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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

by 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)

by sdwr 4y ago

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)