November 15th, 2010

 *Discovery Criteria for Aspies by Atwood and Grey*

Lest certain things be misunderstood, such as "A qualitative advantage in social interactions," remember to keep these things in context. He's not talking about blond cheerleaders. I've added short answers as these apply to me.

A. A qualitative advantage in social interaction, as manifested by a majority of the following:

1. peer relationships characterized by absolute loyalty and impeccable dependability
*Absolutely, in my case.
2. free of sexist, "age-ist", or culturalist biases; ability to regard others at "face value"
*If a person is interesting, I could care less if they're from Alpha Centauri or have three eyeballs.
3. speaking one’s mind irrespective of social context or adherence to personal beliefs
*I'm certainly not one to follow a hive-mind perspective or join in mob thinking. I do have a tendency to say the type of thing other people may be thinking, but won't say themselves.
4. ability to pursue personal theory or perspective despite conflicting evidence
*I often look at things from all angles, and can appreciate information that doesn't match my position.
5. seeking an audience or friends capable of: enthusiasm for unique interests and topics;
*Absolutely true. I have a hard time with people who share nothing in common with me.
6. consideration of details; spending time discussing a topic that may not be of primary interest
*I do get fascinated with tangents.
7. listening without continual judgment or assumption
*Also absolutely true. I need the whole picture before I decide how I feel about something.
8. interested primarily in significant contributions to conversation; preferring to avoid ‘ritualistic small talk’ or socially trivial statements and superficial conversation.
*I live for intellectual discourse and debate, and suck at the, "How have you been?" portion of conversations.
9. seeking sincere, positive, genuine friends with an unassuming sense of humor
*This is true for most people (I assume), so yes, of course.


B. Fluent in "Aspergerese", a social language characterized by at least three of the following:

1. a determination to seek the truth
*Almost compulsively, and I'll keep asking questions until I have the closest thing to it.
2. conversation free of hidden meaning or agenda
*I abhor playing games with people--it's incredibly annoying.
3. advanced vocabulary and interest in words
*I believe this applies to me, yes. I've always had a wide vocabulary, I just had to learn how to use it.
4. fascination with word-based humor, such as puns
*I'm inclined to be laid back concerning puns?
5. advanced use of pictorial metaphor
 *The world really IS a stage.


C. Cognitive skills characterized by at least four of the following:

1. strong preference for detail over gestalt
*Things that are difficult to clearly define frustrate me to no end!
2. original, often unique perspective in problem solving
*Absolutely! And often very efficient.
3. exceptional memory and/or recall of details often forgotten or disregarded by others, for example: names, dates, schedules, routines
*Absolutely--I also remember things no one in their right mind would have cause to remember.
4. avid perseverance in gathering and cataloging information on a topic of interest
*This is me to a fault.
5. persistence of thought
*When I'm anxious it's the worst, it becomes almost obsessive.
6. encyclopedic or ‘CD ROM’ knowledge of one or more topics
*I tend to be a generalized know-it-all, but I definitely have strong areas of interest.
7. knowledge of routines and a focused desire to maintain order and accuracy
*I'm very rigid in my expectations and what goes on in my surroundings.
8. clarity of values/decision making unaltered by political or financial factors
*I have a very strong sense of ethics/morality/justice and it seldom bends.


D. Additional possible features:

1. acute sensitivity to specific sensory experiences and stimuli, for example: hearing, touch, vision, and/or smell
 *Yes, yes, yes!
2. strength in individual sports and games, particularly those involving endurance or visual accuracy, including rowing, swimming, bowling, chess
*Mine happen to be Swimming, Golf, and Darts, etc. but I really concentrate. I certainly stink at team sports.
3. “social unsung hero” with trusting optimism: frequent victim of social weaknesses of others, while steadfast in the belief of the possibility of genuine friendship
*Sadly, this is very true. I don't tend the good relationships I should and often find myself in bad relationships far beyond their expiration date.
4. increased probability over general population of attending university after high school
*Should have been, had my social and introversion issues allowed for it.
5. often take care of others outside the range of typical development
*Also true--I'm a sucker, it seems, for people who mismanage their lives because most of it seems so simple to me. I think, "If you would just (insert decision/action) things would be so easy." I often have to remind myself not to be concerned with the lives of others and focus on where MINE isn't working. I've learned most people are going to do what grooves with their personality/history no matter what you say to them, so it's a lot of wasted energy on my part.