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Having to eat has to be my least favorite part of neourdivergence. “Oh, it’s been a few hours since eating and I really want to eat”
This cited phenomenon is not a particularly neurodivergent one. Pretty much everyone sees the train wrecks coming.
If you are neurodivergent, not everything about your life and how your mind works is defined by that.
Object permanence has to be me least favorite part of neurodivergence. “Oh I walked away from that tree but I know it’s still there.”
I like your example so much better than my own.
My least favorite part today: Waiting for someone to read from a mandatory script written for the least common denominator.
Before we let your wife talk to us about the bank account, you’ll need to answer some questions to prove your identity, you must wait for all answers to be read before responding…
We’ve been doing this so long that the people who invented it have died. Can I just use a fucking YubiKey and a pin?
Everyone is taking as if pattern recognition gives you some kind of oracle powers of seeing the future.
Just to clarify, pattern recognition ≠ foretelling.
More often it just causes people to overthink and invent conspiracy theories.
Sort of but like the post is saying, I’ve been way more right then wrong over my life. The amount of times I’ve argued online with people about things only to have that thing become the big issue 5 years from the point I was arguing it is disgusting. I remember 20 years ago sitting in a bay at work being made fun of because I kept talking about Russia and how they have started to allocate a higher percentage of their budget to cyber warfare that was unseen in budgets outside of wartime. It indicated they were building something. Stuff like that I get hyper interested in. I think I have a good nose for sources. I get into those sources and then find some weird thing nobody else is aware of and then you’re just aware of this looming issue and all you can do is watch it unfold.
Same thing with online bots. I can see when certain activity spikes. Certain topics get AstroTurfed and all of a sudden we’re talking about nuclear power for a week or some other topic that is really a facade for some bigger issue we’re slowly being steered towards. AI was a big one, go to any AI article and tell me that is not the exact same approach Republicans use against immigrants. It’s the same fucking thing. “they’re taking your job” “they’re going to destroy your culture” “they’re coming after your women and children” “They’re using up all the resouces”
AI has it’s issues. But you cannot convince me that there wasn’t something pushing articles and headlines on left wing spaces when it was first introduced. There was a massive push to set the tone.
“I see where this is going”
Goes in a different direction
“Oh, so this is part of the pattern where everyone is trying to fuck with me”
confirmation bias averted … this time
That’s also a thing, overthinking and obsessive interests.
And the talker types see the ability to see through their lies as “uncanny”.
It feels anecdotal, but I felt like I had a voodoo doll for my last manager. He was a nice enough guy but just hyper and careless. So he would do stuff all the time without thinking about what came next. I would see him on my commute sometimes following close behind other cars, speeding to red lights and such. Said to my coworker, ‘He is going to not be here one day because he got in a car accident.’ A few weeks later and he is out because he totalled his car into the back of another car. Another time the company was cheaping out on hiring someone to replace lightbulbs and he was like, I’ll just change them myself! I said, “you need insurance to do stuff like that in an office, thousands of people fall off ladders every year” A few weeks later he was out for days, found out he fell off a ladder at his house. I didn’t cause these things to happen, but I stopped vocalizing what I was predicting. As the wise Michael Scott once said, “I’m not superstitious, but I am a little stitious.”
Pattern recognition is inherent to how the human brain works…
You wish.
I don’t need to, it’s a fact, it’s inherent for the cognitive process.
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Some people with autism (isn’t it a spectrum now?) do display those characteristics, yes.
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Mind quoting a bit from your link that had anything to do with what you said in this thread?
Superior pattern processing is the essence of the evolved human brain
Sadly this describes every day of my life and has led to some serious, serious depression problems. Being able to spot things from miles out sounds pretty amazing on paper, but it’s really truly a special kind of hell when you can’t actually do anything about all the horrible, horrible things you see in the horizon. To anyone else who is also like this, I truly hope you shoulder it well. It is not an easy thing to live with.
I spent so long being part of /r Collapse. It was a bit latter than expected, but it is finally here.
Spent too much useful time going for longshot jobs, and trying to be something I’m not, instead of settling for what little I can get, like other people.
In the short-term, I have co-workers questioning why I’m doing things “wrong” and “correcting” me, then I watch as my back gets strained, and we lose time, making the “mistake” I had seen coming.
I am so autistic that when I went for my adhd assessment recently, they had me do this computer test with letters and sounds, and the sounds one, I recognised the pattern within maybe 2-3 minutes of a 30 minute test. Which voided my adhd results
Pattern recognition with history autism has to be the worst version of this.
Unless you like fascism.
Great news if you do, because all patterns indicate a global speed running to Germany, circa 1939ish.
