SchrodingersMeerkat
trash mammal
I've never really been able to withstand heat. Even in winter I always wanted to have the AC on. After I turned 18 and my mother was no longer worried about family services taking me away, she let me dress however I wanted. I wore shorts in sub zero Ohio winter for years; but that really had nothing to do with the heat.
It was because if something touched my knees when they were unbent, I felt like I was going to pass out. No doctor was willing to take me seriously as a child because they kept saying it was due to the autism and in my younger days.
My father never cared how I dressed, as long as I was modest. One day, in third grade the teacher tells us to wear pants to school the next day becuase there's going to be a big Ohio winter storm or something. I asked her what would happen if someone wore shorts. Mostly I was just curious but this particular teacher took things way too personally. She asked, "Why? Are you planning to wear them?"
In my head I was like, "Lady, I ALWAYS want to wear shorts and since you put the idea in my head, I probably will now." Seriously, she should have just said, "Well, I think they will be very cold. I hope everyone has a pair of warm pants they can wear tomorrow." And maybe wonder if the child doesn't have proper winter clothes due to poverty. But no, this lady took it as a personal challenge.
The next day, my mom had to go to work early and my dad worked nights. Like I said, as long as I was covered, he could careless how I went to school. He had severe PTSD from serving in Vietnam and self medicated by drinking.
Maybe he was drunk that morning? Anyway, I put on some shorts and say goodbye to my dad and get on the bus. I didn't notice until I got off the school bus that they were ripped down the back. You could clearly see my underpants and I had several boy bullies who would have loved that sort of thing for two reasons. One to amuse their tiny, perverted minds and two, as fodder to humiliate me.
So I take off my coat and wrap it around my butt. I told the teacher and she sends me to the office. I am SCREAMING there is a huge, giant HOLE in them....that exposes my butt. I may not have even had underpants on either because I often did not wear them if my mother wasn't around to enforce me putting them on in the first place. I found the waistbands painful. But no, the teacher assumes I'm screaming because of the cold or so my mother told me years later.
I do not remember being even a little bit cold that day. But my mother told me the teacher tried to call family services on her. She did not like my mother. But at the time my mother was quite a pushover. She never did anything physically mean to me, but I possibly have PTSD from her emotional abuse. I found her on Facebook a few years ago and called her out. Never heard back from her; but I didn't expect her too.
Anyway, once I turned 18 and was legally my own person, my mother let me dress however I wanted as long as it was appropriate. There was only an issue when we went to church. Luckily, my mom let me wear blue jeans which were really the only kind of fabric I could tolerate. I tried on my brother's old karate uniform when my parents wanted me to take it so bad and I couldn't move due to the fabric touching my knees.
My parents just yelled at me for being uncooperative or stubborn. I'm beginning to wonder if all the aches and pains my parents got as they got older is truly old age or karma. They now believe me too about all the pain and sensitivity I had as a child. My mother no longer forces me to try stuff on. If she sees something she thinks I will like (which I usually do) she asks me if I would like to try it on. If she buys me clothes, it's always T-shirts with Rocket Racoon (find him relatable on so many levels...except my "Groot" did not come back) or meerkats on them.
Anyway, is sensitivity to heat and intolerance to cold something common to autism? I notice that it's the cold most people can't take. My dad could be on the sun and still complain about being cold. I do get cold once in a while, but never a bone chilling cold, and I can always warm myself up in a few minutes. However, cooling myself down takes longer and it doesn't take much to make me get hot. Weirdly, I don't seem to ever get fevers.
It was because if something touched my knees when they were unbent, I felt like I was going to pass out. No doctor was willing to take me seriously as a child because they kept saying it was due to the autism and in my younger days.
My father never cared how I dressed, as long as I was modest. One day, in third grade the teacher tells us to wear pants to school the next day becuase there's going to be a big Ohio winter storm or something. I asked her what would happen if someone wore shorts. Mostly I was just curious but this particular teacher took things way too personally. She asked, "Why? Are you planning to wear them?"
In my head I was like, "Lady, I ALWAYS want to wear shorts and since you put the idea in my head, I probably will now." Seriously, she should have just said, "Well, I think they will be very cold. I hope everyone has a pair of warm pants they can wear tomorrow." And maybe wonder if the child doesn't have proper winter clothes due to poverty. But no, this lady took it as a personal challenge.
The next day, my mom had to go to work early and my dad worked nights. Like I said, as long as I was covered, he could careless how I went to school. He had severe PTSD from serving in Vietnam and self medicated by drinking.
Maybe he was drunk that morning? Anyway, I put on some shorts and say goodbye to my dad and get on the bus. I didn't notice until I got off the school bus that they were ripped down the back. You could clearly see my underpants and I had several boy bullies who would have loved that sort of thing for two reasons. One to amuse their tiny, perverted minds and two, as fodder to humiliate me.
So I take off my coat and wrap it around my butt. I told the teacher and she sends me to the office. I am SCREAMING there is a huge, giant HOLE in them....that exposes my butt. I may not have even had underpants on either because I often did not wear them if my mother wasn't around to enforce me putting them on in the first place. I found the waistbands painful. But no, the teacher assumes I'm screaming because of the cold or so my mother told me years later.
I do not remember being even a little bit cold that day. But my mother told me the teacher tried to call family services on her. She did not like my mother. But at the time my mother was quite a pushover. She never did anything physically mean to me, but I possibly have PTSD from her emotional abuse. I found her on Facebook a few years ago and called her out. Never heard back from her; but I didn't expect her too.
Anyway, once I turned 18 and was legally my own person, my mother let me dress however I wanted as long as it was appropriate. There was only an issue when we went to church. Luckily, my mom let me wear blue jeans which were really the only kind of fabric I could tolerate. I tried on my brother's old karate uniform when my parents wanted me to take it so bad and I couldn't move due to the fabric touching my knees.
My parents just yelled at me for being uncooperative or stubborn. I'm beginning to wonder if all the aches and pains my parents got as they got older is truly old age or karma. They now believe me too about all the pain and sensitivity I had as a child. My mother no longer forces me to try stuff on. If she sees something she thinks I will like (which I usually do) she asks me if I would like to try it on. If she buys me clothes, it's always T-shirts with Rocket Racoon (find him relatable on so many levels...except my "Groot" did not come back) or meerkats on them.
Anyway, is sensitivity to heat and intolerance to cold something common to autism? I notice that it's the cold most people can't take. My dad could be on the sun and still complain about being cold. I do get cold once in a while, but never a bone chilling cold, and I can always warm myself up in a few minutes. However, cooling myself down takes longer and it doesn't take much to make me get hot. Weirdly, I don't seem to ever get fevers.
