3 ms·

That is the opposite of my experience on the spectrum. I am hyper aware of people's body language and vocal patterns. My peripheral vision is just as effective

That is the opposite of my experience on the spectrum. I am hyper aware of people's body language and vocal patterns. My peripheral vision is just as effective if not more effective at "listening" to people because with full eye contact there is an extreme sense of intimate attention that subdues a lot of my other sensory inputs. Every other autistic person I know, have known, and the one I have married experiences this the same way, and would also disagree about them not having a lot of mental space for shared attention. Attention is just expressed differently.

sdwr 4y ago
Yeah, exactly. The sensory inputs that are subdued are the "self-bubble". Extreme attention paid to people from an emotional distance is heightened because it's processed through fear, like a prey animal. The "extreme sense of intimate attention" is shared attention, where the we overtakes the me. It feels overwhelming because you don't want to give up the self-bubble - don't have the mental space for shared attention. Plus the autistic logic is self-reinforcing. Acting as though other people are predators, and their attention is dangerous, feeds on itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory The universe is shaped exactly like the earth If you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were
- hotbeanwater 4y ago
  I think I understand where you are coming from, but I don't think those generalizations about autistic people are accurate. I think there are some autistic people for which these might apply, but most of us are just hyperaware of our surroundings — including other people's body language and intonation patterns. Eliding eye contact in a conversation is less about a feeling of predator/prey and more about the multiple swimlanes of input we're concurrently processing. Think more along the lines of day-dreamers and space-cases rather than wallflowers avoiding social contact. Shared attention is not something I nor other autistic people I know struggle with. Misplaced attention — toward our slow responses, toward our lack of eye contact, toward the way we choose to engage with others — is absolutely something we deal with on a day-to-day basis, primarily because people tend to have these rigid assumptions of how life is experienced through our senses. (Re horseshoe theory: I think more people should consider horseshoe theory when considering left vs right rhetoric, but I'm not sure how it applies here)

sdwr 4y ago

Yeah, exactly. The sensory inputs that are subdued are the "self-bubble". Extreme attention paid to people from an emotional distance is heightened because it's processed through fear, like a prey animal. The "extreme sense of intimate attention" is shared attention, where the we overtakes the me. It feels overwhelming because you don't want to give up the self-bubble - don't have the mental space for shared attention. Plus the autistic logic is self-reinforcing. Acting as though other people are predators, and their attention is dangerous, feeds on itself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory The universe is shaped exactly like the earth If you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were

hotbeanwater 4y ago
I think I understand where you are coming from, but I don't think those generalizations about autistic people are accurate. I think there are some autistic people for which these might apply, but most of us are just hyperaware of our surroundings — including other people's body language and intonation patterns. Eliding eye contact in a conversation is less about a feeling of predator/prey and more about the multiple swimlanes of input we're concurrently processing. Think more along the lines of day-dreamers and space-cases rather than wallflowers avoiding social contact. Shared attention is not something I nor other autistic people I know struggle with. Misplaced attention — toward our slow responses, toward our lack of eye contact, toward the way we choose to engage with others — is absolutely something we deal with on a day-to-day basis, primarily because people tend to have these rigid assumptions of how life is experienced through our senses. (Re horseshoe theory: I think more people should consider horseshoe theory when considering left vs right rhetoric, but I'm not sure how it applies here)