When I started investigating the possibility of being ND in some way, I’d come across “oh look, there’s a unicorn”, which I dismissed as plain silly. In my mind, the things that I took notice of were worthy of my attention, not mere “distractions”. And my “special interests” were deeply intellectual & relevant to my situation at the time. Social justice issues for example.
So I didn’t fit the rather shallow ways in which AFHD & autism are often portrayed, as if it’s merely about being distracted by unicorns & fascinated with dinosaurs.
I think the "oh, look, a squirrel" meme misses the point.
It's not that the squirrel is particularly interesting. It's that seeing the squirrel broke your concentration/focus. Now you have to pick up the pieces and refocus, which can be challenging.
True, but some things are much more likely to do that for me than others. The things that distract me are always things of significant interest to me, just not relevant to the current conversation/activity. The squirrel/unicorn example leaves out this possibility & I dismissed it. But I am often distracted by an exquisite rose or other flower, a cute child engaging with the world around them, a less common bird, interesting shaped tree …
@ratcatcher@Susan60@averagehousewife@graphite@kevinteljeur@actuallyautistic@nddev
For me, the point with the squirrel is that I see it in the first place. My attention sometimes feel like this image detection systems. Scanning everything, having the focus glued to it and then dropping it for the next thing after some seconds. So, while focussed on something there is this background scanning modus that makes an alert, once it identified something that needs processing.
And that’s where there is diversity within ADHDers. I can block out some visual distractions & not others. I think I have more trouble with sound. I used to feel guilty about “eavesdropping” as a child, but now accept that some conversations just catch my attention.
Any speech can really grab my attention and throw me off or make me lose concentration. But music I can use as an aid to concentration but not vocal/singing. Has to be classical/instrumental/jazz
@Susan60@averagehousewife@graphite@kevinteljeur@actuallyautistic@nddev
I see. A half year ago I would have neglect the idea of having any of those. Simply because of rough and stereotypical ideas about them. Now I reclaim both of them together with being gifted. Simply because it makes so much more sense.
And as soon as I wrote that, I thought about deleting it. I think the kids who teased me at school are now the people who like to jeer at the “academic elite”. I don’t regard myself as being a “better” person as a consequence of my intellectual bent, & I’m sure there are many people “smarter” than me, both ND & NT. But I still feel guilty or awkward whenever I talk about this type of thing.
@Susan60@averagehousewife@graphite@kevinteljeur@actuallyautistic@nddev
Since you actually deleted it, I can only guess.
I assume it's about social reception and struggle with the gifted label.
Disclaimer, I never got an actual IQ test. But looking at my school time and university it might be the only reason why I made it^^.
In school I was afraid of that label when a teacher suggested it. I could only think of malcom in the middle and the gifted class.
I didn’t delete it! At least, not deliberately. I don’t know where it went.
“Giftedness” wasn’t a thing when I was at school. I was one of the youngest in my cohort, with no pre-school experience. My social skills & physical coordination were poor but I had excellent language skills & was a strong student.
My interest in school flagged a little in high school, both because I was furiously masking & trying to be cool, & because much of the curriculum content & teaching failed to engage me. (Not all. There are great teachers in all schools, & I still did quite well.)
Both of my kids were offered participation in extracurricular gifted programs. One turned it down & the other withdrew because it was “boring”. (It was a fiction writing group. They basically sat & wrote. Why write in a classroom full of strangers when you could sit in a tree & write at home? Now a self published author.)
I think “giftedness” & programs for supposedly gifted kids are often a farce. Too often the kids in them are simply bright students who work hard, sometimes because of parental pressure. Meanwhile the brightest kids, ND or not, are busy masking or are distracted from their studies by ADHD, sometimes earning a “troublemaker” label. (NT kids masking their academic prowess to fit in with peers.)
I did bits of various IQ & other tests at uni when studying psych. All such tests are problematic for a range of reasons. Autistic people apparently perform poorly in some sections even when clearly “gifted”, & are much more likely to be argumentative about the logic & wording of questions. 😂
@Susan60@averagehousewife@graphite@kevinteljeur@actuallyautistic@nddev
Today I am not afraid of the label and probably will make a test one time. But I am not happy or proud about it either. I would say neutral at best. Life is so complicated with all of that. I often think about the Simpsons episode with Homer and the brain crayon. I guess average normal people are often way more relaxed and happy.
While I’ve probably seen the episode, I don’t remember it. I’m not afraid of the label, just the potential reactions of my awfully ignorant peers in their 60s. “Rainman” was the peak of their autism education.
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