Interview with ICAA

[chaoticidealism]

I was interviewed for an Internet radio program a few weeks ago; the interview was pretty general, just talking about autism and related topics.

Special Guest Lisa Daxer: Student, Writer, and Person with AutismThe woman doing the program actually gave me the questions ahead of time--that was great, so I wrote stuff up ahead of time and didn't have

Comments

[chaoticidealism]

Yes, oddly enough I've been good at speaking ever since I figured it out--even before I learned to have a proper conversation. I write things in my head and say them, and writing comes really naturally to me.

Face-reading and body language are much harder for me, though with body language I can pretend it's more of a dance and read the tempo and rhythm to get an idea (I learned this off my cats, and I would love to find out whether the "musical" parts of a cat's body language are similar to a human's because, well, that would explain why I generalized it so easily!) It works best if I don't pay attention to what they're saying, or if they aren't saying anything.

All in all, the social component of autism has never been the biggest problem for me; it's always been the other cognitive stuff, from sensory to task-switching. I can definitely pass for a gifted neurotypical ("gifted" because I can't resist the urge to use very precise words), if you don't make me keep up the act for more than half an hour or in front of someone who knows an autistic person.

Everyone's experience of autism is different, really; just goes to show you can't just listen to one person to figure out what autism is--you have to listen to a lot of people, and gather a lot of different ways it could be.