Autism.

[Mark 5]

Then we did a section on Autism and bloomin heck the penny dropped for me!.

Obviously doesn't make any difference now but I wonder how many are autistic (ti a degree) and don't know it.

Thinking back at some of the things I've done over the years (learning assembly language to reprogram an ECU because the Idle Control wasn't as good as it could be), it all makes sense now. Still do it all the time, focus on a task, to the point I can't just "get on with it".

Hmmm, has it or did you spin the coin and it's kept spinning.

Autism has to be assessed for a correct diagnosis and even then--.

You may have had/have abilities where things just made sense to you.

At the age of 4 I had the reading abilities of a 9 year old, aged 9 I could wire a house.

I left school without a single qualification to my name because I couldn't make sense of what was being asked of me or do.

What I'm saying is abilities above the norm or odd social interactions is not necessarily Autism.

 

[ajlelectronics]

if they know they're different.

Everyone IS different though. Look at this forum for instance, every man and his dog!

 

[fizzy]

I am not mad - honestly. Everyone else is
Seriously though I have been extremely manic lately developing my ai. Waking in the middle of the night with a new idea. Emailing myself before I go back to sleep. I have been seriously hyper for the last 6 weeks
Calming down now. Got the seriously difficult bit working- just the boring stuff now like creating the web pages etc. It is a customs ai system. I will post a thread when I launch it.

 

[Guineafowl]

I can’t stand small talk, especially those awful open questions: ‘so, how’s the job going?’. They tend to get one-word, literal answers. Nice people call me quiet; less tolerant types call me rude or stand-offish. I did well academically.

Like many on this technical forum, I suspect if I went for a diagnosis, I’d get something.

The labelling can go a bit far, though, and become an excuse for everything. There are a lot of shy teenagers interviewed who start every sentence with, ‘because of my autism and anxiety…’

My BIL struggled with maths at school, and recently announced he might have ‘dyscalculia’. That’s not a diagnosis, that’s translating ‘crap at maths’ into Greek and Latin.

@Keithmac there’s such a thing as ‘learning-induced hypochondria’, where you think you have the disease you’re studying. Also, the description of autism is so broad that it would catch most of us in one way or another. Something to keep in mind, anyway.

 

[fizzy]

I can’t stand small talk, especially those awful open questions: ‘so, how’s the job going?’. They tend to get one-word, literal answers. Nice people call me quiet; less tolerant types call me rude or stand-offish. I did well academically.

Like many on this technical forum, I suspect if I went for a diagnosis, I’d get something.

The labelling can go a bit far, though, and become an excuse for everything. There are a lot of shy teenagers interviewed who start every sentence with, ‘because of my autism and anxiety…’

My BIL struggled with maths at school, and recently announced he might have ‘dyscalculia’. That’s not a diagnosis, that’s translating ‘crap at maths’ into Greek and Latin.

@Keithmac there’s such a thing as ‘learning-induced hypochondria’, where you think you have the disease you’re studying. Also, the description of autism is so broad that it would catch most of us in one way or another. Something to keep in mind, anyway.

I couldn't agree more. I suspect the explosion in cases is merely because things are looked at differently!
Now THIS is autism - what an amazing bloke!

 

[Guineafowl]

I couldn't agree more. I suspect the explosion in cases is merely because things are looked at differently!
Now THIS is autism - what an amazing bloke!

A bit like that chap who can glance at a cityscape, then turn around and draw it in perfect detail. Years ago, we’d call him an idiot savant, but the terminology is a bit more delicate now.

With my social defects, I’m a bit disappointed I lack superpowers like that. I can rattle off the spelling of complex words like antidisestablishmentarianism or floccinaucinihilipilification quite easily. Not very useful, unless we’re playing a board game requiring that…

 

[brewdexta]

Why did I bother taking my kids to see specialists for diagnosis,?I could have saved a grand by signing them up for the MIG welding forum, or just logged into the Mail online

 

[fizzy]

Why did I bother taking my kids to see specialists for diagnosis, I could have saved a grand by signing them up for the MIG welding forum, or just logged into the Mail online

Obviously there are many people who fall into other categories. You did what was right. I would have done exactly the same!

 

[Guineafowl]

Why did I bother taking my kids to see specialists for diagnosis, I could have saved a grand by signing them up for the MIG welding forum, or just logged into the Mail online

Daily Mail strategy - make up new diseases by adding ‘syndrome’ to the end.

 

[brewdexta]

The Mail would probably label my kids as shirkers and recommend a cold shower and strong cup of tea before going back down t'pit where they belong

 

[dobbslc]

A sign of higher brain function.
Don't think that either earthworms or estate agents suffer from it.

And this twot this morning on the way to work

Social gatherings are by far the worst for me, though I was just generally miserable but there is more to it than that..

I'm very similar but it's the build up to the event that's worse for me. I've got one this weekend that sounds like it'll be a good do but I really don't want to go.

 

[mtt.tr]

I'm ADHD was diagnosed after a 10 year relationship breakdown 1.5years ago

Its not ideal to have and I wouldn't want anyone else to have it that's for sure.

I have a broad range of skillsets and a lot of in-depth knowledge in many areas, that is a product of hyperfocus. Shame that once the dopamine has worn of I'm on the next thing.
Younger me would engage in dangerous activities because it was fun, I still have moments on motorbikes that are reckless, I was very lively in the past I would happily lose it and have a punch up .

It also comes with a heap of other issues, rejection sensitivity, an ability to hyperfocus on a negative thought to the point that death is the best option. I have many downsides.


