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when doctor asked how do I do things

Pats

Pats

Well-Known Member
V.I.P Member
I think I now understand what the doctor was looking at when he asked me how I brush my teeth. He just asked me to demonstrate it for him, so I just kind of briefly went through the steps. Had he picked another example, it might have struck me. I mean, brushing your teeth - there's not a lot of variety, right?

Anyhow I was just peeling a banana for a banana sandwich and somehow the banana got turned around and I had to really think about what to do next. It suddenly was just not right. Well, I did manage to get it peeled, but it made me realize that I did have to do things the same way. Banana sandwich - I get out what I need in order - miracle whip then peanut butter, then the bread, then the banana. I put the peanut butter on first, on the piece of bread on the right (has to be done this way). then the miracle whip on the left bread. Then peel the banana, slice it long and thin - lay it curved upward along the bottom, then then next slice, then the smaller slice has 2 thin pieces along the top, which is my cutting guide.
I have specific ways for all my sandwiches.

Or like taking a shower, if I accidently get my steps messed up I don't know and have to think what I'm doing next.

I think this is one of the reasons I always was quicker at my job as a nurse - the steps. First step was to gather everything I need, plus if I know I might need a spare (like iv's, I'm going to have an extra needle or two and different sizes - older people and iv drug users it can be hard to find a vein). So while other nurses are having to make 2 or 3 or 4 trips to get what they need as they need it, I didn't - time saved. But it never made sense to me that they didn't have what they would need to begin with, but NEVER.
 
There are a lot of things that I like to do a certain way or have a certain way. I can't explain it except to say that it makes me happy when it's right and bugs me when it isn't. When it isn't right, I can choose to ignore it - I know myself well enough to know that my thoughts will move on to other things within a few seconds.
 
Pats
I can get OCD about how a sandwich goes together. It's like a flow, it goes better if the same goes on the right, and the same thing on the left side. But l brush my teeth in any order. I think the sandwich will taste better if you do the peanut butter first on the right side. It's spectrum logic, but don't bother explaining this to the doctor, because they don't teach this in medical school. If we have a order for important things like food, it translates that our life is focused and together. It makes us feel secure with order in a chaotic universe. Really- it's Zen of peanut butter!!
 
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I've heard about this teethbrushing 'test', I don't get what it is for, but I always thought it had to do with the amount of detail an autistic person might go into in demonstrating it, or perhaps not knowing where to start or where to start the activity and when to finish, or having difficulty with the order of events, leaving bits out, or perhaps not being able to imagine the presence of a washbasin, toothbrush and toothpaste - or even finding the whole thing absurd and illogical and not wanting to do it. I think that if I did it, my difficulty would be not knowing where the activity starts and ends, and imagining every step and making sure I miss no stage out. I think that NTs would be more likely to vaguely show the action of brushing the teeth without worrying about what to include in the activity, or including all the details such as washing and drying face afterwards, washing away the toothpaste from the washbasin.

As for wanting to alsways do things in a certain order, well, there isn't much scope for variation in an activity such as brushing teeth. There's a logical order, I mean, no one is going to brush their teeth before putting the toothpaste on the toothbrush, for example. To my mind there's a logical order, or optimal/most efficient order to everything, and I tend to stick to that when I've found it. But there are other activities that could come in any order, for example, when to shower, when to eat, when to shop or do other chores - most people are ok with switching some of these things around, showering later on in the day, for example. I really hate it when, for some reason, I can't shower in the morning and have to do it later on, it really knocks me off kilter for the rest of the day.
 
Oh, banana peeling. I never really thought about how specific it has to be. I always open it from the side with the 'tail' and get a bit frustrated if it breaks and squishes banana tissue on my fingers and I have to use my nails to open it, from the other side this time - and I hate having banana peel under my nails... Huh.

And sandwiches, yeah, I agree. When I'm making toasties, I always put the specific size of the bread on the plate, ketchup on one side, put the bread together to make ketchup smear onto the other side, then two slices of cheese and ham in the middle. If I put it differently, it just feels 'off' and doesn't taste as it should.

Same way over and over, huh?
 
Yeah, this sort of thing can be kinda funky. I have some things where I must do it in exactly the right way every time. It must be done PROPERLY or I'll tear it apart and do it again.

