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Name an ASD "super power" or talent you have no use for

I have really good senses, like the hearing you mentioned, to the point that I can recognise the way certain people and places smell. Not in a weird way, I just have habit of associating people with smells. I also have near perfect night vision. My main weird skill is my ability to predict the weather. I can predict the weather with 99.9% accuracy for the next 24 hours. I can literally feel changes in temperature, pressure and humidity. The weirdest part is, I've been able to do it since as far back as anyone can remember, even when I was only a few years old.
 
I love studying and analyzing doctors, but find that talent useless currently, as we do not see many doctors now. Whenever my family in the past though had to see them, while they were analyzing my wife, I and our children, I was drawn to trying to find out their intentions, whether good or bad, and analyzing not only their expressions, their postures and words used, and manner of speech and how they interacted with us, but I focused on what they would not say or do too, to form opinion.

First I would compartmentalize them briefly into one of either four groups: the caring and helping doctor, the doctor that was incompetent, the doctor that had alterior motives, or the doctor that had a mental illness. In many cases it would be hard, as often those things could overlap. The reason finding the answers and real truth about who they were was important was my family's health was potentially at risk, and as we could not waste time on professionals that weren't a fit.

Part of that desire of mine and my ability was being very introverted growing up and studying my parents and family members when abuses were being present, and needing to find ways to cope and make sense of things. As well, in school and other environments, I needed to know why persons were thinking and feeling as they did as well, so as I did not dwell too much on my daily anxiety and pain. And it's as if I had to be one step ahead of others, to prevent more problems, too.

And so when medical professionals kept saying or doing strange things, or not explaining much and not listening and not asking many questions, red flags started to appear. And when misdiagnoses and underdiagnoses began to appear, I had to determine why that was. There was usually one or more of ten reasons why that would happen, besides being busy, so I will not detail that here. There were about eight good to great medical professionals out of the perhaps forty that my family saw over the last seven to ten years. That is not a good statistic.

The other thirty two doctors either relied just on book smarts, or did just the basics like looking in ears, up the nose, in the throat, and in the eyes, or they had not the best intentions, were too closed minded, were too rigid in their practices, and were followers and not leaders, or they were mentally
ill, having usually one or more of eight different mental health conditions it seemed. As I had no medical degree of course nobody would take my ability seriously, and despite my ability at thorough and detailed research, if needed, but I had a few other things that most of those doctors lacked. Whereas they looked often at the surface or relied on information learned from studies, or other patients, when evaluating, I looked deeper. And where they could have biases or lacked understanding and analyzing abilities, I did not. I had numerous personal life experiences and abilities that most medical persons did not seem to have, that caused me to be hyperaware of the world around me, and want to analyze that and others, in great detail.

However, if the doctor was good or great in my opinion, I stopped analyzing them and started to focus on how they could best help our family. For all the others, of course we fired them and moved on quickly from them. We do not have time for medical nonsense, when our children have needs minute-by-minute sometimes. We do not believe in experiments either. Perhaps those professionals would have helped many other families, but not ours. Often, if I was unsure either way about a doctor, I would ask them further questions as if I was interviewing them. I would test them to see if they were open minded about other treatments, or I would have them explain more why they felt as they did.

The reason why that talent is useless is: I would want to take my doctor analyzing ability to be a psychologist or psychiatrist one day, as I like helping persons as quickly as possible and do not expect payment, but I think I would wear myself out. Most of those medical professionals and systems are set up differently, to drag things out for money reasons, to do things rigidly, and follow precise rules, and they do not look often at the urgency of any particular situation. I would want to see a few patients daily for several weeks, and I would have high expectations on myself feeling that limited time is all many could need, but follow up visits would always be welcome. I would want to show I really cared about in not extending treatments, in doing things free but professionally, and in providing answers and treating in quicker ways, and in wanting to be their friend they could talk to by phone or meet at any time, regardless if a weekend, at night or not.

I think too many doctors mask their true intentions. Yes, they are in a helping profession, but many chose this profession for other reasons: status or money, and to be more attractive to the opposite sex. Yes, many doctors love to help too, but by taking on far too many patients and treating them more like a statistic, something is going to suffer. And that means each and every patient. Often I think doctors want the numbers to show off how many patients they have, how much money they have, to get more respect in their social life, and to get expensive things, like fancy cars or houses. Many medical professionals I feel do not care if patients are suffering between visits, or over extended duration. And I cannot stand that, regardless if an emergency is present, when a staff member says, "Our next appointment available is in two weeks (or 4 weeks). How about a Thursday at 4pm?" It's as if they do not worry about others' pain in the meantime, or we must fit in to their busy schedule.

