My son and I read that happy people who don't let stress get to them live longer and my son is a very good comedian, but even still my blood pressure goes up.
I have the reputation of being cold, stone sober at work when things go bad. If only people knew. One of our executives is amazing, and most would think the stress never gets to him, but it does. He has told me. DW leads a BU of a publicly traded firm and just gets hammered at work - it gets to her, too. It gets to everyone. I work out 4-6 times a week. DW plays tennis. Anything to get your mind off work or worry is one way to deal with it. Another way to deal with it is to face the issues - sometimes DW wakes up worrying and then just gets up and goes in to work - at 2 AM!
I definitely have OE and know I am on the Autism spectrum somewhere. I also know that I have compensated in many ways. I've read a lot of books on emotions and social interaction trying to understand others because I was blind to much this growing up. Something just filters it out and still does. it is not that I don't care - I just cannot sense it. it is like not having heat receptors in your fingertips - you get burned!
Many, many high performing adults have self-treated themselves in some way. For kids who are "labelled" - they get the treatment NOW rather than having to wait half their lives to get it done. It is like braces for the soul!!! Its gotta happen sooner or later so get it over with!
Here is my take. This filter makes me good at high pressure situations because I do not pick up others' fear. I can then focus on the issue and get others to focus as well. In addition, my OE on some things, and my auto-compensation means that I can control myself better than NDs because I have faced panic most every day growing up. I can automatically operate while scared to death.
Another point to make is that because I lived with fear a lot, I can empathize with others who are in fear, now that I know what it looks like in ND people, and due to how I felt I was left out growing up, I am sensitive to others being left out, too.
Temple Grandin makes this point. And it is High Irony that an Aspie is telling the world to accept all kinds of minds - to be tolerant and empathetic.
http://www.ted.com/talks/temple_grandin_the_world_needs_all_kinds_of_minds.html
