Alex James's Blog: AlexJamesNovels Blog - Posts Tagged "personal-experiences"

Each chapter covers social relationships from a different author based on a slightly different topic. The book is now old so some of the websites and links are outdated, however, it helped me accept the way I am and the way I think, reading from others who have thought about social relationships similarly. In this way it has helped me see that although I see things differently to most ‘neurotypical’ people, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s just because I’m naïve, unsure of myself, or that I have trouble fitting in to mainstream society – it’s a separate point of view, an individual’s point of view, I mean, which many on the autism spectrum relate with.

The book has helped me think on strategies to read people better, to be more cautious when giving out personal details online, and to remember that in thinking everybody is the same as us, even people on the autism spectrum are guilty. I assume everybody is honest, genuine, with no ill intentions, and this can make people like us vulnerable to others who think different because we have weakened theory of mind.

I do believe it has been exceedingly valuable reading the perspectives of the authors. It turns out that if you put a lot of heads together that are on a similar wavelength, you can learn things through relatable experiences.