How does asperger affect you?

[alien girl]

some people have severe sensory issues, but not so bad at making friends, and some the other way around. some have horrible meltdowns that create havoc in their lives. what are you affected by the most?

my sensory issues are rather mild, not like an nt, but still. my rage attacks under control. my worst issue is keeping relationships. human contact exhausts me in ways even other aspies cant understand. it's hard labor, lol. ten minutes is good enough. after that it's roots canal without navocaine.

 

[King_Oni]

Over time I've noticed that sensory issues and such have subsided a bit, perhaps I just was in a bad place at the time. Though it took me a while, I suppose I also managed to set up my life to keep potential meltdowns at bay. So at the moment I'm living a relatively good life I suppose without much aspie issues.

What might be my main issue, and that's the one that has been probably a biggie in my life. My brain just does not operate the way most information is provided and works for others. It's why school never really worked for me and found my own ways to study. It's why I, aside from not being much a teamplayer (which might, or might not be AS related), I can't work with other people; I just can't stick to their approach; I need my own approach and method.

So maybe that, at the moment, and perhaps with an outlook on the future, is my big aspie issue; my brain is really, really, really wired differently when it comes to information processing.

As for being social, keeping relationships; I don't know if I do worse than anyone not on the spectrum. And even if I do, I'm not even sure if it's because of my AS. By now I can say I'm quite the character and I don't mix in with everyone. I guess I'm a refined flavor, lol.

 

[Kari Suttle]

some people have severe sensory issues, but not so bad at making friends, and some the other way around. some have horrible meltdowns that create havoc in their lives. what are you affected by the most?

my sensory issues are rather mild, not like an nt, but still. my rage attacks under control. my worst issue is keeping relationships. human contact exhausts me in ways even other aspies cant understand. it's hard labor, lol. ten minutes is good enough. after that it's roots canal without navocaine.

My sensory issues are fairly mild as well. My only bad point is hearing - i'm pretty hypersensitive to it. When i first started my current job, all the chaotic noise would give me anxiety attacks. I had to adjust by learning to focus on the customer in front of me as much as possible. I can't tune the noise out but i can hyperfocus really well when i want to so i used that to my advantage. My one big annoyance is that although as a girl and fairly well adjusted i can't read people very well. Some customers and serious-type supervisors I can't read at all and gets to me. With customers it can be embarrassing and lead to misunderstandings because i stand there asking for clarification all while trying to maintain my customer service persona. With supervisors i just assume they don't like me if i can't read them very well and it gets me down. But then i end up very motivated to prove myself and be better so they will like me and i'll be an employee they can call useful and needed.

I can manage human contact and keep up small talk in small doses but anything constant or more than that exhausts me like nothing else does. I end up hiding in my room with music blasting through headphones after work all the time. Its like i've reached my quota of human contact and gone beyond it and need time to recuperate and get back to square one.

 

[Judge]

some people have severe sensory issues, but not so bad at making friends, and some the other way around. some have horrible meltdowns that create havoc in their lives. what are you affected by the most?

my sensory issues are rather mild, not like an nt, but still. my rage attacks under control. my worst issue is keeping relationships. human contact exhausts me in ways even other aspies cant understand. it's hard labor, lol. ten minutes is good enough. after that it's roots canal without navocaine.

I spend so much time alone these days it has me pondering that you and I may not be so apart in our autism.

 

[Ste11aeres]

Relatively mild sensory issues, deep-rooted difficulty in regards to being around other people, and definitely in regards to making friendship, no meltdowns, powerful, powerful obsessiveness.

 

[alien girl]

My sensory issues are fairly mild as well. My only bad point is hearing - i'm pretty hypersensitive to it. When i first started my current job, all the chaotic noise would give me anxiety attacks. I had to adjust by learning to focus on the customer in front of me as much as possible. I can't tune the noise out but i can hyperfocus really well when i want to so i used that to my advantage. My one big annoyance is that although as a girl and fairly well adjusted i can't read people very well. Some customers and serious-type supervisors I can't read at all and gets to me. With customers it can be embarrassing and lead to misunderstandings because i stand there asking for clarification all while trying to maintain my customer service persona. With supervisors i just assume they don't like me if i can't read them very well and it gets me down. But then i end up very motivated to prove myself and be better so they will like me and i'll be an employee they can call useful and needed.

I can manage human contact and keep up small talk in small doses but anything constant or more than that exhausts me like nothing else does. I end up hiding in my room with music blasting through headphones after work all the time. Its like i've reached my quota of human contact and gone beyond it and need time to recuperate and get back to square one.

i realy understand how you feel

 

[grapesicles]

Communicating can be challenging, like picking up 'signals' - non-verbal communication in general is an impossibility for me. Making friends and socialising is especially difficult, compared to how others seem to do it. Despite this I somehow have a couple of friends, which I'm very grateful for, but it is always a struggle to socialise normally and exhausting to keep on the 'NT mask' with most people!

