> And if "no one considers autism a single thing" THEN WHAT IS EACH THING? lol

We don't have a name for every color on the light spectrum, nor can the average person tell you what's different about #FF0000 vs #FE0000. They still exist!

> Still this “everyone is a bit autistic” stuff is kind of absurd. It diminishes the condition.

Again nowhere am I saying that.

Maybe I could have worded it much better but I never meant to imply, it happens that like myself a larger portion of the people I hang out with are diagnosed which for me works with just saying "most people" but I can see why that was not clear.

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I only have so many comments before idiotic rate limiting. But I'll comment here.

So for dis-ease or dis-ability, it doesnt interfere with ease of life. Nor does it materially affect my ability.

> I would add several sensory issues (for me it's noises, multiple conversations at the same time, stickiness, physical contact, whole categories of food and several others) and several social issues to your list of superpowers.

And too true. I have some as you listed as well. However, I also figured out what causes them in me, and how to reduce their effects to nil. In a way, its self-treatment with n=1.

Noise: I dont have a problem with noise per se. However, when multiple people are talking or music with lyrics are on in the background, its incredibly hard for me to process what's spoken along with it.

Weirdly though, when I was principal clarinettist in a symphony, I could easily pick out any instrument by simple concentration. All I know is the noise issue with me is something with vocal processing of over-talking voices.

stickiness: for me, its dirt on my hands. Or chicken/turkey/beef/pork/lamb/goat blood. I do a lot of cooking. I hate those feelings on my skin. But I find that as long as I wash my hands before and after with a good degreasing soap (Dawn), the icky goes away. I can still do the task at speed.

I dont have the physical contact issues for people I'm close with. So, thats not an issue.

Food: theres only a few foods I can't eat, due to vomiting reasons. Tapioca based products are the big one. Aside from that, I eat everything from blue cheese, to cow tongue, offal from beef and birds,ghost peppers, pork brains, hakarl. I like the tastes and sensations that foods have. In a way, I'm wondering if this is also relayed to the supersensitive reject-foods type. Definitely not a disability.

And of course, theres the huge downsides with interpersonal interactions. Took me decades to really piece together and emulate and identify emotional state in others. But the psychologists dont know how to fix this either. Most of them are NTs who it comes naturally. But they want their indefinite sessions to do basically nothing but pay $200/hr.

> Seeing it purely as a positive is insultingly reductive.

Again, there are up and downsides to NT's and ND's.

Neurotypicals are more known for deception and lying. Or they use the term "little white lies". These things slowly stack up in NT conversations until they become huge problems. Sitcoms are based on this. But ND's, well, we are the weird ones. When someone asks "do I look good in this?" And you say "no, it clashes with your skin tone" - you were supposed to know they wanted a yes.

I feel sad that NTs can't properly hyperfocus, and can easily drop out of hyperfocus with low sensory input.

NTs memory is foggy and badly reorders things. Or they misremember and blame others for ill-perceived issues.

There are good and bad. I'm glad I'm ND, likely Aspergers (hence autistic). Most of these problems are ones that can be solved, at least for Aspergers side of things.

I immediately started with 'Aspergers was folded into autism spectrum disorder'.

I dont think they ever should have did that.

If the doctors say that "someone is nonverbal, pisses their pants, and needs spoonfed at 17yr old" is somehow the same as "someone who is a professional engineer who can hyperfocus but misses social cues and says weird stuff" - the doctors are completely wrong.

Those are demonstrably NOT the same thing.

And yes, my Aspergers is a super power. Those abilities (many positive, some negative) have gotten me far.