Don’t Sweat the Incredibly Large Important Stuff

It’s kind of funny how my brain processes stress. I don’t know if it’s my Aspieness or just the way I am, but I seem to be somewhat immune to the rising pressure of a life or death situation.

This actually comes in handy at work. In my job, one mistake can literally kill a person. Sure, there are quality checks in place to prevent this from happening, but the checks are not perfect. The fact remains – I could seriously harm or kill a person with a mistake as small as a typo. And, oh yeah, I almost forgot… in certain situations, if I don’t work quick enough, someone might die as well. So pretty much every day, lives depend on my ability to be fast and accurate with my work. Can you imagine if every time you got the wrong order at the drive through window, you ended up dead?

Now here’s the funny thing: it doesn’t bother me in the least. I actually find myself strangely energized when I’m thrusted into those types of high pressure situations. I excel, I succeed, and dare I say it… I have fun. It’s not that I don’t understand the severity of the events. I just know I’m that damn good at my job to handle even the heaviest situation.

Ironically, it’s the smaller things that tend to drive me crazy. Situations that would seem insignificant to you end up tying me in knots: if my wife sends me to the store to get a specific item and it’s sold out, if I misplace something and can’t find it, or if I start to cook something and I’m missing an ingredient. Just the other day, I threw a tantrum because I couldn’t get the Food Saver to work properly while trying to prep meat for the freezer.

IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!

But seriously… I find it fascinating that I can keep it together at work when someone’s life hangs in the balance, yet completely lose my shit in the face of freezer burn.

More Than an Aspie

I’m very much Aspie. I’m interested in Aspergers and Autism awareness. I’m up for the cause. That’s what this blog is all about. But that’s not what I’m all about.

I have many other interests. I love sports, football and baseball especially. I follow politics – just not so much, in order to avoid getting angry. And I love to play video games.

(And no, this is not just a shameless segue to promote my other blog… ok, maybe a little bit.)

But seriously, though… I think it’s important to not let Aspergers define me. I may be an Aspie, but I am also a host of other things that have nothing to do with my Spectrum status.

We can only fight the prejudices of others when we decide to stop living up to them.

(Ok, now go check out my other blog)

Yo, WordPress… You Are Creepy

I wasn’t going to post anything tonight. I was just poking around the WordPress options and junk, and I saw a little “Inspiration” feature on the post page. I assume it generates a random fact or quote or whatever for you to write about if you’re stuck.

So I clicked on it.

WARNING: You cannot un-read this.

Italo Calvino said: The more enlightened our houses are, the more their walls ooze ghosts.

Ummmmmm…..

Fighting For… A Cure?

A few days ago I saw a tweet that made me scratch my head. The tweet in question led to a story on children who were “growing out of” autism. I won’t go so far as to say I found the article insulting, but I do think that the article is slightly misguided.

I look at autism as a condition that doesn’t really have a cure or a resolution. Granted, patients with autism can improve, especially in cases of higher-functioning individuals. Children with autism can be coached, their behavior modified through therapy where necessary, in order to move closer towards what most people would consider “normalcy.” Medications are available to aid in lowering anxiety levels. However, none of these things are “curing” autism. They are simply making the condition more managable.

Considering autism as something that can be cured is a mistake, in my opinion. It’s not an infection that can be erradicated with proper medication and/or therapies. It’s more of a situation that one must adapt to. For example – take limb amputation. Physical therapy and prosthetics can help patients manage their situation, but their limbs do not magically grow back. They are not “cured.”

So what is our goal? What are we working towards with research and testing? I think looking to “solve” autism is misguided. We should be focusing more on awareness and understanding, not prevention or a cure.

Welcome to WordPress!

After excesive frustration with Blogger’s Twitter widget (IS IT THAT BAD THAT I WANT MY TWEETS TO SHOW UP ON MY BLOG?!?!?), and after much urging from my wife, I decided to move Inside the Mind of an Aspie over to WordPress. So here we are!

I’m working on getting everything set up and customized to the way I want them, so things might look a little funky until I get things settled.

Hopefully WordPress will work out, otherwise I may have to go crawling back to Blogger or find somewhere else to blog. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.