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| Re: Are railbuffs generally autistic? (192439) | |||
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Re: Are railbuffs generally autistic? |
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Posted by RonInBayside on Mon Dec 26 22:38:47 2005, in response to Are railbuffs generally autistic?, posted by aem7ac on Mon Dec 26 21:23:23 2005. "For a time, my girlfriend would rat on me for being autistic. Sort of like what Ron is doing now to some railbuffs here. Everything I did would somehow be interpreted as an autistic behaviour -- like for example, we went out for dinner, let's say I get a steak, and I would separate the food into components first: carrots, broccoli, steak, mash potato, and other trimmings. Then I would eat my food in sequence: first the carrots, because that is my least favourite part of a steak dinner, then the broccoli, and then I would eat the mashed potato and the steak, but in strictly interleaved ratio -- one part potato, two parts steak. She would interpret this as signs of autism and would force me to eat things all mixed up and out of sequence. But I prefer to eat things in sequence."That's not autism per se, but it can be one symptom of it. Just because you do that does not make you autistic. However, if you cannot bear to be torn from your routine - if you become violent and desperate in your attempts to restore order to your plate and cannot eat until this is accomplished, then that would be a source of concern. "But in reality, as research over the past 40 years have demonstrated, there is such as thing as an "autistic spectrum". To a point, everyone display behavioural traits that can be considered autistic spectrum. However, not many people display ALL of the autistic traits, and have those traits so strongly that it prevents them from functioning in a society. Also, some of these autistic spectrum behaviours overlap with behaviour patterns of people with other types of psychological disorders, for example Tourette's spectrum or obsessive-compulsive disorder spectrum behaviours." Agreed! My focus is on the inability of certain (not all) railbuffs to interface with people effectively. Someone with autism or aspergers may focus intensely on a task or activity and fail to acknowledge anyone around him or her - pushing people anxiously out of the way of a camera at the front train window, perseverating on one topic and being unable to change it, engaging in perseveration....railfanning is an activity which by its nature is solitary (you can do it in groups, but you can do it completely by yourself and not say a word to anyone else) and so you'd expect to see someone doing it who would have great difficulty engaging in a team sport or ballroom dancing, where you have to pay attention to what other people are doing and read their cues. |
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