Autism and its effects on life
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I’m sure we’ve all seen or heard of this word at some point in our life.
But what is it? What does it mean? Are you lacking in something if you have it?
According to Wikipedia, “Autism is a developmental disorder characterized by difficulties with social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior.”
Or in other words, one struggles to interact with people, and repeats certain things because it’s comforting.
The spectrum varies, and you can be functional, or you could only function with a carer or someone guiding you. Which, if you have someone you have to wait for, really sucks.
But basically, it’s a lot of stress in your head, a lot of missed cues, and a lot of frustrations when you eventually realise this. Those mind-blowing moments that feel like a sitcom scene after it happened.
And when I read business articles about a fixed mindset vs growth mindset, I generally fall into a fixed one, and that’s just because it’s a struggle to get out of it, not because I don’t want a growth one. I suppose it just takes time.
Anyway, I’m writing this because I randomly discovered I have it, after reading about it here.
And I have to tell you, while I’m not officially diagnosed, yet mostly everything from there matches, it has been a game-changer.
It elucidates why I say random stuff at times and I don’t understand why people are upset/get offended. Heck, I recently saw this show called Mindhunter and I’m very similar to the main character, Holden Ford.
That article and the show are extremely freaky/scary in the way you can discover yourself based on some words or actions. Although discover is probably the wrong word, and the better one is solace in the fact that one isn’t as damaged or as broken as one thought. Or is, but isn’t alone anymore. Haha. Funny, not funny.
I still don’t understand a lot of things in regards to cues, words, and things that people may find grating, yet I find okay, however, when repeated out loud, they make some sort of sense, I suppose.
And it’s weird, because when I saw something like Rain Man I didn’t relate to the guy, even though the guy has that solitude, repetition…
