The Mental Link
Welcome back to the Audacious Aspie! Today, I will take you to a place that has only been visited a couple of times before. A place where most people fear to tread (probably because they are afraid of the answer). A place where, if you look hard enough, will blow your mind (or just hurt your brain. Like, a lot.) Unless your a stable geneious, like, a very stable genius, you have no hope for survival. Welcome, to the new post from the Audacious Aspie, the Mental Link!
What am I talking about after that dramatic intro? An article that asks the question: are we all a little autistic (or aspie?). I’m sure you’ve heard how we are all supposed to be related by our ancestors in Africa, right? (and all the incest that it implies. Hey, the first humans had to reproduce somehow) Will, it’s like that, but with our brains instead of our genes (without the incest, maybe). The author wishes to stress that he/she is saying not EVERYONE is a little autistic, but that autistic people are humans to. Albeit with weird imaginations and quirks (It’s a debate upon which is weirder: our imaginations or our quirks). All part of our charm.
Our nerdy, book/comic/manga-wormish charm. Or our sci-fi/horror/crime-drama/history/anime-wormish charm. Whatever our obsessions are-charm.
How are we human (and not Daleks or the like underneath)? Like everyone else, we experience the world as a human: uniquely different from person to person, but still human. But, how those on the spectrum differ, often drastically, from everyone else, is HOW we see the world as autistic/aspie humans. Autism/aspergers affect how we see the world. For those who do not know what I, nor the author of the article, mean, I will explain. The author mentions our nervous system, and I think that is a good place to start.
Our nervous system is extremely affected by autism/aspergers: to much light? We get nervous. To much sound? We get nervous. Amongst too many people for to long, to many changes to our routine, too much outside stimulus, we get nervous. Now to be sure that everyone human feels this way from time to time (which puts us on the human spectrum in and of itself), those on the spectrum react differently. We can feel overwhelmed from time to time, especially if we are not taught how to handle such situations (how to properly extract yourself from the situation, who to seek for help, etc.) Rather than leave the area and go somewhere less crowded, or less outside stimuli altogether, we get so overwhelmed that we just don't know what to do, so we just freeze.
I could go on, but my various other posts go into detail on this in one way or another. Long story short: we, like everyone else, wear glasses. Except while most others see in black and white, those on the spectrum see in black, white and a some grey in between. More or less grey, depending on how far along they are on the spectrum (no, it’s not a progresion like in a game. Though that would be cool: “you reached level 23 aspergers, you get: Superior Math Skills!!) And that is why we, are androids. I mean anthropomorphized creatures. I mean human. Yeaah, human, yeaaahh.
See? This is a scan of my brain. All human.
Will, this has been one revealing blog post. And don't worry, there is more to go on about the article, far to interesting to give it only one post. Next time we will delve deeper into the mystery of whether or not we are all, at least a little bit, autistic, or aspie. Until then, this continues to be, the Audacious Aspie.
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