So, the bottom line is that my desire to read doctors very well, and then with a desire to use that talent to help others in person with their mental health issues is impossible as I would have to take on less than ten patients at a time to make sure it was quality care, and again I probably want to do it for free. I though would worry about the ones I would have to turn down, and feeling guilty for that. As well, I likely would worry if each patient was not showing improvement to their liking and promptly, though I think I would focus on my great and unselfish efforts to reduce that anxiety, obsession or depression instead, or to help with their scattered thinking or slow processing. Regardless, that work dream could not come true, as our two children have daily educational, personal and other life skill needs, and I want to and must prioritize them and those things first. That is my greatest satisfaction and desires right now.
 
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I also listen to noises other people don't, and that's one of the reasons it's difficult for me to have a whole night sleep. Any little noise can wake me up. For example, one of my kids usually talks while sleeping, and I can hear him, even if he's in another room.

Dylan is the exact same. He wakes up to very very minor sounds. There could be a pin drop in his room, and he would wake up to it. We noticed this around the eighteen month mark, and to this day he is still hyper aware of minimal sounds. He will wake up easily to a refrigerator and heater coming on, and to someone quietly rolling over in bed next to his bed and to the wind outside. As well, he will awaken to a quiet whisper, to cricket sounds at night or to a bird chirping in the morning, and things like that. None of us gets as much sleep because of that.
 
The ability to be able to recite any double digit times table and be able to figure out mentally ones higher then that.

I can also tell just by looking at a doll whether it's rooted or wigged, strung, ball jointed or just typical slotted in.
 
I'm sure most of us have one thing (or more) that most people wouldn't even believe is true.
And sometimes that thing is pretty useless, but just out of curiosity, what are things you can do/feel that you really don't put to use on a regular basis, either because you haven't found
what to do with it, or because it's so specific?
So I'm sure we have enough between all of us to start the most unusual talent show that ever existed. :cool:

Me: I can hear light bulbs whenever they're on. And powerplugs any time some device is plugged into them. Don't plan on working as an electrician.
I know where everything is in a space and call tell if anything has been moved after I've surveyed it.
This used to freak out my siblings who thought they could sneak in my room and mess with my stuff LOL.
This skill is useful for quick restock in a retail shop and for keeping the library orderly (where I work now).
Another fun "talent" I have is seeing bursts of color when surprised by loud noises.
 
My point being, that I thought my weird talent was useless when I was younger but found that it actually came in handy later:)
 
Despite the fact that according to most people I look considerably younger than 41, I get served with no problems in most Pubs, only time I ever had a problem was a Pub in Town last January, but the Bouncer in there's a moron anyway.
 
Colors are a little overwhelming to me, in the good way. I love the colors!, and I'm glad my vision is capable to differenciate the "hard to see" tones, such as indigo. Night vision is eh though.
Besides that, I have an ease to find image patterns on everything I see, it was beyond creepy at first and even had panic attacks for some years because it.
But as of lately, it helps differenciate between what is real footage and what is visual effect in a lot of movies. Including all "odd shadows/lighting", reflected crew in windows, metals, lenses, or water, vfx desynch, etc. Can also tell how do some scenes "work"
And I find lots of graphic bugs on nearly any game
 
Me: I can hear light bulbs whenever they're on. And powerplugs any time some device is plugged into them. Don't plan on working as an electrician.

oh my - I started my career as a microwave design engineer and I thought I was going nuts. I could even tell if a microwave device was supplying microwaves by feeling the case or just being around it. I do not know how I did it.

I stopped a coworker from going into an antenna 3 phase power area by hearing/feeling that the area was still hot. There was no load, no transformer hum. We had turned the circuit breakers off but it was miswired and still hot. I thought I was crazy and imagining it. This is not a useless skill. The long term lesson was do not do short cuts. The proper procedure is to check with a voltmeter to make sure the circuit is off. We did it after my co-worker came out of the crawl space. Oooh my.

My useless skill in this area is the 8 foot florescent bulbs "pulse". Even modern ones still do it to a degree. Really annoying.

I do not know how much some things are a useless skill. I had quite a degree of anxiety when young. A lot of it as preteen. I learned to become hyper analytic as a result. Knowledge calms my anxiety and I can think/talk myself down. As a result, I am immune to brands and advertising. I could analyze when I was being investigated for a clearance as they do not tell you. Yes, the investigators may follow you around about every 5 years if you get a gov clearance. A seemingly useless thing can grow a useful skill.

There is really little that is useless in life. Thank you for posting this as I always thought I was nuts and never said anything about this before. With the electricity detection skill, you too can save a life.
 
Immunity to loneliness?
Prophetic dreams (me and another aspie girl I know have them)

I tend to have some very vivid dreams that make no sense after I wake up. But I also have prophetic dreams about my favourite sports teams which are often uncannily accurate.

Another so called talent I have is the ability to make puns about everything.

Finally I am good with directions in a new place.

This sort of makes up for my many flaws.
 
