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I May Be in The Wrong Section But I’m Curious…..

I can wear the same or similar things each week and launder them in the same way. Same process til they're hung and ready to wear for the following week.

Personal hygiene routines are the same for two reasons :
1 - I'm plagued by o c d
2 - I'll forget a step in the process and have to start again.


I very recently walked out of my job. My boss was being a complete dick. An absolute tyrant.
I currently don't need to be anywhere at any time.
I feel lost.
 
At work I used to transport a young adult to specialist college (amongst others) I'm guessing this particular young man was ASD 1 possibly 2.

If I varied the route driven due to traffic congestion, road works, diversions etc, without informing him,
he'd meltdown.
(sometimes temporary road works spring up, ie, emergency utility digs - unable to warn him in advance)

His routine was the route driven to his college.
Poor kid had a crap start to his day if we had to divert unexpectedly.
 
I can't say that I have any specific routines in my personal life. Work,...there is a lot of routine,...for everyone,...so, I am not sure that this necessarily applies to your question.

My wife,...less autistic, more neurotypical,...she loves routine, to the point where if I drive a different direction to the market, she gets quite irritated with me. Of course, I actually do it just to watch her squirm and get upset with me. Oh, the torture. I am too much of an "out-of-the-box" thinker and love to experiment with everything,...so for me to quickly change directions in whatever I am doing is pretty common. My wife has some sense of this after all these years, but will frequently,...at some point during the week, will say, "I thought you would have,..." and I would just look at her like "No", I did it "this way instead". Then I will get the confused look. I sort of love that reaction from her,...again,...mental torture. :p
 
I never take my daily routines for granted. Mostly because I know how alienating life can be when those routines get taken away over so many potential things that are usually beyond our control.

Of course if you have a dynamic job, at least to some extent it may help to get one somewhat used to change on such a frequent basis. Or keep you perpetually stressed. I guess in hindsight I've had to contend with both over many years.
 
Oh my goodness, I simply loathe any type of routine, always have. I do have loads of intentions but I never seem to be able to follow through on those with anything approaching dispatch. I wander through every day based on whims and occasionally a need that becomes so great that to continue to ignore it would seriously disrupt my life. It may be down to the simple fact that I am easily bored and there is nothing more boring to me than routine.
 
Yeah I'm gonna also say that I've got no routine.

It's not just routine that's lacking though, it's more than that. Even my sleep cycle makes no sense. I've got non-24 sleep-wake disorder. Sometimes I'm up during the day and sleeping at night. Somtimes I'm up during the night and sleeping during the day. Sometimes I go to bed at 2 in the afternoon and then get up at 9PM. It's messy and weird but dagnabit it works, even if I've no idea why.

And as for everything else... honestly the only truly routine things are my meals, and the fact that I must have some Mountain Dew at the start of the day to prevent insanity.

Other than that... just chaos. I mean good grief, you should see what happens to a hotel room when I've been in it for more than 2 hours. I'm never quite sure how they end up looking like a bomb went off but they always do.

And that's all fine by me. Routine is boring anyway.
 
Misery said:
Yeah I'm gonna also say that I've got no routine.

It's not just routine that's lacking though, it's more than that. Even my sleep cycle makes no sense. I've got non-24 sleep-wake disorder. Sometimes I'm up during the day and sleeping at night. Somtimes I'm up during the night and sleeping during the day. Sometimes I go to bed at 2 in the afternoon and then get up at 9PM. It's messy and weird but dagnabit it works, even if I've no idea why.

And as for everything else... honestly the only truly routine things are my meals, and the fact that I must have some Mountain Dew at the start of the day to prevent insanity.

Other than that... just chaos. I mean good grief, you should see what happens to a hotel room when I've been in it for more than 2 hours. I'm never quite sure how they end up looking like a bomb went off but they always do.

And that's all fine by me. Routine is boring anyway.
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If it helps, I have two sleeping periods: 2pm to 4 pm and 1am to 7 am ‍:0 So I've got around 9 hours...
Somehow I end up sleeping more in winter.
The moment I sit down in the afternoon, I fall asleep...
 
Outdated said:
Beware of stereotypes, they seriously do not work for autistics. :)
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@Chameleon In Recovery

Be aware that all Autistic people have different tendencies, we all experience it slightly differently, or very differently

For some people (myself included), I have a tendency toward routine, in my previous job I would catch the same traffic light at the same time for ten years, I could have told you what exact time would get me to work on time... I'm pretty sure most people are not like that... And then I would get mild stress when I caught that traffic light later than usual, even by one cycle... And would get slightly concerned, but it still got me to work on time...
 
