Does anyone else take comfort in hiding their head in their hands when stressed? I know it's quite a stark and disconcerting look - because I'm forever being asked if I'm ok when people see me doing it.
No, I'm not ok - but I tell them I'm fine. Don't really have the time to condense 17+ years of discomfort into a response.
I like sitting in a dark room too, so I can only assume it's a sensory thing. A bit like meditation - simply closing your eyes can reduce stressors and make you feel calmer.
At my parents, the room I'm staying in has blackout blinds plus very large blackout curtains which stretch from the the top of the wall near the ceiling, all the way down to the carpet. As such, at any time of the day I can have the room as dark as it would be in at night.
Whenever my mum sees this she asks the same question she has asked all my adult life.
"Do you want me to open the curtains?"
"Don't you want to let some light in?"
"Doesn't that hurt your eyes being in the dark."
No, no and no.
Thing is, people are often creatures of habit. Perhaps none more-so than people with ASD. As such, why do I keep getting asked the same questions time after time? I mask my replies in an attempt to stay civil. Because being asked the same question hundreds of times does wear your patience a little thin. Sometimes the reply will be snappy and I get the old favourite line:
"There's no need to shout/be upset."
That's a sure-fire way of taking my normal levels of irritability into the stratosphere. Sometimes I'm thankful for how well I'd mask. Otherwise I think I'd have little to no friends, and wouldn't be able to hold down a job for very long at all.
I guess this is also why my noise cancelling headphones are so helpful at work - if I'm hearing noises, voices or conversations that start to trigger me - I can minimise that stressor by listening to music.
Perhaps this is why I snack constantly at work and stim all the time whilst I'm uncomfortably made to sit in a chair at a desk. I guess I'm either trying to reduce one of my senses impact on my mental wellbeing, or using another sense to try and distract myself from stressors - such as the overeating or physical stimming.
Ed
No, I'm not ok - but I tell them I'm fine. Don't really have the time to condense 17+ years of discomfort into a response.
I like sitting in a dark room too, so I can only assume it's a sensory thing. A bit like meditation - simply closing your eyes can reduce stressors and make you feel calmer.
At my parents, the room I'm staying in has blackout blinds plus very large blackout curtains which stretch from the the top of the wall near the ceiling, all the way down to the carpet. As such, at any time of the day I can have the room as dark as it would be in at night.
Whenever my mum sees this she asks the same question she has asked all my adult life.
"Do you want me to open the curtains?"
"Don't you want to let some light in?"
"Doesn't that hurt your eyes being in the dark."
No, no and no.
Thing is, people are often creatures of habit. Perhaps none more-so than people with ASD. As such, why do I keep getting asked the same questions time after time? I mask my replies in an attempt to stay civil. Because being asked the same question hundreds of times does wear your patience a little thin. Sometimes the reply will be snappy and I get the old favourite line:
"There's no need to shout/be upset."
That's a sure-fire way of taking my normal levels of irritability into the stratosphere. Sometimes I'm thankful for how well I'd mask. Otherwise I think I'd have little to no friends, and wouldn't be able to hold down a job for very long at all.
I guess this is also why my noise cancelling headphones are so helpful at work - if I'm hearing noises, voices or conversations that start to trigger me - I can minimise that stressor by listening to music.
Perhaps this is why I snack constantly at work and stim all the time whilst I'm uncomfortably made to sit in a chair at a desk. I guess I'm either trying to reduce one of my senses impact on my mental wellbeing, or using another sense to try and distract myself from stressors - such as the overeating or physical stimming.
Ed
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