Everyday Asperger’s Lingo
These are some of the words I use in my writing. These are not voices in my head or alternate personalities. Although that would make for interesting blogging. Applying labels, names, and identities is a way my brain categorizes to make sense of what is going on inside my head.
I find processing easier, if I can relate my experience, thoughts, and emotions to visual images. With visuals I can determine what is going on in my mind such as: defense mechanism (Crazy Frog’s humor), obsessing (OCD, LV), rambling (Sir Brain), journeying deep within (Prophet), or another behavior I might not have otherwise picked up (Elephant).
Neurotypical: What people in the autistic community sometimes call people who are not on the autistic spectrum.
Aspie: A slang term for people with Aspergers. Appropriate for people with Aspergers to call themselves or their friends with Aspergers.
Planet Aspie: An imaginary land where Aspies sometimes think they come from.
Little Me: (ME) Who I perceive me to be as I’m typing and communicating to you. Little Me is my audible voice and my moving body, and the receiver of thoughts from LV. Little Me is the author of this blog, a wife, a mother, a friend, a daughter, a teacher, etc. I am the serious one.
L.V.: (My inner conscious) Little Voice inside my head. She is a petite cute little girl with a tight blue sweater with the letters LV monogramed on her sweater.
(I created this image; I don’t really think she is real and lives in my head, but this image helps me explain my thought process.) LV represents my conscious thoughts. She is the ambassador for my brain. LV often has a running dialogue going on in my head all day long. Particularly when Little Me is tired, had too much caffeine, stressed, or over-stimulated by the environment. She is never quiet. She uses G-rated swearwords like: crap, poop, and darn. She is a little spacey and super innocent.
Sir Brain: (Where thoughts are processed and I am sidetracked; where rambling comes from) Sir Brain or sometimes Brain is a squishy grey ball edged around with shapes of the continents. He is sometimes a male—mostly a male, but sometimes a female. He is smart but relies on LV to translate information to Little Me. He is docile, compliant, and sluggish. He doesn’t speed up, but LV does. Brain checks out sometimes or takes me places I don’t want to go: like worrying about death and illness. He’s a likable guy, but not someone easy to follow. He goes off on tangents, rambles, and is easily distracted by strings of yarn.
Strings of Yarn: This is anything that catches Sir Brain’s attention. Just like a kitten follows string, Brain follows a certain word or image and goes off subject, frequently. I might say, “Brain is following another string again.”
Crazy Frog: (humor) Crazy Frog is a part of me that depends on humor for survival. He likes to make connections, use sarcasm, tell jokes, be ironic, find silly YouTube videos, and delete. He often deletes Little Me’s depressive prose. He edits, too. He is the final reader of my work, ensuring the posts are not too dull or repetitive. He listens to music over and over again. He finds irony in the fact that his is the final editor but has dyslexia.
Prophet in my Pocket: (my higher self) An old distinguished man who whispers profound prose, poetry, and deep philosophical thoughts. He resides in my right pocket. He comes out when I need him. He is akin to my spiritual advisor and connection to my higher source. He is humble, extremely smart, kind, and levelheaded. He is highly evolved. Sometime I consider him a spirit of the light, or Stewart of the Light; which means helping spirit of the light.
Back Space/Back Up: What I sometimes type when I try to get back to the point I was originally talking about before I rambled on and on.
Melancholic: One of the four temperaments of ancient times. Little Me best fits the description of the Melancholic temperament. Which includes the traits of: sensitive, intuitive, self-conscious, easily embarrassed, easily hurt, introspective, sentimental, moody, likes to be alone, empathetic, artistic, fussy and perfectionistic, deep, prone to depression, avarice, and gluttony!
Hamping: This is when a thought, idea, fret or passion gets stuck in my head and I can’t get the thought out. Can be considered reoccurring thoughts. Writing helps with hamping, and so does verbally processing. Sometimes exercise, listening to music, or getting out of the house helps. Hamping happens most when I am triggered by a stressful event, a special interest, a fear, or an unexpected event. The thoughts are linked together, so one thought leads to the other, and then the thoughts repeat themselves. For example: “He bumped his head. There is a bump. I hope the ice is helping. What if the ice doesn’t help? He looks tired. What should I do to help? Should I take him to the doctor? What if he goes into a coma? Maybe I should google head injury. He bumped his head. There is a bump…”
Verbally Processing: Getting things out of my brain by talking or writing.
Over-Share: Telling information about myself that is more personal than the mainstream typically expects. Providing information that is too personal, too fast. Over stepping boundaries.
Elephant: (The part of me that is afraid to come out very often) A brave, but fragile spirit, that hides inside the embodiment of a strong and protective male elephant. Elephant speaks up ever so often to state her right to individuality and love. She loves unconditionally. She is melancholic, shy, and determined to be heard.
This is her motto:
I want you to like me, because I like you,
I want you to love me, because I love you,
I want you to acknowledge me, because I acknowledge you,
I want you to see me, because I see you,
I do not long for attention, I long for balance. ~ Elephant
The Geek Posse: Little Me, LV, Sir Brain, Crazy Frog, Elephant, OCFlea, and whoever else we pick up along the way.
