Since Alicorn has politely asked that I not respond to her comments, I will reply to yours and speak in general terms:
Autism is marked by inability to pick up on social cues and form relationships that neurotypicals do naturally.
If someone repeatedly gave sincere advice on social skills which assumed away such problems, and required constant re-clarification (“just get out of the house”, “strike up a conversation with random people”, “meet local people on the internet—I did, it’s not hard”, “just get your friends to introduce you to others”), that, to me, looks like strong advice that the person is not autistic.
Those of you who have seen me post can make your own guesses about my autism status. And, FWIW, when meditating, I’ve never been able to get my inner voice to shut down for more than a few seconds. The best I can do is to replace it with non-thinking thoughts (counting, observing my breathing, etc) and even then only for a short while.
My impression from reading meditation and doing some of it is that shutting down one’s internal monologue is something that happens after a practicing for quite a while. (Months? Years?) It isn’t an initial goal.
It’s not a binary thing, either. One common technique is to be aware of one’s internal monologue without investing emotionally in it or trying to suppress it; (this is described in lots of different language) this tends to reduce its intensity and ubiquity over time.
Since Alicorn has politely asked that I not respond to her comments, I will reply to yours and speak in general terms:
Autism is marked by inability to pick up on social cues and form relationships that neurotypicals do naturally.
If someone repeatedly gave sincere advice on social skills which assumed away such problems, and required constant re-clarification (“just get out of the house”, “strike up a conversation with random people”, “meet local people on the internet—I did, it’s not hard”, “just get your friends to introduce you to others”), that, to me, looks like strong advice that the person is not autistic.
Those of you who have seen me post can make your own guesses about my autism status. And, FWIW, when meditating, I’ve never been able to get my inner voice to shut down for more than a few seconds. The best I can do is to replace it with non-thinking thoughts (counting, observing my breathing, etc) and even then only for a short while.
My impression from reading meditation and doing some of it is that shutting down one’s internal monologue is something that happens after a practicing for quite a while. (Months? Years?) It isn’t an initial goal.
It’s not a binary thing, either. One common technique is to be aware of one’s internal monologue without investing emotionally in it or trying to suppress it; (this is described in lots of different language) this tends to reduce its intensity and ubiquity over time.