Sensory issues, including textures (fabrics in particular) and bright lights/loud noises. Strange that the strong dislike of textures is so hard to explain - there isn't a reason, I just really don't like them! I've mentioned this on here before, but I can't stand anything with buttons, collars or most synthetic fabrics. Luckily I can modify clothing myself, and put a lot of effort into how I dress in order to fully avoid things about clothing that I hate.

My only 'obsession' is my favourite animal (rabbits) - all other obsessions come and go over time, but are still very much consuming.

 

[Judge]

I've sort of thought it was strange that while I dislike harsh lighting of any kind, I prefer "cool" lighting to "soft" lighting. Usually making shopping for light bulbs that much more frustrating since soft lights can be found so easily compared to cool lights . Even in the major home improvement stores they seem to always be very lean on their cool light inventories.

The "jaundiced" look of soft lighting....just makes me ill at times indoors.

 

[King_Oni]

Light sensitivity is a thing for me as well, though, I don't know if that's an AS thing by definition; suppose could fall under the sensory isues umbrella.

Not a fan of bright lights, nor daylight. Shades during the day and minimal lights, often even just colored neons at home.

For years I'd just down painkillers for headaches without really knowing why I had all these headaches; light seemed to be the culprit for most part.

 

[Judge]

Not a fan of bright lights, nor daylight. Shades during the day and minimal lights, often even just colored neons at home.

Yeah. Not necessarily indoors, but I keep my shades in the car at all times. Only way I can make sure not to get caught without them. In the harsh sunlight here it's just too easy to get a headache from all that glare. And prolonged squinting hurts too.

 

[King_Oni]

Yeah. Not necessarily indoors, but I keep my shades in the car at all times. Only way I can make sure not to get caught without them. In the harsh sunlight here it's just too easy to get a headache from all that glare. And prolonged squinting hurts too.

Yeah, indoors I can usually do without, but then again, most people don't utilize stadiumlight brightness indoors, lol.

The few times I wore shades indoors were when I just felt a bit strung out and might've been more for comfort as well. Though indoors I usually take em off.

Another thing that helped me greatly with wearing shades; protecting my eyes from the wind. Often a breeze hurts my eyes, so having some kind of protection greatly helps me there. Obviously, at nights wearing shades is a bit harder, but at least I'm not squinting like Gilbert Gottfried because of both the light and the wind.

get a headache from all that glare.

Watching JJ Abrams movies must be a pain then, lol

 

[Judge]

Watching JJ Abrams movies must be a pain then, lol

LOL...don't even get me started! But truthfully I felt a little relieved hearing that Abrams himself finally admitted to overdoing that horizontal lens flare effect. Mercy, that so sucked!

 

[Cali Cat]

I have mild to severe sensory issues depending on which sense is being affected. On the mild side is textures, tastes and smells. I have moderate sensitivity to harsh or florescent lighting. I have severe sensitivity to noise. It's not so much about loud sounds necessarily (though some loud sounds freak me out), because I can enjoy loud music sometimes. It's more about chaotic noise. I hate being in crowds like at parties where music is playing and people are talking. I start feeling "woozie," like I'm going to pass out or something. Its like everything is blending together and I can't function. It's hard to explain.

My biggest problems resulting from ASD are people-related. Like others have mentioned, being around other people tires me out. It's like people are psychic vampires to me.

To a slightly lesser degree, I'm negatively affected by the need for routine, ritual and the familiar in general. Ever since I was a kid, I've had a routine to get me by. I'd rarely ever spend the night at a friend's house because they didn't have the same routines and rituals. It's very hard for me to take on new things if it requires a change in my routine. When I have to change, it takes a fair amount of time for me to adjust. I feel this has held me back in several areas of life, primarily in work and relationships.

 

[photoaddict]

Sensory stuff is really hard for me. My auditory processing is crap. Sometimes I hear everything, even stuff most people can't, other times, I might as well be deaf. And I have no control over which way my hearing is at a given time. Hearing everything is overwhelming, hearing nothing is beyond embarrassing when trying to spend time with people who don't know or understand. I'm photosensitive, but that's easy for me to control with hats and sunglasses. I don't generally have trouble inside, unless I'm in certain types of lighting and a hat usually helps there because the light is overhead. My oral and tactile stuff is easier to hide, so the general public doesn't know about them, but they limit what I can eat and drive me to touch everything.

I'm not great at making friends, but I'm not horrible, either. It just takes a lot of effort and I have to be aware of my tendencies that can annoy or drive people away to keep those in check. I've managed to maintain some friendships for quite some time. It's making friends in the first place that's hard for me.

