Asperger's & Autism Forum

My mother died today and we will be going out of town to her funeral. Funerals have always been very difficult for me and many times I have gotten out of going to funerals just because all the emotion and feelings seemed to really mess with me. I wondered if this was an aspie thing or just me. I don't really like all these feelings. I am always trying to figure out why I do things or respond a certain way.

I remember when the movies Back to the Future were playing and the part about them trying to get back to their time zone, but they needed a part for their machine. I didn't understand why people in the movie had such trouble believing them that they were from a different time zone. I thought their story sounded reasonable. But then I have always been inclined to believe people when they tell me something unless I know they are lying. I thought "Time travel is possible, though unlikely, but it could happen."

My question, did anyone else think it odd that it was such a big deal for those people to believe in time travel or am I truly just weird?
*Fingers crossed. Please be kind.

Based on an online application about 3 weeks ago and an email earlier today, I have a phone interview on Monday 29.10.18 at 15.00.

As I just said in my Blog on here, I think this job might be more suitable than the Post Office job I'm interviewing for next week, because it's easier to get to, and is familiar work, as I've kind of made a career of working in Charity shops for free.

This interview is for a paid position as a Sales Assistant.

There are so many comments (yes, justified) about NT's not understanding us and our thought processes. Shoot, we don't understand a lot of it ourselves. We seem to have this need to understand how our mind works because we know we are different? I know I am very self analytical and is it because I know I'm different? Because we question so much about ourselves?
I noticed we complain a lot about NT's not understanding us, but how well do we understand them? How much time do we take to understand how other people's minds work and think? I don't think like an NT so I can not know how they think. I often ask my daughter in law specific questions about her way of thinking or seeing things and we compare. It's interesting to see the differences.
I'm still thinking about all the different comments on empathy and I'm wondering how much the emotions we're picking up on are from our own discomforts. And how do we know if we're truly feeling what they are feeling if we can't get...

Why is it asking how someone day is without REALLY asking it considered nice and polite? Cant rap my head around this. Is everything based on feeling and people simply disregard sincerity? like people pretending to care about things because its simply thoughtful/considerate and it makes the person feel cared for while you appear kind.. My mother does this constantly.. though she might be a narcissist but with my brain lacking understanding even the basics of social norms ..no way of truly knowing.

Just curious.
I crochet but can not follow patterns and instructions on how to do this stitch or that stitch. I have to figure out my own. I make up my own stiches more or less and make up my own patterns. I hear people say you have to count and I don't know why - I never count, I go by the length I'm wanting.
Other things I'm the same way. Putting things together I'll look at the pictures just to know which steps I need to do first otherwise I'm going to have to take it apart once figuring out I can't put this part together because I was supposed to do it before.
I don't think I ever listened to teachers, but would have to figure it out on my own - unless it was really interesting and then I could listen and then go crazy with it. I think all through school the one thing that I absolutely loved was diagramming sentences and I think for years I probably diagrammed every sentence I came across in my head.
And it's just like learning to drive a stick shift or a motorcycle....

I have been prescribed antipsychotic drugs on and off since I was about 14. I have read some troubling things about it causing high blood sugar which would lead to diabetes and changing brain function. I will say this, my agitation was at 100% before I started taking it. Now it is about at 20%, I can actually go outside my front door and go to the mailbox without any paranoid feeling. Before I started back on the med I would start ranting about angry subjects to my family members like ever night. I thought it was going to put my relationship with loved ones in jeopardy. Now, I'm like a different person. Is there a way to be unmedicated and keep my paranoia at bay? Any natural remedies or cleaner drugs you have had experience with?

On a whim, I decided to take a drive to the Philadelphia International Airport where I know they would be hiring shuttle bus drivers. I've driven shuttle buses before and I know I can do it safely. I last drove one in the spring and summer of 2017 before losing my DOT medical card for health reasons. However, I am 80 pounds lighter and don't have the health issues. I have a healthy blood pressure, and while my blood sugar is a little higher than I would like, it is still below the threshold for medication so I shouldn't have a problem qualifying for the card.

I walked in to the shuttle bus office, asked if they were hiring drivers, and they literally asked, "Do you have a CDL with passenger endorsement? When do you want to start?" Normally this would send up a red flag but driving jobs are so high in demand that it was exactly what I was hoping for. So I asked if I could drive the shuttle bus that operates on the airport tarmac. It runs a specially defined route that is clearly...

Yesterday I started work on the script for the next Autistamatic video on the subject of empathy within autism. It's always struck me that the accepted ideas of autism suggest we lack empathy yet so many of us consider ourselves to have a deep sense of empathy with others.
What I thought was going to be a simple topic turned out to be far more layered and complex than I originally thought. I try to keep my YouTube videos quite short - between 10 and 15 minutes - but this topic has already expanded to at least two videos so I thought I'd throw it open to the community to see what your opinions and feelings are on the subject.
How do you feel about your own sense of empathy? Do you feel lacking or do you feel it is one of your strengths? Do you think the common perception is accurate or misleading?
Obviously any responses will be anonymous. No names or screen names will ever be mentioned, but if you are particularly eloquent I may want to quote your observations in which case I will...

I was diagnosed with high functioning autism when I was at least a toddler, and all my life I've had an unusually active imagination. A part of expressing this imagination for me has been retreating into the imaginary world inside of my head and re-enacting what was going on in there. I often do this as a way to cope with stress, boredom, or other complicated emotions I don't know how to respond to. However, this often results in me talking to myself out loud or being less attentive of myself and my surroundings. I find that it's constantly interfering with both my social and professional life. I want to find a way to stop or replace this behavior but I don't know how. Does anyone else here experience the same thing, and if so, what do you do about it? Ideas?