My father had a workbench drawer marked “Pieces of Wire Too Short to Use.”
Mind you, he was an electrician.
Those are for special occasions, like when you’re doing electrical work in someone’s house who you don’t like much and feel like splicing 10 short wires together instead of using a long one.
He also had a drawer labeled “Plastic Shark” that contained one of my old toy sharks.
I had to clean out my uncle’s house when he passed away suddenly. Among many other things, this man had a box full of gum wrappers perfectly folded into little triangles. But don’t worry, I’ve been assured he wasn’t autistic, he was just a little antisocial and odd.
My grandfather had similar collections. Of anything potentially useful.
I don’t believe in his case it was primarily due to neurodivergence but rather a depression-era childhood.
Could he afford a weed whacker? Yes, but he made one from an old vacuum, even in the 80s/90s. And so on.
Their lives started in poverty and they killed Nazis and we dishonour them horribly when they are barely cold. Especially America who is going to inflict both on everyone again.
My grandpa was very smart but seemingly clueless about the world. A lot of people said that he was a 12 year old in an adult body
He couldn’t of possibly been Autistic…
One way I look at historic figures for who might and might not been a high functioning autistic individual is to look at how well they may have functioned socially vs. How technical they were.
Take William Bligh for example. He was the captain of the Bounty when the famous mutiny happened. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn’t some tyrannical captain who was so monstrous that his crew were pushed beyond human dignity. He actually was milder than most captains and had unusual methods of keeping his crew in shape. For example he ordered his crew to dance on a daily basis. Why? Because for prolonged periods of time there was actually minimal activity needed on the ship, so many sailors would be lazy and get out of shape. By having them dance he was trying to keep them in shape to do their jobs when needed.
It worked and it was practical, but it made everyone hate him. He was a highly socially inept man and the mutiny on the bounty was NOT the only mutiny or rebellion he had to deal with.
But… as a sailor he was brilliant. He really did manage to keep his men healthier than normal, and as a navigator he was probably one of the best to have ever lived. No joke. When the crew set him adrift on a raft with the few loyal members with him. He navigated across the open pacific without a map and nonexistent tools, working only by memory and the stars that he had memorized and managed to make a trek of thousands of kilometers to the nearest safe port.
That kind of obsession on detail is not something that comes without being somewhat on the spectrum.
Is it Autism or just well organized?
If you’re well organized your autistic, if not, you are ADHD. If you fall in the middle, you are both.
I know I’m old man shouting at clouds but it seems like social media is completely focused on classifying. It seems silly. It’s like Meyers Briggs personality tests.
The big problem with ADHD is that every human will experience the symptoms at some point in life.
Every ADHD meme is relatable to pretty much everyone, but they don’t understand what it is for those symptoms to basically be your whole existence.
I’m too lazy to keep things organized, does that get me out of autism?
Nah, it just means the ADHD that often accompanied Autism is fight full force.
I think that upgrades your autism to audhd.
