"Awesism"

I have a friend whose daughter is autistic. To make things feel more positive, he tells her to call it “Awesism.” I absolutely love this, and thought I’d share it. Contrary to popular belief, there are actually some positive things about having an ASD (autism spectrum disorder), and sometimes they can be… well, awesome. I don’t have the time or energy to go into all the reasons why this is so, and I’m not even sure that my descriptions would even do it justice. But suffice it to say that there are some things that some autistics will end up being better at than a neurotypical person, simply because of the way their brain works.

And also there are things that will make an autistic/aspie excited or happy that would seem out of the ordinary for a neurotypical person. Little things like patterns, spinning objects, or lights that just seem to trigger some kind of pleasure response in the brain, and it’s just great. I like watching things spin. Ceiling fans are wonderful. Gyroscopes? Fabulous. I spin my Rubik’s Cube in my hand or on a table, because I just love how it looks. I spin CDs between my fingers anytime I get a disk in my hands. I love the Tilt-a-Whirl ride at carnivals. I have a habit of spinning in my office chair at work. That last one would be considered more of a stimming behavior, but you get the idea. Those things make my brain smile. It’s calming. It feels awesome. It’s Awesism.

Autism is the reason I tend to become obsessed about certain subjects and learn as much as I can about them (knowledge is power). It’s the reason why some of my solutions to problems can tend to differ from the norm. It’s the reason I can solve and unsolve my Rubik’s Cube over and over and never get bored. It’s my brain. It’s my world. It’s Awesism.

via Tumblr http://meshboats.tumblr.com/post/25748141366