MY own personal 'ell

…

All of my personal baggage out of the way (detailed below), I found this to be quite funny on the heels of my wife (who often pokes at my right/wrong issues in fun) and I having this very discussion over pieces of pizza from our new countertop oven of awesomeness (convection, regular oven, toaster, broiler, pizza/bread mode, etc.) +95

My personal baggage around this subject:

Autistic people have a concept of “right” and “wrong” which goes far beyond the NT (neurotypical) concepts which really amount to “good” and “ungood” (since bad has been misused). -2

This often leaves them/us trying to explain to things like the guy in the image is doing. -2

Some other examples:

I have slept in the same position, same side and orientation of the bed, etc. for most of my ~48 years because that is “right” while sleeping in any other position/orientation is “wrong”.

It is “right” to eat most countable items in twos.

It is “right” to assign rather arbitrarily and for no obvious reason (often even to ourselves) who gets which item, positions, seats on a plane/bus/etc., order of eating, and a great many other silly little things.

For this reason and several others autistic people have some difficulty interfacing with those not on the spectrum, and huge issues interfacing with others on the spectrum who have greatly differing right/wrong items -65

Like most things in life there are also benefits. Often autistic people are much more detail oriented, often have higher intelligence, often have “special” abilities in one or two areas, etc. +30

Remember if you will my philosophy that one can not laugh at others until they are capable of laughing at themselves. +90

Also remember that after a certain threshold has been reached an autistic person will have a “meltdown” thanks to these not completely sane issues -30

My lifelong nickname “mad-dog” has everything to do with these meltdowns (I have had maybe 10 really serious meltdowns in my life, hundreds of noticeable meltdowns, thousands of minor meltdowns, tens of thousands of grumpy times, all due to my wiring being autistic instead of neurotypical) and nothing to do with fortified wine -30

(Source: pleatedjeans)