OCFlea: (OCD)
An inner voice that causes my son to worry, to not want to go to school, to hate showering. I have an OCFlea, too. OCFlea is responsible for obsessive thoughts and actions such as: I need to check my Facebook page; I have to have that chocolate; I need to play that video game again. He is not related to Hamping. Hamping involves a long string of thoughts that keep looping back, and can be about anything. OCFlea usually pertains to extreme fixations, obsessions, phobias, and anxiety. He is responsible for getting me out of bed to check that the door is locked or that the computer is in sleep mode. He is a big flea. We, my son and I, tell him to be quiet or to shut up. OCFlea is negative and impulsive. OCFlea is the one that wants to stay home the most. I’m working on OCFlea getting in touch with his passionate inner-flea; thus the ukulele lessons.
Squirrel-In-The-Box: When I’ve had too much chocolate or caffeine, and don’t know what’s going to pop out of my brain.
Phantom: She’s more of a female but with a tomboy attitude. She despises feminine aspects in all forms, but yet finds herself a female. A difficult position to be in, I imagine. Anyhow she’s lurking somewhere within, and doesn’t have a lot of beneficial, high-energy words to offer me or other individuals. I imagine she is hurting somewhere deep, deep inside of her being, but that most people would try to bomb her before giving her the time of day. I can’t blame her for hiding. As I fear her myself, and wish to destroy her. Even as she whispers, “I am your teacher.”
Spastic Colon: What I call my labradoodle, who is a total hyper-active Pollyanna.
Everyday Asperger's 
There will be a test on these names on Friday!
I knew I wasn’t the only polyhomunculun!
Polyhomunculun: A person, usually with Aspergers, who experiences their consciousness as multiple, closely related but independently thinking, entities.
Planet Aspie, I’ve been calling “Salingeria” after the first book I ever encountered that seemed to be writen directly for an Aspie audience, “Catcher in the Rye”. And the reason I didn’t just name it after Aspergers was because when I first read Catcher, I didn’t immediately understand that that was why I related to it; I actually wrote my book report on the premise that Holden was normal. But in my story, Planet Aspie is more like a Krypton that never blew up; it sends some of its children to earth from time to time in order to help the normies. It’s not an Aspie Supremacist thing (please, Internet, don’t make that a thing in any capacity); it just takes all kinds. Anyway, JD Salinger was one of these aliens, and his contribution was to leave behind a guide for the following generations of embassadors.
I was surprised you didn’t include any variation of the concept that I refer to as “My Silver Blanket”. This is essentially my obsession that I’m calling it something other than an obsession, because “obsession” has the negative connotation that I’m blindly fascinated by the thing to the point of self-destructiveness. I call it silver to convey the fact that I fixate on it because of its beauty. And I call it a blanket because if you stare at something long enough, you invariably form a relationship to it, and if you approach that relationship responsibly, it can go on to nourish, protect, and renew you. For a lot of Aspies, it’s object collections, others it’s Sonic the Hedgehog (for reasons I don’t get), me, it’s Portal. And I don’t mean the puzzles; the puzzles are fun but it’s not what keeps my attention. I actually just really relate to the story.
love it! you do make me laugh! L
I’m glad.
Okay–I now have a new word–“hamping.” I soooo understand this! I like the way it sounds, like “hopping” or “Hacking”!
I like how it sounds, too. Now we can communicate in our own language. : ) ~ Love, Sam
I love the blog. My partner holly has traits so I’m learning about passengers. We are working on communication so this blog helps.
great thanks so much Say hello to Holly for me
Loving your Lingo… 🙂
I think EVERYONE should have there own Lingo!
It makes life so much fun, kids do all the time so why can’t we.
Love and hugs.
Lisa. xx 🙂
I think everyone should have their own lingo, too. It is making my life so much easier. I can identify what is happening, instead of feeling like there is a circus in my head. Thanks for visiting. There are lots of things kids do, that grownups forget to hold onto. Talk soon. Love, Sam.
Thank you, Sam. My daughter discovered your site and shared it with me. It has helped me understand more carefully (clearly too) what the inside is like for her. The lingo may shorthand, as is all vocabulary, but like a foreign language where it often happens that ‘there is no translation for this in English’, you have defined experiences very foreign to the ‘neurotypical’ world and given it names.
You are very welcome. I am glad that your daughter found the site and shared the site with you. Pleased to hear that the lingo can assist in some way. I appreciate you taking the time to comment and share this. Makes my heart happy. Much love to your daughter. 🙂 Sam
I am learning so much from your blog. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and for the follow
So glad you are finding something interesting. It’s a mixed salad of posts—a little bit of everything from my brain. Thanks for commenting. Look forward to learning more about you. 🙂 smiles, Sam
lol…read this just now and i’m giggling…there’s the connection again…more giggles…just a bit of everything that’s in my brain…lol…love this one, too, Sam 🙂 🙂 giggles 🙂 🙂
hee, hee. 🙂 Happy to hear. giggles right back at you.