The same thing happens when I smell the air and announce there's going to be rain or a thunderstorm (That may have to do with my dramatic way of announcing it too, lol)

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Ha! I just had that conversation this afternoon! And they were like "You mean the smell after the rain, right?", and even after my endless string of no-no-nos, nobody believed you could smell a storm coming. Cue Phil Collins feeling it coming in the air tonight ;)

I'd like to add self-doubt as an Aspie talent. We've already covered languages, song memorizing and trivia (never realized it was so uncommon until several of you pointed it out), but yeah, self-doubt and hyper vigilance.

(OK, maybe the hyper vigilance would be great for a spy, but a spy who can't read people? Spells out failure if you ask me)
 
I tend to have some very vivid dreams that make no sense after I wake up. But I also have prophetic dreams about my favourite sports teams which are often uncannily accurate.

Another so called talent I have is the ability to make puns about everything.

Finally I am good with directions in a new place.

This sort of makes up for my many flaws.

My prophetic dreams only seem to apply to me. When I was younger, like between 3 and four, I would have such VIVID dreams, I got confused as to where the real world began and the dream world ended. I would often ask people in real life if this was a dream, and ask people in my dreams the same thing.
 
July 1st was a Saturday so I instantly knew the other Saturdays were 8 - 15 - 22 - 29 ... so I know Aug. 1st will be a Tuesday so the other August Tuesdays are 8 - 15 - 22 - 29 ... and in Sept. those are all Thursdays ... and so on. The other numbers work the same, of course (?), 6 - 13 - 20 - 27, 4 - 11 - 18 - 25, 3 - 10 - 17 - 24 - (31 if applicable) and so on. It's visual, like a traditional cardboard calendar, and I visualize it months in advance. When I was young I was surprised that nobody else could figure out what day of the week Day X, five months from now, would of course be. I'm still surprised whenever someone is totally unaware what date it is. But I no longer comment on that. (If someone thinks there's a Sept. 31, that's another problem - lol.)

As a kid I quickly learned to keep quiet about this "skill"! It's never seemed particularly useful. :confused:
 
The ability to be able to recite any double digit times table and be able to figure out mentally ones higher then that.

I can also tell just by looking at a doll whether it's rooted or wigged, strung, ball jointed or just typical slotted in.

I used to study perfect squares for 0 to 100 and could recite those in front of students; people mistook me for a genius for that reason. I still remember most of those. I can also remember all the US presidents, from Washington to Trump, without looking at a history book - and which ones served 2 terms.
 
Other than that, my ability to remember a ridiculous number of random facts. Only use for that has been board games where I will be able to answer some of the more random questions.

This is also my primary "super power". I can remember the most random, useless crap, but can't remember someone's name or for what I walked into a room. I am in the habit of spouting off factoids at odd times, usually when something in a conversation has jostled one from the depths of my memory. My husband jokingly calls me Cliff Clavin (from the show Cheers). "Little known fact..." my husband will quip in his best Cliff Clavin impression.
He wants to take me to trivia night at a local pub. He says he could handle the sports questions and I could handle the rest.
 
I'm really sensitive to alcohol smell, like aftershave or cleaning alcohol. I can smell it when it's in a closed cabinet, in a squirt bottle, and the size of the nozzle is 0.5mm. Pretty useless!

I'm a cat whisperer... which could be useful if I get a cat.

I'm hard of hearing but I can hear very low frequency sounds with super efficiency. I can't hear an alarm clock right next to me, but I can hear a car door close through my bedroom wall, when its 100 feet away. This skill is good for the zombie apocalypse.

I can tell people by how they walk. Slightly useful.

I can write upside down. And backwards if you want.

I can find my way in the dark outdoors, even in a place I've only been once.

When a pothole comes up in the road, I'm never in position to drive through it.

I can walk as quiet as a ninja.
 
Prophetic dreams ... hearing electricity (i use candles like a medieval witch)...can tell exact air temperature ... know when something has been touched or moved from last i saw it (drives me nuts)... can identify musicians playing in other bands (hard to describe ... i link sounds) ... find errors and what is out of place: it's really obvious to me but apparently others are baffled... heightened taste and smell...
 
Prophetic dreams ... hearing electricity (i use candles like a medieval witch)...can tell exact air temperature ... know when something has been touched or moved from last i saw it (drives me nuts)... can identify musicians playing in other bands (hard to describe ... i link sounds) ... find errors and what is out of place: it's really obvious to me but apparently others are baffled... heightened taste and smell...

Finding errors and what is out of place is a HUGE skill to have in computer science, whether a programmer or a hardware support person. Anyone with this superpower can use it with computers. That superpower may also be good for be a car mechanic or something like that.
 
I passed a test for high school students when I was eight years old. It was to tell if you could work with computers. All signs point to YES!

We are all superheroes, people. Let's embrace it.
 

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