Autism, split personalities, and feeling blessed. Is that possible?

Subtitle: “Why of course Dorothy. Anything is possible” – said the Wizard of Oz

A lot of us autistics feel like aliens from different planets, and at times I’m damn sure that I came from an ‘alien oval planet’. 🙂 In fact, when I think about all of my immediate relatives that are either autistic or slightly autitstic, that definitely makes sense to me.

I do have to confess though that I do have a split personality. I have two Facebook accounts, one for being autistic, and one for being a local resident and businessman in Mexico where I live full-time.

I do not make it a secret that I’m autistic nor am I ashamed of it. It is part of my being and essence, and I’m truly grateful that I was blessed with this neurodiversity. But I do not where a T-shirt advertising it because that’s a bit over-the-top just like Mr. Donald Trump. 🙂

If I listed all of the reasons why I feel this way, a proud autistic, this post would be a book versus a few hundred words. But I am equally proud that over the decades I have learned how to communicate and relate to others whether they are autistic or non-autistic.

This evening I received a Facebook comment on a post in my non-autistic Facebook identity from one of my neighbors.

Recently I posted my current home for sale in my neighborhood on my business Facebook Page because it is too big for one old fart and a slightly old female chihuahua. I decided to downsize to a house in my same neighborhood that is half the size.

My neighbor who saw the post was concerned that I was leaving the area, and that generated all sorts of emotions in me of a good kind.

That neighbor doesn’t know that I’m autistic. All he knows is that he has a very friendly neighbor that engages with him from time to time in chats, sometimes in English and sometimes in Spanish, and his concern demonstrated to me that I have made a small impact in his life in a good way, by trying to be a nice person and assimilate in a culture that is not my native.

At the moment I’m on ‘Cloud 9’ if you know that expression, and as an autistic it took me awhile to figure that one out since we autistics take words literally.

Lots of people think that being autistic is either a death sentence or an incredible disability that precludes an autistic from being a contributing member of society.

That is true for some, especially if they have a comorbid condition of Intellectual Disablity, formerly referred to as Mental Retardation, or being called “a retard” which I was called over and over as a child and an adolescent.

Technically one could say that our brains are malformed in various ways, and I suppose that technically it could be considered a form of brain retardation, but definitely not mental retardation; the latter implies the inability to think and process information.

However, I disagree with that premise and I strongly feel that we autistics are blessed with brains that can transcend many of the silly nuances, rituals, and protocols that non-autistics feel compelled to abide by.

The reason for that is that most autistics tend to be themselves without the knowledge, the innate ability, nor the training to “fit in” with what is artificially called “being normal”.

Over the last fifty plus years I have accomplished a lot. I managed to overcome an horrendous speech disorder called Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia, and most importantly I have learned how to get along with other humans.

Sometimes getting along with other humans requires a conscious decision not to engage in their bullshit nor fuel their need to put down other human beings; the latter appears to be a non-autistic trait that we autistics were blessed not to have. 🙂

And we autistics tend to see the good in people versus looking for faults. And if there was one autistic trait that I would put at the top of the ‘Blessed List’ that would be it.

That is my philosophy for getting along with people, assuming that they are good people until proven otherwise, and that is the reason that I am blessed with neighbors and acquaintances that could care less if I’m autistic or not.

They only know the nice old guy that engages with them in conversations, waves at them when they drive by, and projects an image of a happy person.

In summary, I’m a happy person, I’m a person that feels blessed, and that indescribable energy seems to resonate with others.

Keep that in mind.

To be continued…