People with autism are into black and white thinking, is the common belief. I’ve heard that many times and experienced it too. I love justice and want reality to make sense, although it often doesn’t. Deciding, categorizing, concluding, and making rules are mental processes I do a lot of.
Recently my close friend mentioned how we neurodivergent people are into black and white thinking, and my intuition told me right away– Well, we are into thinking. At least we’re thinking.
Black and white is one of many ways that I think. Here’s a list.
ways I think
- black and white thinking
- focusing on details
- categorizing
- concluding
- making up rules to explain what I notice
- noticing if the rules work
- asking questions
- going super deep for a long time — hyperfixate
- pattern recognition
- bird’s eye view — long distance and long time perspective
- thought experiment
- brainstorm / listing many options including wild ones
- dissection, looking at isolated parts — analysis
- putting the separated out parts back together in new ways — synthesis
- juxtaposing unlike things to find new combinations and relationships
- amplifying and massaging my thoughts with big feelings
- re-arranging ideas through art
- re-arranging ideas through play and experimentation
- altered state of being
- memory
- research — learning from elsewhere
- dream work
- creating a narrative — storytelling
- writing
- asking for feedback from a trusted source
- thinking in a group — think tank — collaborative thinking
- turning up and down volume
- decreasing and increasing dose
- changing the pressure
- imitation with variation
- dance and stimming — somatic thinking
Do you like to think in these ways?
What way of thinking is most common for you?
What ways would you like to try more of?
pleasure
Distraction, dissociation, zazen, emotional overwhelm, and flooding my senses like flooding my senses with pleasure– these seem like not thinking. But the truth is, my mind is a busy bee. Maybe I’m not thinking out loud or consciously, but I like to give my mind a break from its usual activities.
This break can be like a field lying fallow. It can make me ready for new, exciting ways of thinking later.
Or this break can be a way of pushing energy behind the curtain. There’s a weird being behind the curtain, doing things I can’t see. Sometimes I notice a pair of arms thrust out from behind the curtain with a silver platter. One of the cartoon hands lifts the lid, and I see a fully formed idea, need, realization, or decision.
Wow, who came up with that? I wonder. We can say God, my mom on the other side, the universe, the oversoul, my Guides, or my own consciousness is the being behind the curtain. At any rate, some rest can help it do its thing.
who we are
How I think is a big part of who I am. I experience myself as a feeling, sensing, thinking being.
To say that people with autism are black and white thinkers, sounds like a black and white conclusion. I can be simplistic and absolute, but I’m also rich and complex, complicated, with a thousand details, and changing too. We can do so many things, and I love us.