Your autism could be an asset.

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Dave123

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Jun 17, 2026
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Your autism could be an asset in helping to see Biblical context and understanding Scripture over all.

Of course, this is all tempered with the fact that these things are spiritually discerned and everything that goes with that.

I've never been tested for autism, but have had a few people close to me recommend it. Later in life, some family members and I agree that since autism is hereditary, we may all have it. I think that my mother had it too. It's possible to be autistic enough that is affects your life, but at the same time it's not so bad that you cannot function in life (barely). The symptoms are all there. It's made my life very difficult, to say the least, but I noticed that there are some assets to this thing. All, things work for the good of those who love Him, right?

Where ever there is a weakness, that, in turn, usually creates a strength somewhere else. Have you found all your strengths? I'll bet that you know all your weaknesses. :)

Anyways, I remember nights when I could not shut my mind off, so I would put that to good use. Laying in bed, I used to contemplate on Scripture for hours, the questions, answered, that then posing more questions. I would listen to Alistair Begg cassette tapes of sermons, various series, and fall asleep to them because my mind just would not shut off.

It's funny, I recently started watching this tv series about a woman who is autistic. Those around her became aware that she was very good at solving crimes. Apparently she worked as a file clerk at some kind of a police detective agency. anyways, those with autism process information differently. Probably more analytically that normal people do. I think the show was called "Patience". It's from Acorn.

When I was young, depression meds were new and that was what was usually prescribed to people like me. I tried them for a while, anxiety meds too, but I was not impressed. It seems to me that they just numbed me up, like alcohol or drugs, making them like anything else that stunted emotional growth and left us always needing something to run to until we actually deal with the the core problem, usually just growing up emotionally. But for an autistic, it gets a bit more complicated.

Anyways, I think that autism gives a person huge advantages in studying Scripture. We're neurotic about Scripture like everything thing else.

If you want to share anything about this or any similar experience, please do. I'm just writing this while it's fresh on my mind and hopefully it will give others a new perspective on things and help them in some way.

---Peanut Gallery
 
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Technically I disagree that weakness usually makes a strength somewhere else. My father has lost both his feet. That doesn't make a strength somewhere else.

But I will agree that almost anything can be turned to advantage. My father can wear "stubbies," very short prosthetic feet commonly used for training amputees to use normal prosthetics. This makes him much shorter than other people, which confers an automatic cuteness in modern society. :cool:

What I'm saying is, most autistics are not going to be Rain Man. But many can still find advantage in what they have.
 
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Dave123 said:
Your autism could be an asset in helping to see Biblical context and understanding Scripture over all.

Of course, this is all tempered with the fact that these things are spiritually discerned and everything that goes with that.

I've never been tested for autism, but have had a few people close to me recommend it. Later in life, some family members and I agree that since autism is hereditary, we may all have it. I think that my mother had it too. It's possible to be autistic enough that is affects your life, but at the same time it's not so bad that you cannot function in life (barely). The symptoms are all there. It's made my life very difficult, to say the least, but I noticed that there are some assets to this thing. All, things work for the good of those who love Him, right?

Where ever there is a weakness, that, in turn, usually creates a strength somewhere else. Have you found all your strengths? I'll bet that you know all your weaknesses. :)

Anyways, I remember nights when I could not shut my mind off, so I would put that to good use. Laying in bed, I used to contemplate on Scripture for hours, the questions, answered, that then posing more questions. I would listen to Alistair Begg cassette tapes of sermons, various series, and fall asleep to them because my mind just would not shut off.

It's funny, I recently started watching this tv series about a woman who is autistic. Those around her became aware that she was very good at solving crimes. Apparently she worked as a file clerk at some kind of a police detective agency. anyways, those with autism process information differently. Probably more analytically that normal people do. I think the show was called "Patience". It's from Acorn.

When I was young, depression meds were new and that was what was usually prescribed to people like me. I tried them for a while, anxiety meds too, but I was not impressed. It seems to me that they just numbed me up, like alcohol or drugs, making them like anything else that stunted emotional growth and left us always needing something to run to until we actually deal with the the core problem, usually just growing up emotionally. But for an autistic, it gets a bit more complicated.

Anyways, I think that autism gives a person huge advantages in studying Scripture. We're neurotic about Scripture like everything thing else.

If you want to share anything about this or any similar experience, please do. I'm just writing this while it's fresh on my mind and hopefully it will give others a new perspective on things and help them in some way.

---Peanut Gallery
Click to expand...
In the meantime, what are some things you have noticed in the Bible that you never hear preached about? Just curious.
 