OMG- you are hysterical. My brain hurts. You are definitely an Aspie.
(NT mother of Aspie girl)
lol….quirky gal I be….glad to bring a smile to your face….I know I’m like soooo aspie. I’m friends with alienhippy another aspie blogger; we chat everyday….and she lets me know each day how very aspie I am….lol….Smiles, Sam 🙂
So very much FUN!! Thank you for sharing your “lingo”…..totally AWESOME!!
giggles…..thanks for taking a trip into my brain!!! Appreciate your courage. 🙂 lol
and thanks for the sweet words. Sam 🙂
So many twins, so little time to learn it all! My eyes and my head hurt from reading all this…oh, it is so strange! I knew I didnt have multiple- personalities, just levels of self. My string, I describe as “A black rubber band ball”. Therapists dont know what to do with me.I call myself an “Ass-burger head”, yes, like hamburger. It makes light of my heavy thinking. I wish I could stop thinking once in a while, that would be great.
I enjoyed reading your comment. Thank you for sharing. You brought a smile to my face. I too wish I could shut my thinking off for a bit. Best wishes to you. 🙂
An AS client’s mom just emailed your article on Asperger traits in women to me and I became an instant fan and follower.
The word ‘perseverating’ is usually used for ‘hamping’ or ‘OCflea’ when working with Aspies. I like your term. I often use “ruminating or chewing your cud”. I explain to my clients that we are like cows who have a special place for cud that we cough up and chew and chew–it never goes anywhere but back into our special place to bring up again at a later time. We need to learn to spit it out. Your suggestions for spitting it out are very good. Now if we wouldn’t just keeping replacing our old cud with new cud…
Hi Toni, Thank you so much for your comment. It made my day. I was going to get my degree in counseling. I actually have tons of college credit at graduate level towards the degree, but circumstances altered my goal. It’s wonderful to hear from someone who works with women with Aspergers. I like that image of chewing the cud. That’s fantastic. I will keep the image in my mind and use it. Spit it out, is right. You say “we.” Are you on the spectrum? 🙂 Sam
The more I read about Asperger’s and women, the more I see the traits in me. I can handle myself at parties, no anxiety. That doesn’t mean I don’t often come up with inappropriate statements or monopolize conversations, but have still managed to keep friends who enjoy my company. I am often just as happy, if not happier, left to my own devices rather than go out and socialize.
I would say on the Asperger’s sub-spectrum, as I call it, with “poster child” on the far right, I am a little left of the center. Must be why I’ve gotten so good at recognizing a kindred soul.
I am keenly aware of the condition some therapists and doctors have of “I have a hammer, so everything must be a nail,” and I try hard to not jump to the AS diagnosis. But I am amazed at women/girls I have gotten as clients who have been to some pretty well-respected clinicians and even with their obvious symptoms (not DSM ones, of course, as those bear little resemblance to the reality), have been wrongly diagnosed.
One 17 year old had been to 3 therapists and a top psychologist who did an MMPI on her. The diagnosis for most of them? Oppositional defiant disorder. The moment she grumpily slumped into my office/playroom, and then did a 180 change in attitude at the sight of my Ninja Turtles and super heroes, I knew who I was dealing with. She knows all the words to all of the Disney songs. She knows all of the traits of the TMNT and their colors and weapons. She’s upset that The Avengers messed up on the color of the costume and hair of one of the members. She’d been bullied so much she’d become one, thanks to her size. She made herself an Avenger of the downtrodden.
Simon Baron-Cohen’s AQ test rarely relates to these females. Someone needs to revamp it and make a tool for diagnosing females. No wonder they are so underdiagnosed.
Oops, I’m going to crawl off my soapbox now. I am so glad I found this site. I’ve already recommended it to two people today.
Very interesting to read your comment; thank you. I have heard from others about the Oppositional defiant disorder….a condition which, although I have read about and attended seminars about, I’ve yet to really comprehend. My own therapist warned me, when she diagnosed me with Aspergers, to be careful of professionals out there who are pinning ODD on people with Aspergers. I could relate to what you wrote and how you wrote….along with the child-like joy and interests. It seems to me, many females with Aspergers have a natural honesty and flow to their writing. Thank you for suggesting the site to others. And a true pleasure to hear from you. 🙂 Sam
*love* your blog – you make me feel like I’ve found “home” – people who *get* this….
Sometimes I have found myself yelling at your blog though.. like you have a personal camera inside my head or my loungeroom?! I really identify with this!
Showed it to a dear friend of mine – who has been diagnosed with Bipolar, Anxiety/Depression, IBS, Fibromyalgia, (and the list goes on). I showed her the “unofficial list” – she said “no” to about 6 things.
Showed it to her partner – he’s like “Are you keeping a secret blog from me? THIS is you, right?”
YET – when she showed it to her “trusted” counsellor – who allegedly specialises in Autism/Aspergers was told “No – you are clearly NOT Aspie?!” Like what the hell???
gosh such a common thing from ‘professionals’ Thank you for sharing. Glad it feels like home, and funny that you yell. Say hello to your friend 🙂