Asperger/autism Symptoms?

[Barquentine]

Does anyone else experience the following confusion? Whenever a phrase in common usage can be looked at one of two ways, most people understand immediately what is meant, but I always see the phrase as ambiguous and cannot remember which is the correct interpretation.

As examples, ‘bringing a date forward’ always meant (to me) making it later in the year. ‘Put the date back’ meant it will happen sooner than planned. Because I see time as a road – moving ‘back’ means towards where I am now.

‘He has all but completed the task’ – used to mean to me that he still has everything to do – the exact opposite of its actual meaning.

If today is Monday, ‘next Friday’ means the second Friday from now – the one that is near the end of next week. ‘This Friday’ is the Friday of the week I am in – but this is not what people mean! Most people mean this Friday when they say ‘next’ Friday. So many missed dates!!

An address stamp in the office had a sticker saying ‘TOP’. This was no good to me! Did this mean you should have ‘TOP’ towards you or away from you? Not a problem for anyone else in the office. That’s when I suspected I had a problem!

My best example is, as a kid, I was concentrating hard on a task at school. The teacher told me that I “couldn’t see the wood for the trees”. I took umbrage and complained: “Yes, I can sir, I can see the bark on the trees”. The teacher could see I was not being sarcastic and was genuinely confused. This example illustrates perfectly how my mind always seems to focus on entirely the wrong things so it is working overtime to try to catch up with what others understand easily.

My question is what type of condition these comprehension errors point to; they clearly indicate all is not normal in there!

[bednobs]

I disagree - who is to say what's "normal".
If you can negotiate your way through life, then i think that's fairly normal.

[Buenchico]

I'm on the autism spectrum and I struggle to remember whether it's 'glass half full' or 'glass half empty' that's meant to be the better way of looking at things. They mean exactly the same to me!

The phrase "cheap at the half the price" really irritates me.

I get annoyed when I see 'aluminium windows' advertised. (How the hell can you see through aluminium?).

Some things to do with spatial awareness just won't seem to stick in my mind. For example, I can never remember whether 'stage left' means on the left as the audience see the stage or on the left as the actors look out from it. (I was taught it at school and I've since googled it loads of times but I simply don't seem to be able to remember that particular piece of information).

YOU'RE NOT ALONE!

;-)

[cassa333]

Chris I have trouble with stage left and right even when I am on stage and when rehersing off stage is even harder to remember so you're not alone there lol

Both syndromes have some similarities and unless you are struggling I wouldn't worry too much.

Your friends and work mates know you probably have difficulty with these things and either make allowances for you or (might) take a good natured gib now and then??

[bednobs]

but surely we all have our own little foibles and these are just examples of them?

[Old_Geezer]

Your mind just works in the way it works. We all have foibles we keep to ourself. If you have managed so far I'd not go worrying about it being symptoms for some major whatever, were I you. No point.

[Old_Geezer]

Humph. Should have read the whole thread first :-)

[Jackdaw33]

Cheap at half the price is a very common error. It should be cheap at twice the price.

[Barquentine]

I also get actors, musicians and celebrities with slightly similar names hopelessly muddled up!

My all-time favourite blunder though was an attempt (by me) to appear erudite, which went wrong with exquisite Freudianesque irony:

“A little learning is a dangerous thing, drink deep, or drink not, from Lethe’s spring.”
Lethe is actually of course the river of forgetfulness! That’ll teach me (ouch!).

[Hypognosis]

@Barquentine

The nearest I get to this is that I do occasionally find myself wondering why everyone else seems to innately know the 'right' meaning whereas I am on my own, struggling to arrive at the same conclusion by logic alone, or where the literal meaning of a word sequence is all I have as a clue. Never went truant but, somehow "missed that class", if you know what I mean.

The time one:
while you see time as a road, I guess others see it as a queue; days come towards us and bringing an event forward is moving it closer to the front of the queue, making it arrive in the present sooner than previously advertised.

"All but completed."
Mild understatement by means of using a double negative is called litotes (thank you, Monty Python for making me look that one up, they never taught us fancy stuff like that, at school!)
http://literarydevices.net/litotes/

"Next Friday"
I'm struggling to understand your confusion. If Fridays were trains, it should be pretty unambiguous what "next" means.

Address stamp:
A block of text has a top and a bottom and most people struggle to read text which is upside-down. It may be that you are gifted with the ability to do this (some individuals are adept with mirrored and even mirrorred-plus-upside-down) and therefore cannot perceive any added value in the text being oriented correctly, in which case, why bother.

Likewise, faced with a binary decision, if I do not care sufficiently about the result of choice A or B, I find it hard to make a decision either way. I hate 'plumping' for one or the other which, to some people's eyes makes them 'decisive' while I am perceived as 'indecisive'. (I wouldn't mind if they said I was uncaring, which would be fair criticism, I think).