Having a label probably saved my life, without that I would have carried on struggling until I couldn't take anymore.

But I'm not and won't ever be cured.

 

[Screwdriver]

We are all, each and every one of us, absolutely unique. Our brain structure includes an overdeveloped cerebral cortex, specifically a vastly more complex neocortex, larger and more complex than any other animal. Inside that is still a reptilian and ancient mammalian brain (a crocodile wrapped in a dogs embrace). It is so complex, it still defies any attempts to fully understand how it works.

However, we can use statistical analysis to determine how an individual compares (to those specific tests) with the "normal" (lit.). Autism is a disorder which can be quite socially debilitating, it does not however confer super intelligence. Statistically, high IQ does correlate with autism but that does not mean all autistic individuals are geniuses, you're just more likely to find autistic traits in those cursed with genius.

Same is true for the related condition we call ADHD. Related only in so far as it can be "measured" by comparative statistical techniques and is more prevalent among those who do well in IQ tests. My (limited) understanding is that ADHD is a connectivity issue (left/right brain disconnect) which appears to be more physiological in nature and can be detected by modern scanning techniques. It can also be treated and people who suffer from ADHD respond dramatically to the appropriate drugs.

The so called "spectrum" of disorder merely refers to how far away from the statistical norm an individual may be, one way or the other. Unless you score exactly 100 in an IQ test (for example), you have moved away from the normal. Once you get far enough away from the normal, I believe the accepted term these days is "neurodivergent", it becomes a very obvious feature of an individuals personality. If an individual has a brain with cognitive abilities far from the norm, it is no surprise that an assessment of their autistic/ADHD personality traits (lets say) would also stray some distance from "normal".

You only have to look back at some of the worlds renowned geniuses, Einstein, Newton, Picasso, Turing, Dirac(!) to realise most if not all of those celebrities were frankly, a bit nuts.

 

[Guineafowl]

Dirac

… was at a dinner party once, when the person next to him asked if he’d seen any good films lately. He replied, ‘why do you want to know that?’ Good response to any kind of small talk.

My response to open, ‘how’s the job going’ type questions, which I have to suppress, is ‘erm, can you be a bit more specific?’

 

[Barking Mat]

Well, I'm the father of a nearly 16 year old heavily autistic son, mental age 6, goes to an adapted institute three days per week, refuses to go in Monday and Thursday due to previous trauma.

Needs help in every way, from getting dressed to washing, diet hugely limited as he'll only eat certain foods. But he does readily eat fruit, vegetables are a no, no.

Wife can't work as she has to be available for when he kicks off going into school, or needs collecting, so shes not worked in years.

Yeah, huge barrel of fun, can't recount his day at school, can't really have a conversation with him...

But he's healthy and happy.

 

[Barking Mat]

Somebody recently said to me autism is a brain radically rewired, which sums it up pretty well.

 

[Morrisman]

I think we are all on a spectrum of some sort. I know I have a few peculiarities that if I was a teenager these days would have raised a few flags. But all my school reports mentioned was could do better.

I did terrible at school, hated it. Some 20 years go my sister handed me an envelope that contained all my old grammar school reports. No idea how or why she had them.
I took them home and read them, it took me back 30 years in a flash, I literally burned with embarrassment at how bad they were. Even sat on my own I’m sure I was glowing bright red with shame.

‘Could do better’, ‘does not try’, seemed to be the theme, every term, every year.

Oddly enough I came 1st in physics one year, when I was normally in the bottom 3 in every subject, out of a class of 30 or so.

 

[Morrisman]

Somebody recently said to me autism is a brain radically rewired, which sums it up pretty well.

Many years ago some girl I was trying to chat up, in a pub, told me I was like an Idiot Savant, but without the Savant part.

They all laughed, but I wasn’t too sure what she meant (at the time) so laughed along with them…

 

[Farside]

there’s such a thing as ‘learning-induced hypochondria’

Medical Student Syndrome, as I called it, to my GP. He laughed, as he'd seen it first hand.

 

[Screwdriver]

… was at a dinner party once, when the person next to him asked if he’d seen any good films lately. He replied, ‘why do you want to know that?’ Good response to any kind of small talk.

My response to open, ‘how’s the job going’ type questions, which I have to suppress, is ‘erm, can you be a bit more specific?’

Courtesy of Grok:

When Dirac formulated his famous equation describing the behavior of electrons (which predicted the existence of antimatter), he was asked by a journalist to explain it in simple terms. Dirac reportedly stared blankly and said, "It’s a very simple equation."

err...

Where:

• ψ is a four-component wave function (a Dirac spinor), describing the particle’s quantum state.
• γ^μ (with μ=0,1,2,3μ=0,1,2,3) are the 4x4 gamma matrices, which encode the spin and relativistic properties.
• ∂^μ represents partial derivatives with respect to spacetime coordinates.
• m is the particle’s rest mass.
• c is the speed of light.
• ℏ is the reduced Planck constant.
• i is the imaginary unit.

Having basically invented quantum electrodynamics, he simply could not understand how anyone else couldn't see the obvious solution. He could not see his own brilliance. Feynman, one of my favourite physicists of all time, was almost the complete opposite. A great raconteur and brilliant teacher. The most normal super genius in modern history.

It takes all sorts and whatever the "cause" of autism/ADHD and associated characteristics (OCD, high IQ, social awkwardness etc.), correlation does not imply causation. All penguins have two legs. Just because someone has two legs does not mean they are a penguin.