My friend and I have the same set of "disorders", ASD and ADD. Still we're so different. We can both be fascinated by the night sky or a rainbow. We're often in awe when others just don't see it! I feel bad for them, they must feel dead.

But then there are differences. I'm an INTJ and she is an ISFJ. She KEEPS the focus on the world. I don't. She sees every animal at the side of the road when she is driving. She is aware of every sound when walking in the woods. I need to bring myself out for that. My surroundings can become just a background for my thoughts. Still we're both extremely sensitive to change in the environment. They cut down a big tree where we live and no one saw it but us! How can you see a huge tree one day and just a stump the next and think it always looked like that?

My friend has a much better idea of people. She always notice people. For me I can pass them and they are sort of just a shadow to me. She notices everything about them. She know who is who here. I didn't even notice when she cut her hair short.... whoops.

I think attention is always somewhere. It's just about where. And if you or someone else wishes it was pointed in another direction.

I could never drive a car. That would put me in the sensing mode too much and be tiresome. If I would turn inside I would stop seeing the other cars. My friend drives very well. Training and perceptiveness. Because she "shouldn't" be as good of a driver.

Even though my friend is interested in people in a way I'm not and perceptive, she can't listen. After a while she just drifts off. I can keep attention if I listen.