What's an Aspie's intuition like?

[Ursus Chainus]

This is absolutely my experience. I had a professor put his hand on my shoulder once and all of the sudden I was overcome with his emotions (I only reasoned this because of the sudden influx of feeling I could find no origin for in myself) and it was one of the most unpleasant violations I have ever had, not to mention it complicated what had been, up to that point, a professional relationship. Worse, I had no language to talk about it at the time, and I absolutely could not concentrate for the rest of the day. I have no idea how I managed to finish that test.

I've spent years trying to get to the bottom of this. I'm so glad to hear that others experience similar things.

Please don't touch me. I don't want the download.

Wow... this is bit "triggery" for me.... I have felt this many times about many different things.

Yep... that is a violation for sure! Don't touch me without asking or having some knowledge that it is ok to touch me!

One thing I dealt with recently when I was going through some trauma over the loss of a friendship (due to someone invalidating me) and I kept hearing all the people from the past in my head saying "You are overreacting"... that is the mental violation to my feelings of the violation. I can forgive the violation itself if there is a sincere and actionable apology.... no problem!

Also... NEVER tell me that my personal feelings are wrong! It is what I feel. Validate my feelings by saying something like "I am sorry, I didn't know that upsets you and I will never do it again". And then... never do that again unless I invite it.

All abuse, racism, sexism, able-ism and all of the other nasty-isms is about invalidating the experiences of others who may not be like us. It plain sucks and makes me angry!

As far as intuition goes... I am mostly intuition. It took me years to understand that my intuition is dead on and that everyone else who told me to question that intuition was wrong. This intuition is the core "me".

 

[John M]

I see intuition as the parts of the brain that can't verbalize communicating with the conscious mind. The communications can happen in a variety of ways. I think emotions being the most common. Both the unconscious and conscious mind share the same emotional pool as it were. From my experience my intuitive brain (unconscious) is more intelligent than my conscious brain. I think it developed and matured more rapidly - more on a biological timescale than on the cultural timescale that my mind did. Problems sometimes arise due to communications being ambiguous. A feeling can be interpreted many ways. Also, if the conscious mind is already distressed then it's emotional state is essentially hogging the communication channel so intuition can't get an emotion through.

 

[Aspychata]

ummmm. Wow. This post is blowing up and giving me plenty to think about. Sometimes l pick up emotions and thoughts from random strangers. l picked up on riots in LA three years ago and l needed to move. I picked up that something would happen but it wasn't a earthquake. l knew l had to leave because of something catastrophic would happen. l don't take this as a sign from god or donuts. l just see that if l wanted survive, l needed to leave because l would not like what will happen. My LA friend remembers me talking about riots right before they happened. l wrote the word riots on a picture while l lived in LA. Maybe just a lucky coincidence. And l do make poor choices so my life is far from perfect.

 

[Aspychata]

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[Matthias]

Wow... this is bit "triggery" for me.... I have felt this many times about many different things.

Yep... that is a violation for sure! Don't touch me without asking or having some knowledge that it is ok to touch me!

One thing I dealt with recently when I was going through some trauma over the loss of a friendship (due to someone invalidating me) and I kept hearing all the people from the past in my head saying "You are overreacting"... that is the mental violation to my feelings of the violation. I can forgive the violation itself if there is a sincere and actionable apology.... no problem!

Also... NEVER tell me that my personal feelings are wrong! It is what I feel. Validate my feelings by saying something like "I am sorry, I didn't know that upsets you and I will never do it again". And then... never do that again unless I invite it.

All abuse, racism, sexism, able-ism and all of the other nasty-isms is about invalidating the experiences of others who may not be like us. It plain sucks and makes me angry!

As far as intuition goes... I am mostly intuition. It took me years to understand that my intuition is dead on and that everyone else who told me to question that intuition was wrong. This intuition is the core "me".

I can definitely relate although I've since found it more helpful to look at things differently now. If someone says I'm overreacting, I'll think of it as constructive feedback (they're letting me know I'm reacting more than most people). Then, I'll evaluate why I reacted more than most people.

For example, if it was due to losing a friend, I'd think about it and realize it's probably because I've had less friends than most people so friendships are more important to me. The other person who's had more friends probably doesn't understand.

If I was told I was overreacting in response to criticism, I'd look at why it bothers me more than most people. I'd think I've probably been criticized more often than most people and felt rejected when I was criticized in the past so my brain might be automatically thinking I was being rejected based on the past and causing me to feel emotions associated with it. Realizing that, I'd look at the situation and might realize the person doesn't know me so may have just been uncomfortable or misunderstood me which would help me feel better about it and react less strongly in the future.

Regardless of what people say or mean (even if they're being really nasty, rude, or insulting), I chose to focus on the positives and how I can benefit from what they said because I know I'll feel better and might be able to learn something from it. It's made my life and dealing with people much easier than focusing on the negative aspects of what they said and getting angry about it.

 

[Au Naturel]

We cannot choose what fate tosses at us. If we are very mindful of the situation we can choose how we react to it.

Or we drop into our default assumptions without bothering to think about it.

Though I have had people tell me I was overreacting and the reason was not that an NT would have reacted less. It was because they were doing (had done - was about to do) something that was inimical to my best interests and they didn't want to deal with any repercussions.

Of course, there were plenty of times when I really was overreacting. Think carefully and decide if you really have any skin in the game before reading other people the riot act.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I can't really think anymore. I just do everything out of instinct and on the outside it looks normal, but on the inside I'm really a zombie and I have this big cloud of fog where my brain used to be. I feel like I've just suffered a stroke all the time.