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Lynx said:
Technically I disagree that weakness usually makes a strength somewhere else. My father has lost both his feet. That doesn't make a strength somewhere else.

But I will agree that almost anything can be turned to advantage. My father can wear "stubbies," very short prosthetic feet commonly used for training amputees to use normal prosthetics. This makes him much shorter than other people, which confers an automatic cuteness in modern society. :cool:

What I'm saying is, most autistics are not going to be Rain Man. But many can still find advantage in what they have.
Click to expand...
Hey Lynx

Think of it like this. There was Sherlock Holmes movie, or tv show that I watched when I was younger. I'm going by memory so.....It showed a room full of people casually talking to each other in little groups. Like a cocktail party. The setting looked like a library with the walls covered in book shelves, and just a ways out from the wall there were tall tables without any chairs around them. I guess they were made for standing around. Anyways, the lights went out and there was some commotion, but nobody could see anything. About fifteen seconds later, the lights came back on and there was a dead person laying on the floor. Murdered in the dark. Nobody knew anything because they couldn't see. BUT...there was a blind man there, and because he was blind, he had to rely on his ears more than others. He traced the sounds that he knew, the phone (Old style) that someone bumped into and it let out a soft ding. Another sound of scraping over here, a thud over there, and a sliding sound there, and slight squeal of a hinge from a door, etc. From these clues and working with Sherlock Holmes they managed to find a secret passage in one of the wall book cases and eventually solved the murder.

The guy didn't have super powers, but because he was blind and had to rely on his hearing more than others do. He was tuned in to notice things that other people would not because they they didn't need to be because they can see.

Overcoming severe physical trauma often builds a psychological phenomenon known as post-traumatic growth. It's interesting, look it up. These advantages are often very practical.
 
Lynx said:
Technically I disagree that weakness usually makes a strength somewhere else. My father has lost both his feet. That doesn't make a strength somewhere else.

But I will agree that almost anything can be turned to advantage. My father can wear "stubbies," very short prosthetic feet commonly used for training amputees to use normal prosthetics. This makes him much shorter than other people, which confers an automatic cuteness in modern society. :cool:

What I'm saying is, most autistics are not going to be Rain Man. But many can still find advantage in what they have.
Click to expand...
When did you father lose both his feet? Recently?
Obs if he lost them early, growing up, or never had them, he would have found his strength somewhere else, have you never read or seen the book by Nick Vujivac?

images-24.jpg
Or Joni Eareckson Tada?
 
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Lynx said:
In the meantime, what are some things you have noticed in the Bible that you never hear preached about? Just curious.
Click to expand...

I'm having trouble getting past the foundational stuff in any discussion to get to those things. Without a common foundation, there probably will never be a productive conversation about anything in Scripture beyond that. Try reasoning with a Calvinist who interprets everything based on TULIP, and it definition of total depravity. It's basically a disregard for half the context of the Bible. Try finding someone from our modern day churches who are willing to let Scripture, not humanism, determine what the Bible teaches. The deeper truths of Scripture seem to be hidden in that way to the natural mind. Hidden in the context, line upon line, precept upon precept. There's a path that must be taken to those kinds of deeper truths. The problem is that the foundation is where every discussion will usually get halted. A road less traveled. Perhaps, traveled alone. :)

Also, remember this in light of the idea that weaknesses often create opportunity for strengths. "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9).

1 Corinthians 1:25-29 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

Dave
 
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I found those that have autism, like my neighbour (who calls himself RainMan as nickname) are very good at collecting facts and information. And they have a good memory for it.
 
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Holistic view of the (HOLY) Bible.

Not just 'the Bible' or the parts of the Bible I only read.
 
Lanolin said:
I found those that have autism, like my neighbour (who calls himself RainMan as nickname) are very good at collecting facts and information. And they have a good memory for it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I was taking about. Could that be an advantage in studying Scripture in some ways?
 
A lot of people in BDF also I notice only look at things from male perspective, disregarding half of the female human population.
 
Lynx said:
He has one artificial foot. Went just yesterday to get a cast of his lower leg for the second foot.

Meanwhile, wheelchair.
Click to expand...
How's he doing? Was he pretty active before the amputations?
 
Dave123 said:
That's the last thing that I would have guessed. lol

I googled it and came up with all kinds of crazy stuff.
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thats what we CCers call it for short

LOL

I'm not sure I want to know what else it means....
 
Sometimes, I get confused when people say they are autistic or do they just mean artistic.

I mean they are very similar, and I suppose people CAN be both?
 
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