effectively playing a game of mental chess. It is exhausting. I am calculating my responses based on my previous observations of the individual and their culture, and presenting what is more or less a human mask. What is underneath the human mask is not particularly human by most civilized standards. It is very much "other". My basic life experience is that of growing up as an intelligent but essentially non-primate animal, living in a world crowded by jabbering monkeys who look like me but are fundamentally an alien species that I find interesting to study but difficult to empathize with.
I work hard on being a successful adult professional in the real world, and I succeed reasonably well. I'm good at what I do. In fact I am most comfortable and relaxed in the academic and professional environment, since the rules of etiquette in academia are closest to "natural" behavior for me - intelligent data exchange minus any confusing, annoying emotional or social baggage. I'm not dysfunctional, and I'm completely capable of consenting or not consenting to take a risk based on how healthy, productive, logical and functional I assess it to be.
There are certainly people with more severe and impairing cases of Asperger's and autism out there, but a lot of us "Aspies" and "geeks" are high functioning successful professionals, respected in our fields and tolerated as eccentric and quirky at home. The condition does have a profound effect on how you think, how you percieve the world and how you relate to others, but I wouldn't be willing to say that it's entirely a negative effect. I honestly don't want to be a jabbering monkey who cares about what other monkeys think or do. I don't need to be like everyone else. I like being me, and the me I am happens to be autistic.
I really like the viewpoint of the humorous site "Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical." I had to retrieve it from a Google cache as it appears the site is down.
What Is NT?
Neurotypical syndrome is a neurobiological disorder characterized by preoccupation with social concerns, delusions of superiority, and obsession with conformity.
Neurotypical individuals often assume that their experience of the world is either the only one, or the only correct one. NTs find it difficult to be alone. NTs are often intolerant of seemingly minor differences in others. When in groups NTs are socially and behaviorally rigid, and frequently insist upon the performance of dysfunctional, destructive, and even impossible rituals as a way of maintaining group identity. NTs find it difficult to communicate directly, and have a much higher incidence of lying as compared to persons on the autistic spectrum.
NT is believed to be genetic in origin. Autopsies have shown the brain of the neurotypical is typically smaller than that
of an autistic individual and may have overdeveloped areas related to social behavior.
There is no known cure for Neurotypical Syndrome. However, many NTs have learned to compensate for their disabilities and interact normally with autistic persons.
About This Site
This site is an expression of autistic outrage.
About a year ago I learned I was on the autistic spectrum. Inspired by this discovery, I read everything I could get my hands on about the autistic spectrum. Much of it makes sense-- for the first time in 41 years, I had a description, albiet an unexpected one, that fit me.
But a lot of what I've found out there, mostly written by "experts" and "professionals", has been arrogant, insulting, and just plain wrong. My bête noire of the moment is finding my emotions described as "flat". As someone with considerably greater expertise in my emotions than the "experts", I can state unequivocally that my emotions are not "flat". They are different, yes, but they are most certainly not "flat."
Perhaps tomorrow I'll be fired up over being described as "lacking empathy". Or I'll be outraged at an exceptionally clueless "training" method being inflicted upon autistic kids. Or maybe it will be some new paper written by some "expert" from the perspective that neurotypical perception is correct, and my brain is a genetic mistake.
My brain is a jewel. I am in awe of the mind that I have. I and my experience of life is not inferior, and may be superior, to the NT experience of life.
Hence, this "Institute". Persons on the autistic spectrum and NT supporters are invited to submit papers to the Institute, and to share your observations in "Current Research" (the guestbook).
-muskie
< Message edited by Najakcharmer -- 6/28/2007 2:54:29 PM >
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RE: D/s and Asperger's Syndrome - 
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