I talk frequently here at the new RJsCorner about my deafness and autism. Many of the posts are about how I deal with all the obstacles that are a result of those two conditions. For this post I am talking about one of my superpowers that wouldn’t exist without both my deafness and my autism.
That superpower is when I am In The Zone.
When I am in the zone I can tune out the rest of the world and focus on one thing. Everything else melts away. It doesn’t matter how much noise there is around me, I don’t lose my focus. It doesn’t matter what is going on around me, that disappears.
In The Zone is a very productive place to be. I ended my corporate years in the cubicle mode. That is with four foot tall walls. I loved my cubicle.
- Others complained about hearing everything around them.
- Not me.
- Others complained that they would lose their train of thought by all the distractions.
- Not me.
My concentration was total. That allowed me to be extremely productive. They called me “The Database Wizard” during those years. I was valued and appreciated. I could spend hours totally focused on one task without interruptions. I couldn’t do that if I weren’t a deaf Aspie.
RJ's Corner 
I can totally understand that! I have a really, really hard time concentrating if there are people talking, a TV on, music with words (singing), etc. Totally distractible, I am. So on that front, you really do have a super power by my estimation.
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That’s what I am telling you, Laurel, A SUPERPOWER… 🥸
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I was diagnosed with a 70 – 80 percent hearing loss when I was a child and have relied in lip reading to supplement spoken language. It turns out most people mistake my lip reading for eye contact which is just as well, as I dislike eye contact.
However, I’m very sensitive to changes in sound, so I do notice everything from someone starting a conversation several tables away at a restaurant to an electrical appliance developing a fault even before it otherwise becomes apparent. I certainly would not have been able to function in an open office environment. In many respects that ability to detect changes in sound became one of my superpowers. I was an engineer with a multinational I.T. company and gained a reputation for identifying potential faults in computing equipment long before they became apparent simply by hearing the sound being emitted.
On the other hand, I am distracted when the wife slightly overloads the washing machine or operates the vacuum cleaner with an almost full dust bag. I simply cannot ignore the change in sound. I find it irritating and the wife picks up on my irritation even if I try to suppress it. And if a lighting fixture develops a hum or buzz, I simply have to fix it or be totally distracted by the sound.
But I agree that the ability to concentrate on a task is an autistic advantage. I certainly have no concept of the passage of time when working on something of interest. Perseverance most definitely is a superpower that many, perhaps most autistic people have.
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