I've just read that when people are hypervigilant, receiving more information is reassuring to them.
While, if people are not particularly vigilant, they find receiving more information on a topic unsettling, even anxiety-provoking 😳
#Autism#Neurodivergent#AskingAutistics
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Which has made me wonder about autistic people.
I think I'm not unusual, as an autistic, in wanting to have as much information as possible on topics of interest.
If something scares me, I want more information on it, not less!
😵💫📝📝📝😊
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I was telling my friend who's a doctor about how I want as much information as possible on whatever is wrong with me. I bring a notepad and have questions to ask, and make notes.
Doctors sometimes seem annoyed at this approach. I asked her why she thought this might be.
She shrugged and said, "you're quite unusual."
(#AskingAutistics - do you do this, too?)
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I was puzzled.
She explained that, in her experience, most people just want to be given some medicine & told they'll be fine. Being given more details and especially e.g. technical names, she said, would just freak them out.
I just couldn't believe it was true. I wondered if she was mistaken. It just seemed so counterintuitive, to me.
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Ok so I know that my baseline is anxious and hypervigilant.
Which makes me wonder now... could my tendency to want as much data as possible be connected with my baseline of hypervigilance?
While, perhaps, non-autistics feel generally quite secure... and prefer to leave it at that?
🤔
#Autism#Neurodivergent#AskingAutistics
Ref: Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow by Daniel Kahneman, chapter 13, on availability, emotion, and risk.
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