Hi, I've been hanging around AC for a few days now and have made a few posts but every time I have thought about starting my own intro thread I got really nervous and run in the other direction. But I feel it's right to introduce myself, so I'm forcing myself to face my fear.
I diagnosed myself in January this year after decades of knowing I'm different and not really understanding why. Misdiagnoses and misunderstandings, often from not really being able to explain myself or not quite having the insight at that time. I've always been proud to be a "freak", have always shunned following all the other sheep, and yet at the same time I crave acceptance and desperately need to be loved.
I live in Australia with my husband and our two kids, at least one of whom we suspect is also an Aspie. Having kids has been such a challenge for me, and my kids have led me to finally discovering ASD as the explanation behind my lifelong struggles. Every day is a battle to stay calm and my newly purchased noise reducing ear muffs are helping me get through the crazy evening hours when the kids go bezerk! I'm in the process of seeking a professional diagnosis. I NEED to know for sure.
Things I don't like: bright lights, loud noise, screaming and jumping kids (my son jumps and I'm pretty sure he's stimming), rain on my car when I'm driving, lies, injustice, exploitation, environmental vandalism, the current Australian Government (under Tony Abbott... And I thought John Howard was embarrassing!), rule breaking/rule breakers, phone calls, meeting people, watching or playing sport, cockroaches, the self conscious feeling I get when trying to talk to someone while looking in their eyes... And more...
Things I like: plants (especially knowing about indigenous plants), gardening, self-sufficiency, birdwatching, painting, sewing, making things, word puzzles, brain teasers, trustworthiness, honesty, transparent things (coloured glass, gems, marbles, etc.), high end board games (Agricola, Elder Sign, etc. I love them to play but also to feel all those beautiful components in my hands), science, cooking and eating good food, murder mysteries, reading (non fiction mostly, but also children's and young adult fantasy fiction), learning, learning, learning... and more...
A few things I'd like to swap notes with others on:
- I am a visual thinker. I see time as a kind of line of boxes from left (past) to right (future) with the boxes as you would see on a calendar representing each day. The background is dark and hazy and the boxes have a lighter border. I can scroll through the days a bit like swiping left and right on a tablet. I've never found another person who "sees" time like this. When I've tried to describe it people look at me all funny! Is this familiar to anyone here? I'd love to find someone who thinks like me!
- Similarly to above, I see numbers in a line from left (low) to right (high) and although I can do maths the way I was taught at school my instinct is to do it by a combination of feeling/gut instinct and by visualising the line and taking the problem and using blocks of colour to halve, double, etc. for example, 210 divided by 3 can easily be worked out (21/3=7 x10=70...) but my first instinct is to see the number line and shade the block from 0 to 210, then kind of zoom out and use my eyes to visually divide it into three sections, then zoom back in to the line and see where the first section ends and look at what the number is there. So the single block from 0 to 210 is divided into three blocks, the higher two of which I just ignore because my answer is going to be in the first section. I know this is completely weird but there you have it. I always thought this was normal but it's only in the last year that I've learnt that other people do NOT see this stuff in their heads!
- I am a colour-grapheme synaesthete and am interested in others' experience of this. I'm curious as to whether synaesthetes are all visual thinkers, or whether only colour-grapheme synaesthesia is related to or even a result of visual thinking, or something else.
If this is the wrong place to put these questions I'll start threads once I've found the right place!
Ok this is probably unacceptably long for an intro post... I hope everyone can forgive me! So far I am loving that I found AC. Everyone is so supportive and accepting. It's nice to find somewhere that I can reveal my secret maths style and not worry that I'll be rejected.
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu! (Please treat me favourably)
P.S. My username Cosmophylla is from Eucalyptus cosmophylla, the cup gum, one of my favourite local eucalypts. Cosmo + phylla = beautiful leaves. (coz MOFF illa)
I diagnosed myself in January this year after decades of knowing I'm different and not really understanding why. Misdiagnoses and misunderstandings, often from not really being able to explain myself or not quite having the insight at that time. I've always been proud to be a "freak", have always shunned following all the other sheep, and yet at the same time I crave acceptance and desperately need to be loved.
I live in Australia with my husband and our two kids, at least one of whom we suspect is also an Aspie. Having kids has been such a challenge for me, and my kids have led me to finally discovering ASD as the explanation behind my lifelong struggles. Every day is a battle to stay calm and my newly purchased noise reducing ear muffs are helping me get through the crazy evening hours when the kids go bezerk! I'm in the process of seeking a professional diagnosis. I NEED to know for sure.
Things I don't like: bright lights, loud noise, screaming and jumping kids (my son jumps and I'm pretty sure he's stimming), rain on my car when I'm driving, lies, injustice, exploitation, environmental vandalism, the current Australian Government (under Tony Abbott... And I thought John Howard was embarrassing!), rule breaking/rule breakers, phone calls, meeting people, watching or playing sport, cockroaches, the self conscious feeling I get when trying to talk to someone while looking in their eyes... And more...
Things I like: plants (especially knowing about indigenous plants), gardening, self-sufficiency, birdwatching, painting, sewing, making things, word puzzles, brain teasers, trustworthiness, honesty, transparent things (coloured glass, gems, marbles, etc.), high end board games (Agricola, Elder Sign, etc. I love them to play but also to feel all those beautiful components in my hands), science, cooking and eating good food, murder mysteries, reading (non fiction mostly, but also children's and young adult fantasy fiction), learning, learning, learning... and more...
A few things I'd like to swap notes with others on:
- I am a visual thinker. I see time as a kind of line of boxes from left (past) to right (future) with the boxes as you would see on a calendar representing each day. The background is dark and hazy and the boxes have a lighter border. I can scroll through the days a bit like swiping left and right on a tablet. I've never found another person who "sees" time like this. When I've tried to describe it people look at me all funny! Is this familiar to anyone here? I'd love to find someone who thinks like me!
- Similarly to above, I see numbers in a line from left (low) to right (high) and although I can do maths the way I was taught at school my instinct is to do it by a combination of feeling/gut instinct and by visualising the line and taking the problem and using blocks of colour to halve, double, etc. for example, 210 divided by 3 can easily be worked out (21/3=7 x10=70...) but my first instinct is to see the number line and shade the block from 0 to 210, then kind of zoom out and use my eyes to visually divide it into three sections, then zoom back in to the line and see where the first section ends and look at what the number is there. So the single block from 0 to 210 is divided into three blocks, the higher two of which I just ignore because my answer is going to be in the first section. I know this is completely weird but there you have it. I always thought this was normal but it's only in the last year that I've learnt that other people do NOT see this stuff in their heads!
- I am a colour-grapheme synaesthete and am interested in others' experience of this. I'm curious as to whether synaesthetes are all visual thinkers, or whether only colour-grapheme synaesthesia is related to or even a result of visual thinking, or something else.
If this is the wrong place to put these questions I'll start threads once I've found the right place!
Ok this is probably unacceptably long for an intro post... I hope everyone can forgive me! So far I am loving that I found AC. Everyone is so supportive and accepting. It's nice to find somewhere that I can reveal my secret maths style and not worry that I'll be rejected.
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu! (Please treat me favourably)
P.S. My username Cosmophylla is from Eucalyptus cosmophylla, the cup gum, one of my favourite local eucalypts. Cosmo + phylla = beautiful leaves. (coz MOFF illa)
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my memories are like photos and films, and I replay them many times just as you do, to try to improve on what really happened. Sometimes I wish I could just accept when my mouth fumbles or my clumsiness has seen me laughed at, but instead I have to rehash those film clips... I still frequently rehash some from twenty+ years ago... 