I think the actual worst part about this is that pattern recognition isn’t supposed to be a neurodivergent thing. Pattern recognition is like a built in feature in humans, but most people have it beat out of them in school
Pattern recognition is like a built in feature in humans, but most people have it beat out of them in school
Like so much else, it’s a trained skill. You don’t have pattern recognition beaten out. You just aren’t so heavily invested in a subject that you get it stamped in.
It’s not as though we’re born with the ability to hear Morse Code, for instance. You have to develop an ear for it.
It’s also a double edged sword, especially when you queue in on a pattern without understanding the reason behind it. Plenty of patterns are purely coincidental.
Picking out a “message” in a series of sounds doesn’t mean the dish washer is talking to you.
You don’t have [it] beaten out.
I agree and disagree. Pattern recognition is a trained skill, for you have learn to recognize each pattern. Pattern recognition is not, however, a trained skill in the way that you have to learn to recognize patterns at all.
However, during school most people have their ability to recognize patterns at all severely diminished due to “gotcha” questions on tests, questions that specifically are designed to catch you out using pattern recognition. This trains the person to not trust their pattern recognition, and in some cases people will actually learn to go against their pattern recognition because they assume things are trying to catch that
However, during school most people have their ability to recognize patterns at all severely diminished due to “gotcha” questions on tests, questions that specifically are designed to catch you out using pattern recognition.
The joke of that technique is these questions become a pattern unto themselves. Despite middling grades in high school, I aced a number of standardized tests in large part because the “bullshit” gotcha questions stuck out like sore thumbs to me.
This trains the person to not trust their pattern recognition
Again, I throw back to the person listening for conversational queues in the banging of their washing machine.
You shouldn’t trust pattern recognition on its face. It’s deceptively easy to pick out a false signal in white noise.
There’s more to be said on this, with certain schools (particularly religious or highly ideological academic settings) focusing on uncritical acceptance of official dogma or a state-designated axiomatic understanding of a certain subject. But that goes above and beyond teaching people not to trust their pattern recognition skills.
I thought that’s part of the reason we excelled as a species, seeing the patterns to eat or run from and knowing which is which. Plus getting curious about new ones and if they dont eat us figuring out what to do with them.
Yes, though its also the basis for all conspiracy theories
The worst part is when you try to gently warn people, and they look at you like you’re the crazy one—only for the exact thing you predicted to happen five minutes later.
It’s funny, because this is more often diagnosed the other way around.
Neurotypicals pick up on emotional queues their partners miss, try to warm them that they’re committing a faux pau, and are dismissed until things spiral out of hand.
Then they look at you again in shock and exclaim, “omg! You were right!” To which I typically reply, “I know.”
Their response: who told you?
Implicit: you probably knew all along, you bastard.
They just continue on in frustration, annoyed, not understanding why things aren’t working out.
Nah, the worst part is when they gang up to say it’s your fault even though you were the one warning them and not participating in whatever happens
The part that depresses you is that somehow it’s your fault for noticing it sooner and not trying hard enough to convinelce others.
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give an example?
Where the PATRIOT act ended up
Where GWOT ended up
Where the dotcom and housing bubbles ended up
Where the ai bubble is going to end up
I joined a large friend group that had been together for 7 or so years. There was a person that I noticed would tell different people slightly different versions of stories. Normally I’d dismiss these as white lies but I noticed a pattern. The person in question saw relationships as transactional and I highly suspected that these white lies revealed a much deeper penchant for emotional manipulation.
I tried to warn some people that I thought I could trust within the friend group, but this upset some people and I had the step way back. After all, who is the new person to come into this group and fuck things up? I kept my mouth shut and out of the drama as I had to watch this person build a giant rift within the group.
Thankfully a few people had finally remembered the warning I had given years before and started comparing notes on the stories this person had told everyone. In the end I was vindicated when people started confronting the lies, but a lot of people had to go through therapy for the years of suffering that person caused in the meantime. I’m not giving too many details, but it got bad: suicide attempts, cops, legal battles. I had to just sit there and watch it all.
Not sure of their intended reference but: Cassandra in Illiad esp Trojan Horse incident Legolas, LotR, and many other Elves in Silmarrilion and Apendices Various Atreides in Dune (though they can force people to listen, lol) I had the (mis)fortune of later viewing video of an incident where I “activated.” Atm it seemed to me a very long slow progression (like 10 seconds?) But video-wise it all played out in like a second. The other takeaway was that all the stuff that I saw as “obvious” was greatly exagerated in my perception, so it was obvious to me, but impossible to get neurotypicals to credit (even to want to do) the zoom in and slow motion analysis that would be needed. I found the experience very upsetting/isolating because it proved impossible to get people to understand my perspective.
I’m not going to lie- I understood none of this.
OP felt like she was recognizing problems that others failed to acknowledge, often with extreme clarity.
