I’m not a box. I don’t think in one or outside of one because with autism/Asperger’s, the thinking runs through a different maze in the brain than neuro-typical people. Oh, I haven’t a study to quote to “prove” this, because the proof is all in my head.
Before I was diagnosed (as an adult) I knew, and other people said, that my thinking was unusual. I spent time analyzing how I think and mentally observing myself thinking.
“Observing” is the right word, not “hear” or “knowing” or “feeling” because I see my thoughts in pictures. Temple Grandin had it right with the title of her famous book, Thinking in Pictures. Often I don’t see the thoughts as they are coming together, but the end result is always a visual. I’ll give examples.
I go to an adult spelling bee once in a while at the 331 Club in Minneapolis. The emcee always calls me The Speed Speller because I spell the word so quickly. The reason is that I see the word in my head then just read off the letters.
Doing art is a passion of mine I wish I could indulge in more. I already see in my mind what the next picture is going to look like, even with the new medium I will be using. When I do the art, it’s like connecting the dots or paint by numbers on a blank canvas. It’s very satisfying to see with my eyes what I have enjoyed in my mind.
When the concept of mind mapping became popular in the eighties, it made sense to me because I already thought that way. People said I was creative with my wild ideas that worked. I didn’t put two and two together because it didn’t happen that way in my mind.
I have taken in so much information from my intense drive to find out and understand when I don’t know something. I have read the gamut from poetry to engineering. So my creative ideas are really concepts and pieces of information that clang together in my mind. For example, what if we took an idea from poetry and applied it to engineering or vice versa?
I don’t think about it; it just seems to happen, and the result is a picture.
I don’t know if I should write this, but I spend hours thinking up scenarios, which I call “meandering,” but I end up applying the new ideas and connections to something in the real world.
I saw this article last night and wrote it this morning. I came up with the idea for the blog post as I was drawing in my mind the design of a new kind of weighted blanket for my business, Cozy Calm–my mental meandering.
[New Post] Think Outside the Box-with Autism-a Different Box – via @twitoaster http://www.eileenparker.com/2010/02/thin…
I am so relieved to have found this website! Almost everything I’ve read here makes perfect sense to me. I too have always been accused of thinking/acting outside the box when really I would give anything to know what “the box” is. I too think in pictures and remember being suprised finding out that others didn’t do the same. I crave information and read (no, ABSORB) everything on every topic from physics to politics to pottery. I see the interconnections in everything. I have lived a life of paralel play wondering why no matter what I do, I never quite fit into social groups. I cope but I long for something different. I long for the connections I see others make so easily, that allude me no matter how nice/normal/friendly I am. I’ve read books like “the Secret” and try to live my life being a pleasant/fun person/who others would want to have around, yet still cannot change my reality of “friends” forgetting to invite me to events, not calling, etc. If there was a cure, I would jump at the opportunity to be “normal”
Eileen, how refreshing to hear your personal perspective and experiences in your posts. I have searched for a very long time for more information that might shed light on the reasons that my oldest son feels, behaves, and thinks the way he does. To be honest, it has been a challenge from the day he was born, and most professionals we encountered have been lacking in their ability to provide us with good advice and any productive help. You would think that it should be a simple matter of visiting a few doctors, being diagnosed, and finding some medical and/or therapeutical help, and on you go to being better off, but the reality is much less optimistic. Sadly, the inability for most mental health practitioners to adequately diagnose, much less treat Asperger’s is astonishingly high. This deficit in the health care system has left many of us parents with children with Asperger’s pretty much on our own on learning how to positively contribute to the well being of our kids. In fact, a short while back I started writing a blog sharing my parental experiences as a father of two boys in an effort to shed my own source of light and hopefully learn from others, of which I must confess it being enormously rewarding.
I really want to thank you for your insight and look forward to spending some time reading your posts and learning from you. Great job!
Thank you so much for your kind comments. If you have a question about what happens inside my mind or about my experience, please do ask, and I will write a blog post to answer.
–Eileen.
Hi Eileen, I was wondering what would have helped you as a young adult when going through the stages from high school –> applying to colleges –> getting a job