I have really severe anxiety that can cause trouble for me. Most of the time, I don't have a problem at all, but if something sets it off, it's really hard. I learned a long time ago to fight against it, or I'd never leave my house. The more I face it, the less trouble I have, in general.

I stim a LOT. I doubt there's anyone who knows me who isn't aware of it, though most of them wouldn't have a name for it. I was stimming before I was a year old, but my parents didn't know what it was back then, so it's just cute stuff I did. What I do has changed, but it's not any less now than it was then.

 

[apsie]

I've learned to deal with my sensory problems. Extreme overstimulation causes epileptic seizures, I can only accept it and move on.

In short, I can't stand it when things or people make no sense.
I don't expect everyone to be as "intelligent" as I am, but I do expect people to think things trough properly.
Most people don't.
My psychologist tells me its not fair of me, I tell him its not fair of everyone else.
The majority is quite often wrong, because they are a majority and lose they're own thought in the circular thinking of the masses.
There I go lecturing again.

 

[Arlais]

In a word: badly. I have very bad anxiety virtually all of the time, despite having enough drugs to potentially open my own pharmacy.

I cannot leave the house unaccompanied anymore since 'the incident'. I can't sleep without the aid of medication. I dislike eating in general, but I used to have an eating disorder so I try to stay ontop of that.

My short-term memory is diabolical - I've started cooking things on the oven-top, walked out of the room briefly, and completely forgotten about it. I've started 3 separate kitchen fires this year alone, fortunately they were small and easily extinguished.

I'm also always constantly burning myself, cutting my hands on knives, and it takes a good hour for me to peel a couple of potatoes.. which often completely exhausts me, brain-fog descends and I have to retreat to bed to recover.

I have no friends and no social life and do my utmost to avoid social interaction with people I don't know because it's just more stress.

Also, I have auditory processing problems which are incredibly distracting.

But there's still so much awesome stuff about life that doesn't suck so it's a fair trade-off.

 

[AsheSkyler]

Sensory issues, definitely the sensory issues are the worst part for me. I have to be careful with strong smells like cleaning chemicals. I'm very sensitive to bright lights and I cannot drive at night, dawn, or dusk even with the aid of sunglasses. I have to be careful about wind and temperature when I first get up. Women's clothing is a whole 'nother nightmare which you may giggle about here. I really hate being touched, especially on my back and stomach. Sometimes I can't control the stuttering, usually when I'm having a bottleneck of information. My short term memory can be iffy at times, and other times I can still give an accurate description to a police sketch artist to look out of the guy that robbed the grocery store I worked at. Loud, chaotic noise is an issue, I don't don't deal with classrooms. Phones are pure evil, I'm usually clueless in regards to disembodied voices and what they're trying to say.

Some say my social skills are affected, I say people just have control issues and need to learn how to entertain themselves instead of making me do it for them. So that one's debatable and depends on your point of view. But I am an introvert, so I get exhausted with prolonged socializing. If I have a good reserve up, I can spend a full week on a camp out or something without needed to recharge, but I'll be close to spent by the time I'm done.

Other than the sensory issues, I have no complaints. Surprisingly, most of my food sensitivities are gone and I have a pretty broad menu now.

 

[grapesicles]

Yeah, indoors I can usually do without, but then again, most people don't utilize stadiumlight brightness indoors, lol.

The few times I wore shades indoors were when I just felt a bit strung out and might've been more for comfort as well. Though indoors I usually take em off.

Another thing that helped me greatly with wearing shades; protecting my eyes from the wind. Often a breeze hurts my eyes, so having some kind of protection greatly helps me there. Obviously, at nights wearing shades is a bit harder, but at least I'm not squinting like Gilbert Gottfried because of both the light and the wind.



Watching JJ Abrams movies must be a pain then, lol

Sunglasses are such a lifesaver for me too! And I feel so cool and fancy walking around in my shades like

 

[Cali Cat]

Women's clothing is a whole 'nother nightmare which you may giggle about here.

Oh, I forgot about that one. That's a big one for me too. I could never work in a place that required the typical feminine attire. I'd be tugging, yanking and pulling all day long, and never get a thing done.

Some say my social skills are affected, I say people just have control issues and need to learn how to entertain themselves instead of making me do it for them.

Ain't it the truth!

 

[clg114]

Yeah. Not necessarily indoors, but I keep my shades in the car at all times. Only way I can make sure not to get caught without them. In the harsh sunlight here it's just too easy to get a headache from all that glare. And prolonged squinting hurts too.

I have very old eyes and have to wear glasses all of time I'm not sleeping. Several years ago I got lenses that get dark in bright light, but are clear indoors. They don't get quite as dark as most sun glasses, but they really help. Since I always wear my glasses, I don't have to try to remember my sun glasses. Just like Tony says "They're Great !".