It seemed obvious and urgent to OP, but was difficult to convey to others, leading to OP feeling isolated.
It’s simple: The OP Trojan horse a Legolas elves while Atreides Dune lol’d an ATM on the slow while the obvious was exaggerated. And it was upsetting impossible perspective.
They activated ass to mouth. That’s what I picked up.
I go Prince-of-Persia/MaxPain. It has probably saved me sometimes, but mostly it just results in people thinking I’m a spaz.
…this has not helped my understanding at all lol.
I think their comment has two parts.
First, they’re saying that this is a longstanding trope in mythology and literature, the character who can see the future but isn’t believed, like Cassandra. Lord of the Rings isn’t my thing, but I assume they’re giving examples from there as well. Dune is kind of a digression, in that those characters could see the future by recognizing how patterns were going to play out, but there wasn’t any element of not being believed.
Second, they’re talking about being neurodivergent themselves, and having experienced this kind of pattern recognition prediction thing. They’re saying that once someone caught this on video. It’s not clear exactly what they predicted, but apparently, looking at the video, it’s still obvious to them what the cues were that they observed and used to predict whatever it was. I guess the people around them didn’t see it, and were mystified about how they knew to do whatever it was they did in response. They think that the others should be able to look closely at the video of the incident, maybe zoom in and play it at reduced speed, and understand how they recognized what was going to happen, because they could point out all these cues; but they’re frustrated to know that won’t happen. Subjectively they experience the situation as though it lasts much longer than it does in the video, as though time slows down, which they tried to explain by using video game references.
I love you and your wrinkly brain lol. Thanks
I have double powers as I’m neurodivergent and grew up in a highly traumatic household so you learn to pick on tiny signs that it’s about to pop off. Feel my life is fight or flight at all times.
Hello my friend.
CPTSD & HP => knowing what people are going to do. But if you act on it people think you’re some sort of stalker, creep or manipulator.
Entire too relatable. I grew up in much the same way. Having that feeling as my baseline, my “normal”, made everything else feel wrong, but I could never fully put my finger on why. I developed a sense of stoicism so that I could get through each day showing as little outward reaction as possible. However, I confused that stoicism for calmness and stability; inside my mind everything still roiled as my instincts and senses were always watching and waiting, preparing for the next time things became dangerous.
Decades of living with that level of hypervigilance paired with the effort needed to put forward a stoic exterior has worn me down. The physical symptoms of chronic mental and emotional exhaustion are debilitating; the body really does pay a toll for the mind’s wounds. Maybe if twenty years ago I had the knowledge and resources that I do now, I could have done something to stave off what I’m going through.
All this to say: if you aren’t already, please seek counseling as soon as possible. Don’t make the same mistake I did; just like the smoker who denies that their habit it harmful, if you don’t work to heal your psychological wounds now, then it will eventually catch up to you. Be well, and take care of yourself.
I became so good at masking because of coming from a environment where my needs weren’t met and my true self wasn’t safe to exist. I was often more concerned about making sure my parents didn’t pop off that I developed an unhealthy way of looking at the world where I put the needs of others above myself - to the point of complete self destruction in front of people who cared about me.
Over the years I finally realised what was going on, but it took being with another person who also has autism and C-PTSD to observe the behaviours in one another and finally take control. In some ways it is a little tragic we both went through so much hardship while having our basic needs ignored from a young age, but in another way I’m so grateful for the miracle of having found a person who perfectly fits my broken parts so we can guide each other through it with understanding and experience.
I regret the times I’ve treated others unfairly because of the pressures of life and not having the resources or wisdom to do things properly. I’m doing my best now to make amends for my past mistakes, heal myself and move into the future with healthy boundaries. I’ve been hurt in ways I can’t even begin to explain, I require a certain amount of medication just to function but I’m still here and I feel optimistic for the future. It’s going to be hard work to rebuild the things I’ve lost, but I’m motivated to do good for myself and for the new family I’m building.
give an example?
Dudes, why all the downvotes?
Thats pretty difficult as its almost like intuition. Your brain has learned about these micro signals and must picks up on vibes.
Just describe the situation
I can’t speak for OP, but in my case I could tell how “bad” a day was likely to be based on small clues that most people wouldn’t see. Tiny things like a slight increase in the pitch of a parent’s sigh, how quickly keys were put down as they came through the door, the position of their shoulders as they picked up a dinner fork. How the almost invisible deepening of the creases around their mouth and eyes matched the increasing tension in the air. Instantly knowing by the timbre of the footfalls climbing the stairs if I needed to pretend to be asleep.
Growing up in an abusive, trauma-inducing household fosters a talent to sense the proverbial “blood in the water,” and how likely it is to send the sharks into a frenzy.