I am not medically qualified so will not attempt to identify what condition you may have. Your interpretation of everyday phrases is certainly uncommon and, perhaps over-literal and that might be a function of the proportion of your life spent mixing with other people and experiencing their use of language. Social withdrawal, as a symptom, is not unique to autism, or Aspergers and a professional would need to appreciate a broader picture of your life, to make the right diagnosis.

The crunch point is that you need to get across, to your GP, just how much distress this is causing in your daily life before they will go to the expense of analysing your symptoms. Getting jibes, in the workplace, for being 'a bit different' is not immediately life-threatening and is probably not going to be taken seriously. But, if ten years of it has ground you down into a state of clinical depression and your personal life is suffering then there is clear justification for treatment.

[Copacetic]

I sympathise Barquentine, I also struggle with similar issues, in particular phrases like "Bringing the date forward" or anything time related. I also understand the difficulties in a lack of thorough instructions, like you I will question anything that is not detailed enough in its description, this happens often! I have a tendency to take things literally as well.

I suspect I am on the high functioning side of the spectrum

[pixie374]

My son, who is autistic, takes things literally. Although I agree with the this friday/next Friday thing. I think most people think that. But unless it is really disrupting your life, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Copacetic]

If I am confused about this Friday/next Friday, I tend to ask them to clarify the actual date rather than the day, makes life easier! ;)

[Old_Geezer]

I think there are explanations for all the mental hiccups we experience. It has just occurred to me that when we look back in time we are usually comparing it to 'now' and so are considering the past: so further back means a longer time ago. But if we push back a date we are probably considering the future event so "back" is the opposite direction, i.e. further into the future. Timewise, backward and forward relate to nearer or further to "now", whereas one might mentally form a picture of backward being one direction and forward another, and thus have a lifetime of needing to concentrate when referring to future events.

Or I could just be barking up the wrong tree.

[Old_Geezer]

Ah the "This Friday/Next Friday" issue. For me "This Friday" would be the Friday in the week (Sunday to Saturday) I am in. "Next Friday" is the next Friday I encounter, which depending on the day of the week might be the same as "This Friday". I find it really offputting when someone says "Next Friday" and doesn't really mean the next one at all, but the one in next week.

[Peter Pedant]

agree Bedknobs
you are normal and dont need a label ( half crazy and a bit like Asberger's ) unless of course there are benefits available

I think you needed more sympathetic teachers as I coped with most of what you said in my childhood - Thomas Aquinas ( 1200) usefully talked of time as a road - and is possibly the first mention of something taken up by Einstein 700 years later. ( Gods view of the future was as sitting on a hill looking at a lanscape )

I remember agonising about 'she all but fainted' but realised you cant use language in your own way and STILL hope to communicate you have to use it as others do, so ['all but' substitute 'nearly'] - also it helped to learn early that splitting up words may not assist comprehension - or the rest of the words in a sentence may affect the meaning of the index word. Hey rediscovering de Saussure' linguistics as a primary school kid - it was the fifties in Dorset so no one noticced.

I never use this Friday and next Friday as I could never extract the rule and for fifty years after a few bad mistakes I use dates and days only

Pity you didnt do science
since you look at the world differently
you were in a good position to make discoveries

There is one textboook - " dedicated to Anna Maria who regards the laws of quantum physics as 'obvious' " Lucky Girl the rest of us has to learn them.....

[Peter Pedant]

// "Next Friday"
I'm struggling to understand your confusion. If Fridays were trains, it should be pretty unambiguous what "next" means. //

hmm remind me not to arrange to go out for a beer with you next Friday

or does mrs Hypo do your diary

Next Friday does NOT necessarily mean the Friday Coming which I agree is unambiguous. It depends on this week and next week and where you are on in the week and which day you think the week starts

sp this monday if you are speaking on Wed could mean the monday gone.

[Copacetic]

There are a lot of learning difficulties that involve problems with comprehension that are nothing to do with Autism, Autism diagnosis is based on the triad of impairment, you have to have difficulties in these area's for a diagnosis.

http://www.autismvictoria.org.au/diagnosis/characteristics_checklist.php

[Peter Pedant]

// and most people struggle to read text which is upside-down.//

very useful skill for oral examinations - you can tell if the examiner is passing you or not - and even what his next question will be !

[Peter Pedant]

BC stage left and right

in medicine it is always referred to the patient - patients left and patients right which means they can er turn round....

but stage left is referred to the arteest themselves on stage who are er reading the play ?

again alot of this is rule based and not a matter of logic

[Answerprancer]

Another situation for me: "you have two choices" means you have to choose between four things, or two pairs of things.
By definition a "choice" is a choosing between two or more things.