But then there's other things where, well... imagine a car, right, that's been smashed up, and in order to fix it you duct tape pieces back on and then hit it with a hammer randomly for awhile and call it "done". Yeah, that's how I am about alot of things. Even fixing computers, though I dont let anyone know that when I've been asked to do so. What they dont know wont get yelled back at me later. Oddly the fixes always work anyway. I try not to question it.
 
I have my routines as well. Always soap before shampoo. As to brushing my teeth I don't really have a set way to do it.
 
Aspychata said:
Pats
I can get OCD about how a sandwich goes together. It's like a flow, it goes better if the same goes on the right, and the same thing on the left side. But l brush my teeth in any order. I think the sandwich will taste better if you do the peanut butter first on the right side. It's spectrum logic, but don't bother explaining this to the doctor, because they don't teach this in medical school. If we have a order for important things like food, it translates that our life is focused and together. It makes us feel secure with order in a chaotic universe. Really- it's Zen of peanut butter!!
Click to expand...

Wait, there are people who DON'T think a sandwich tastes different depending on how it's layered?
 
The important *stuff* has to be the sandwich top layer or you belong to the other school, bottom layer. It's just a thing, can't really explain it. Showers only clean you if you take at nite because it washes on the daytime dirt, unless you belong to the morning shower school who probably bottom layer peanut butter.
 
Aspychata said:
The important *stuff* has to be the sandwich top layer or you belong to the other school, bottom layer. It's just a thing, can't really explain it. Showers only clean you if you take at nite because it washes on the daytime dirt, unless you belong to the morning shower school who probably bottom layer peanut butter.
Click to expand...

But which end of the egg do you crack?
 
Aspychata said:
The important *stuff* has to be the sandwich top layer or you belong to the other school, bottom layer. It's just a thing, can't really explain it. Showers only clean you if you take at nite because it washes on the daytime dirt, unless you belong to the morning shower school who probably bottom layer peanut butter.
Click to expand...
hmmm. I'm a bottom layer peanut butter and the important stuff goes on the bottom - that would include any protein (peanut butter, meat, eggs). Luckily that's how hamburgers come. :) But I do, when I lay my hamburger down, lay it upside down so when I pick it up it's top up. :)
 
Aspychata said:
Why? Is there a female and male egg end? Lol
Click to expand...

Just a Gulliver’s Travels reference. In it, there is a country waging a war over which end to crack an egg:

“It is allowed on all hands, that the primitive way of breaking eggs before we eat them, was upon the larger end: but his present Majesty's grandfather, while he was a boy, going to eat an egg, and breaking it according to the ancient practice, happened to cut one of his fingers. Whereupon the Emperor his father published an edict, commanding all his subjects, upon great penalties, to break the smaller end of their eggs.The people so highly resented this law, that our Histories tell us there have been six rebellions raised on that account, wherein one Emperor lost his life, and another his crown.”
 
I just had 3 large bananas today. Now I'm craving more after this detailed description. :neutral: Where's my do not click, banana warning?
 
Pats said:
hmmm. I'm a bottom layer peanut butter and the important stuff goes on the bottom - that would include any protein (peanut butter, meat, eggs). Luckily that's how hamburgers come. :) But I do, when I lay my hamburger down, lay it upside down so when I pick it up it's top up. :)
Click to expand...

CHEESEburger (how do people eat burgers without cheese?) Is built this way:

If using mayo or miracle whip (MW preferred) it goes on the bottom bun. Then the burger, with melted cheese. Dill pickles (no other pickles) get stuck in the cheese, then ketchup. Onion on top of that, then tomato.

Ingredients may be omitted but never switched around.

Of course, I like various and assorted restaurant burgers, with things like jalepenos and chipolte mayo...but if making them myself, it's as above.

I crack the middle of the egg first. What kind of heathen cracks the END of an egg?
 
SDRSpark said:
CHEESEburger (how do people eat burgers without cheese?) Is built this way:
If using mayo or miracle whip (MW preferred) it goes on the bottom bun. Then the burger, with melted cheese. Dill pickles (no other pickles) get stuck in the cheese, then ketchup. Onion on top of that, then tomato.

Ingredients may be omitted but never switched around.

Of course, I like various and assorted restaurant burgers, with things like jalepenos and chipolte mayo...but if making them myself, it's as above.

I crack the middle of the egg first. What kind of heathen cracks the END of an egg?
Click to expand...

Exactly- mayo has to be on the bottom even on a vegan burger. And l need all the condiments of course.
 
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