Or knowing precisely what point people are attempting to make five words into the first sentence and then politely having to sit there and wait for the next five minutes while they laboriously meander their way through it.
Or knowing precisely what point people are attempting to make five words into the first sentence
I had that working at a call-center and i’m not autistic (to my knowledge), it just came with experience.
How about being a witness to a conversation between two others and you can tell neither of them understand the point the other is trying to make.
Bonus points for when they actually agree with each other but just haven’t put together what the other is saying.
Disclaimer: Severe ADHD here
Those are the times that make me feel like maybe I have the occasional social insight. lol. While I get confused by so much that happens, I often feel like I pick up on subtle clues and situations like that. So I feel it’s a mixed-to-fuck-and-hell bag of social genius and social stupidity. It’s confusing. lol
I love that actually. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does I go “hold on, A, you’re trying to say x, but B understands y, whereas B tries to say v and you understand w”
Always leads to the most flabbergasted double stare when they realize I’m 100% right and they’d have talked past each other for hours.
Sometimes with an undertone of “but I wanted a fight” by one of them.
My parents didn’t argue often, but when they did, they always had the opinion. Sometimes it would be half an hour until they decided they could agree.
This is a dangerous “skill” to have, though. Very easy to slip into the trap of assuming you know what they’re talking about, only to have them end on a different point than you expected and then suddenly you’re responding to a point they never actually made
That would be nice, but I can’t remember the last time that happened.
That’s probably cause you do it without noticing
Had it happen a few times here.
I can’t do it. I try so hard but I interrupt every time and then they say “that’s not what I mean will you let me finish” then I have to sit quietly while it was exactly what they meant.
It’s critically important to develop patience here in order to deal with people getting older and taking this to the next level
My mom is a great person whom I dearly love but she’s fallen into the stereotype of old people rambling. Nothing is a simple question or statement anymore. It’s always a long meandering story with lots of detours
I walk into a room and hear things. I hear lights and fridges, heaters, cellphones vibrating on floors above me. It’s a cacafony of endless clicks and ticks and humms and beeps and whirs that seemingly no one else notices.
Cats make good sounds though. The merps and meeps and jorps and mreeps and mrops and purrs are nice.
Its existence isn’t settled science, but I have this too and I’ve found that Auditory Processing Disorder describes it perfectly. Lots of comorbidity with autism and ADHD, so it’s possible it’s not a separate disorder but just another manifestation.
But yeah, I can’t filter out background noise at all. My brain copes by completely shutting off audio processing when I’m focusing, but it’s involuntary and can be pretty inconvenient. I have to read lips a lot when talking anywhere but a quiet environment because I can’t separate speech from background noise.
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The worst is the whine from cheap chargers and power banks. Ive resorted to buying a few of my coworkers new/ better chargers in order to give myself some peace.
Try firing up a CRT display. I’m 40 and I can still hear that fucking electronic whine from several rooms away.
Ah, the first time I started hearing things my family couldnt, I’d complain or at least take note of it, and they’d look at me like i was growing a second head.at least CRTs also had a nice warm hum to go along with the whine.
The trick is to put a tiny dummy load on the USB charger. Just buy the cheapest USB cable, cut the end off, and solder (or twist) a resistor between red and black. Boom.
Had a whiny USB power strip at my office desk that stopped whining when my phone was plugged in. Small resistor took care of that perfectly, cheaply, and nondestructively. Got a kick out of confused colleagues asking why I had a dangly cable plugged in with nothing but electrical tape on the end.
What are we talking here when you say “small”. 20 ohm? 50 ohm?
USB is 5V so I suppose a 10 mA draw (500 ohm resistor) would be sufficient. 20ohm would be 250 mA/1.25W which is certainly overkill for a dummy load. I don’t recall exact values but mine barely needed any load to shut up.
I’ve a friend who has nothing but IKEA TRÅDFRI lightbulbs. Each and every one of these has a subtle coil whine, and stepping into his home is like stepping into a rainforest, but unpleasant. He doesn’t hear a single peep from them, but to me it’s hella grating. The noise changes depending on what light it’s emitting, as well as the brightness. The worst is when the light is off.
Ewwwwww. I want to die just reading that.
Coil hum.
Hmmmm. I’m still not sure you aren’t a cat.
Or Maureen Ponderosa maybe?
I knew the scanner had failed before anyone tried using it because I heard it start making a high pitched whine.
How dare you forget the tiny motorcycle sounds.
They’re S tier.
Same for me too, except there’s one noise I can stand and even find it pleasant sometimes, cheap laptop coil whine, since I’ve had 3 school laptops, all have been used for at least 5 and at most 10 years, and I still use one of them daily too.
The daily machine is also fanless, so it kinda confuses me a little occasionally by making me think there’s a fan but really there can’t be lmao
