Early in this series I mentioned that Asperger’s may have some hidden advantages. You likely think of anything on the Autistic Spectrum as a bad thing. Full of scary life problems. Yes, there are problems, but let’s look at another side of Asperger’s.
What are my credentials? Well, as Stephen Colbert might say: I am Aspergers, and so can you. It is ‘old school’ for me. I’ve lived the Asperger’s life since birth, and while my diagnosis has been recent, that is because my teachers, family, classmates had no clue — and neither did I. Let’s be clear on this: I don’t pretend to diagnose, prescribe, label, push drugs, or any such thing. But I know what it feels like from the inside out and know the social vacuum that is Aspergers.
So with that perspective, let me go on to:
Benefit #4: You are in the company the great pioneers of humanity
It’s not so much that you march to the beat of a different drum, you HAVE no other drum to follow.
Michael Fitzgerald, a psychiatrist from Trinity College in Dublin has noted that Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, George Orwell, charles DeGaulle, Beethoven and Mozart all showed some signs of Aspergers syndrome.
And that’s what pioneers and spiritual leaders do. You are always in uncharted territory, making your own way. You can get used to it. It is the path of Ghandi, Jefferson, Newton, Socrates, Buddha, Lao Tzu. Can you imagine the tribal shaman being involved with the small-talk of the tribe? NO, the shaman would need to commune with the spirits and with nature and the dead past and the unrevealed future: small talk need not apply. It is likely that Aspies have been with us for all of human history: always being on the vanguard because we can not be in the middle.
You will seek solitude, and it will be given to you. You can find serenity there. You will be able to create your creations, investigate your opportunities. You will be able to ask no one but yourself for help, because you will be the only expert in your field.
All this is because you have the ability to see new connections that others will miss. And you will find that even when you point these connections out, many will be unable to follow. You will have insights that others will only reach with your help if at all.
The key here is independent thinking. Your mind can go places that other people will feel are too far ‘out there’ to consider. But consider them you will.
Just think of the ants in an ant colony. There are the vast majority of ants that are marching along in a line out to the sugar cube on the kitchen floor. They turn around and march back, all nicey-nice.
But then, there is the lone ant that you might see following the call of the ranger. Seeking that new sugar for the rest of the hive. That is the role of the Aspie.
I might suggest that some form of Asperger’s has been with humanity since the very beginning, and that we have advanced, in great part, because of those free ranging souls that have been on the outskirts of society: looking for that new bit of sugar.
So, if you have those Asperger traits, it may just be that humanity really needs you.
