Self-checking, how to do it and is it different for Aspies?

[Greatshield17]

My therapist this morning advised that I work more on checking myself throughout the day, and seeing how I’m doing and what psychological needs I may be lacking in.

I’m posting this thread here, both for advice in general but also to know if there’s anything I should look out for as an Aspie; if there is anything unique to Aspies and their need to self-check as opposed to things that are simply my issues. (Such as for example, my tendency to sometimes fall into my bad beliefs of think/worrying that I’m a burden to others.)

 

[Thinx]

No one's come up with anything here so far, and I guess this would differ between Aspies, but maybe what's hard about self checking could be 'blind spots', areas where we are not very aware yet or simply really don't perceive something about ourselves? I can see things about myself in retrospect sometimes that I didn't see at the time.

But checking in with yourself should certainly start to enhance your awareness of yourself and your psychological needs, it's a good idea, and certainly I agree we may forget to do that, and be a bit oblivious of ourselves and our needs.

You could write a few notes too maybe? That might help you retain ideas, and you could review your notes and it may help you think out what to do in relation to any issues you notice?

 

[SusanLR]

Be mindful of eating, sleeping, and exercise habits.
Make notes of things you need to do each day in case you forget.
Also write about emotional feelings that will change throughout the day or night.
This way you can examine what caused the emotion instead of just forgetting about it.

 

[Suzanne]

The only thing I can say, is that when I first heard about aspergers, I started to do a mental check on myself and many times, I was confused. One minute, seem to shout that I am on the spectrum and next, seem to shout that I was not, so getting a formal diagnosis and really helped to clear the way in my brain, as I know longer need to "prove" myself.

In truth, if a therapist told me to do that, I would be completely lost.

 

[Bolletje]

My therapist once advised me to set an alarm every hour to stop what I’m doing for five minutes and think about how I’m feeling, physically and mentally. But I’ll be honest, I struggle with following this. I usually start out setting the alarm, but when it goes off I forget to take a break (because I just want to quickly finish what I’m doing) and I forget to set a new alarm. In theory it could work though.

 

[Greatshield17]

My therapist once advised me to set an alarm every hour to stop what I’m doing for five minutes and think about how I’m feeling, physically and mentally. But I’ll be honest, I struggle with following this. I usually start out setting the alarm, but when it goes off I forget to take a break (because I just want to quickly finish what I’m doing) and I forget to set a new alarm. In theory it could work though.

Right now, I try to do it every time I say the Angelus (6 AM, 12 O’clock, and 6 PM) as well is whenever I meditate; I try to add it into my prayers and meditations, sometimes though it is tempting to just run through them though, but that’s a bad habit with my prayers and meditations in general that I’ve got work on.