Now that I'm retired, I hate routine because it bores me. The only extremely regular event in my life is food. I need to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner on a regular basis or else I get hypoglycemic and "hangry". If I'm grumpy, I probably need to eat something. I wake up by about 5:00 every morning, take a rest or short nap after lunch every day, and am usually sound asleep by 9:00 pm.
 
I'm envious of all the people here who can function without a routine (or semi-function for all you chaos embracers!)

I'm firmly in camp "needs a routine to function" I need my routine which I've created and built on over the years, otherwise I just get...lost.

Mary Terry said:
The only extremely regular event in my life is food. I need to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner on a regular basis or else I get hypoglycemic and "hangry".
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Hello, fellow hypoglycemia sufferer! I don't have diabetes, I just need to stick rigidly to a food routine.
 
I have a few simple daily routines that I enjoy such as a morning cup of coffee, and my two different cups of tea, all three at designated times. When I worked at my job before working from home, I simply had to leave at the exact same time on my lunch hour to take an hour long speed walk around the area to recharge/reset enough to get through the next half of the workday.

For me those routines are important, but also the adverse reactions I've had to upsets in my routines is not as much about the routines being altered as it is the unwelcome surprises that can randomly arise. Yes the unwelcome surprises upset routines, but my issue can be far more about the unwelcome surprises.

Fictitious example: I mention how back when I worked at my job how important my daily walk routine was. If my boss were to have popped his/her head into my office an hour before my lunch and said: "I need you to stay here for your lunch hour and speak for that entire hour to a group of people in the conference room about a topic I'll give you now."

^Yes, I would be disappointed that my walk routine would be compromised that day, but...I'd be more upset, 1,000 times more upset about springing something MAJOR on me with virtually no notice.
 
Mary Terry said:
Now that I'm retired, I hate routine because it bores me. The only extremely regular event in my life is food. I need to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner on a regular basis or else I get hypoglycemic and "hangry". If I'm grumpy, I probably need to eat something. I wake up by about 5:00 every morning, take a rest or short nap after lunch every day, and am usually sound asleep by 9:00 pm.
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Sounds lovely!
 
Something’s I am very organized in and need routine . Some I don’t care at all about . so many things I let go because I don’t feel like doing them.
I Only have a certain amount of energy, for the greater good of my special interests, other things must suffer .
 
Chameleon In Recovery said:
I have consistently been the most inconsistent person I know. Granted , this could be due to a lifetime of masking or the untreated ADD… but I’m curious : How many of you are consistent with your routines and goals every day? I keep reading how us autistics NEED & love routine. While I’m extraordinarily disappointed when I can’t follow through on things, I can’t seem to last more than a couple of months with a steady goal or routine. Sometimes only days lol. I definitely feel like less of a failure when I do things each day .. for example: my intention is to make my bed & open my blinds every morning right when I wake up ..plus some others) but some days I can’t even make my bed or open the blinds. & yes it does throw off my whole program. I do this with special interests as well. The only thing I have done consistent every day of the year is feed and care for my cat lol.
Maybe that’s the point ? I wonder if I take autistic traits & keypoints a little too literally. Curious how it is for you guys so I can get some perspective.

PS- you all make me so happy. Thank you for accepting me here. I admire so many of you already & think you’re cool AF. Keep being you.
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I appreciate your question. I cannot thrive without routine; I wake around the same time, and eat roughly the same things for breakfast. In general my mornings consist of waking, eating, practicing, and perhaps some light chores which must be completed by a certain time.

Although as much as I thrive on schedules/routine, I cannot stand being rushed to complete things, and I cannot stand mundane routine (for example, like when I was working retail and had the 'daily grind' and no personal time). I dislike strongly things that are 'up in the air' and especially anticipation---it completely drains my spoons. Granted, I've had a lot of time to adjust and learn about my partners, whose ADHD has at times been very...stressful to work around. Especially doing things last-minute before, say, leaving on a trip someplace.

An example of when anticipation becomes too much: "company will be over! They're about two hours away."

"All right, what time will they be here?"

"No idea." :/ It's been an hour or so, and sometimes company won't even keep contact in the time being and state where they are. My anxiety doubles at this point and I star to enter shut-down mode. I feel a pressure in my forehead and sinuses and I'm just not the same person til the interaction is over with. These physical things have always happened to me.
 
I guess l do suffer from routines of newness. Like having to get things done and giving them a semblance of habit otherwise l will recoil at change. So l will schedule the happenstance erratic errand at a time l feel is feasible and then sit back and be happy it's done. It's working it in and acting like it's a progressive step to accomplishing it. It's a whole ritual on to itself. The more l have control over it, the higher chance it will get done.
 
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