Asperger's & Autism Forum

I can only see the young woman after over an hour of people pointing out the old woman. Is this an autistic thing? It seems strange to me.

Karen Swallow Prior

I just recently have now started to usually sleep by putting all my blankets except for my blankets in a pile at the end of my bed, resting one of my pillows against that pile, keeping the other one where it is.

I rest my head on the pillow that is on the pile, and my feet on the only thing normal about how I sleep: the pillow that is not on the pile.

Ironically, I sleep more comfortably than my parents would expect if they actually saw me sleep like this. Then they'll know why my bed is always messed up and unmade 100% of the time. I actually sleep better now that I've started doing this. I sleep longer and wake up much less in the middle of the night than I used to.

I am currently close to 5 foot 10 (or maybe there already), so I also usually end up having to take up the entire bed. I am 15, so I am still going to grow for a while before I stop. Lol.

Does anybody else have a weird sleeping position, or have an otherwise weird sleep preference?

For those of you who have been in this situation:
How did you know you had gotten to the point where you could no longer work (as much)?

I have ‘high functioning’ (I don’t really like the term) autism and work part time. I find that I think about work all the time. It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up. Sometimes I have nightmares about it. I’m tired a lot. I’ve given up other things I used to do in my time off: volunteering, hobby's, reading, the little bit of social life. Sometimes I can’t sleep and I’ve been losing weight. My husband says he’s worried. I can’t focus on other things anymore.

(My job is not very autism friendly. It’s loud and chaotic and there are many social interactions.)

I think that maybe I can’t handle (this type of) work at the moment and maybe I need to ask to work fewer hours.
But I struggle to admit that I cannot.do.this.

So I guess what I’m asking is..
How do you know you got to the point where it was better to work less or stop working?...

I do not know if I am just having so many issues because I am overly stressed, but things are getting worse and not better as I age. I think I recall a discussion like this before. I tried to search it on here, but I could not find it. I hope if I am repeating a recent discussion y'all will forgive me and be patient. You will be old yourself one day if you hang in there. While it is true that stress is messing me up, I think it is my autism that is causing me to not be able to handle the stresses I used to be able to handle. I feel like I have become a different person. I keep having stress break downs or over loads that leave me worse each time. Can anyone of you older people relate this this? And you younger people who may be having stress over loads that seen to get worse each time and leave you more vulnerable to more frequent stress overloads. I hope this made sense.

Does high functioning mean good at masking? Reading some of the articles about the behavioral therapy just makes me want to ask that question. It's like the general population thinks autism is a behavioral problem and if they can fix that, we're cured? Like the struggles we have internally is not important, only the behavior.
Actually, I was diagnosed by a psychiatrist at a behavioral health place and his intent was to help me be able to do things I struggle with doing - and, to be honest - I just don't want to do. No one can change what's going on inside our head so I guess the only way to FIX us is to teach us to be someone else that doesn't match who we are inside. I spent over 50 years having no choice but to leave my comfort zone. Did it help me expand my comfort zone? No. It was never any easier. Every day I had to go to work, go to functions with the kids, talk to strangers (kids friends parents), etc, etc. Every day I had to leave my comfort zone and on the...

This may be a strange question to some and maybe not others but I've only come to terms, acceptance and acknowledgement of my autism within the last 3 years. Its feels like the more I look into autism and really start to understand it, I am noticing things about myself I didn't before. It feels like all my life I've been conditioned to not act the way I've wanted to and needed to and now i get urges to stim, make noises and the thought of me being autistic never leaves my mind. Everything i do, i doubt myself and i think am i making up stuff in my head and am I doing things I dont need to. I'm so scared to stim infront of anyone that when in public or even around my family I dont do it but on my own or walking yo the shop and back I tend to show so much more traits than i do normally. I just feel like it's a part of me I've hidden for so long and now i just want to Express myself but it makes me doubt if I'm just making it all up in my head. Does anyone feel this way or have any...

I don't want to confuse anyone, when I say Methea I mean the name you all know as 'Medea'. Medea is wrong however. The name is Methea, with 'th' as in 'the' in English. Since the English language happens to have the sound 'th', I never understood why Greek names with that sound had to be translated as 'd' in English. Anyway, I will explain the real story of Methea that the mainstream media either has wrong or has never bothered to put it right because the fake story 'sells' more.

So Methea writen by Eurepethes (also 'th' instead of 'd') as a drama play version, borrowed and changed by the original story as told by ancient Greek historians, was the princess in her father's kingdom Colhitha. Methea was practising magic that she had been taught by her aunt, the famous mystic, Circe as everyone knows. When Jason went to Methea's kingdom, Methea fell in love with him and decided to help him in his campaign by stealing the golden fleece and illegally leaving with Jason and his men. She...

So just wondering if anyone could offer me some advice? I'm "pre-diagnosis" at the moment (although self diagnosis pretty much points at ASD/Aspergers).

I currently work in a call centre for car insurance customer service where I've been now for around 18 months. It's only since I've been here that it's really "helped" me highlight the difficulties I have as opposed to someone who is NT.

I quite often find myself "overwhelmed" (I guess in spectrum terms more accurately might be "overstimulated") with fluorescent lights, staring at a computer screen all day, background noise from other call handlers, customers talking at me through the headset, and general stresses of the job.

Ive had it mentioned to me a couple of times recently about how what I'm doing in terms of work may not be in line with where it should be, but until I have an official diagnosis I don't even have that to refer to in terms of explaining to people why I do what I do/in the time I do it in - I quite often...

When I work in the city I ride the train to work. On the way home I saw a woman with a dog and I quickly wondered if dogs are allowed on the train. Anyhow when she stood up I took notice that she was completely blind. Her dog led her onto the train and into a vacation seat. It was apparent she was 100% blind as she felt her way on and reached toward the seat. I had an immediate feeling of sorrow. I began to think how much I enjoy my sight since I’m a visual learner . I would prefer to keep my Autism opposed to being blind.

What are your thoughts?

About a couple days ago or maybe last week I started a lemonade diet, in place of soda. I'm drinking Minute Maid brand lemonade and I've actually liked it a lot, it's really good. Now, keep in mind this is the change to lemonade from literally a near-decade of soda intake, with water intake being few and far between. I DO drink water but not as much as I should.

I don't know if it's because my body is getting used to having something healthy in its system after so long or what, but recently, I've had the irrefutable urge to just sleep the day away. I get up, relieve myself in the bathroom, eat, and then fall back out. My stepfather doesn't seem to like this at all, and I don't blame him; while my folks don't expect me to be active all the time they do want me to help out around the place, so this is a huge obstacle I need to get rid of.

Is it actually something serious that's wrong with me? Or is it just my body getting used to being healthy? I read that lemonade kills (or just...