Prepare to enter the wild and wooly world of an adult with Aspergers Syndrome, a form of autism characterized by intellignce, quirks, social difficulties and downright strange and oddish behaviours.

People with Aspergers generally are high functioning in everyday life but have great difficulty connecting with others due to the inability to read faces, body language and subtle verbal clues. They also tend to take words literally and have a hard time multi-tasking.

Oversensitivity to touch (clothing has to be soft and often the tags removed), light (do not leave home without the sunglasses), sound (loud noises and noisey places are avoided), taste (many Aspies have quite a limited diet and are frequently very picky eaters) and smells makes the everyday existence more of a challenge.

Fasten your seatbelts and come on in...
To find out more about what Aspergers is..please check out my earliest blog entries

Monday, October 11, 2010

The Wear & Tear of Everyday Frustrations


One of the many reasons I blog is in an attempt to portray the differences that some of us with Aspergers face on a day-to-day basis. Dang, we look so normal, but under the surface...Well, you get it...read on
Here is an example of a relatively minor annoyance that shoved me into a state of befuddlement lasting the rest of the evening.
I agreed to "Cook" dinner last night and be the chef...so I asked my partner what she wanted me to pick up from Taco Bell. She told me a "chalupa". So I drive over to the restaurant drive thru and order, the chalupa.
The disembodied voice speaks crass and cold, "beef, chicken or steak?"
Ohh, this isn't on my list. But I can guess pretty good having been with my partner for 16 years now.
"Beef"
"Supreme, Spicy or..mazaratti?" (okay, I made that last word up because my mind had fallen into that familiar blank state where it refuses to acknowledge or take in any information due to mass neurological firings and misfirings. Yeah, missiles going off in all directions...Now What?) This was so not on my list.
Ummmmm...think Murph, think quick before the guy behind you starts yelling for his double mega burrito supremes...I could call her..I have my phone...and how stupid would That look?
"Ok, ummm, forget it...how about 2 bean burritos?" Score one me, I know she likes those.
So, I got my order and then remember that she asked for nachos.....To turn around and place another order? Or endure the wrath of returning home without the beloved nachos? I'll pick the latter...I know her and her probable reaction.
Thus, I returnth and blurt/ state my case before i am even fully in the door. Of course, all is forgiven. And I mull about in the frustration and try and destress the rest of the evening.
I know, I know, no big deal. The average neuro-typical would have griped for a few minutes and moved on. This Aspie had to replay the dramatic scene over and over and over and try and plan a better strategy to deal with it if it were ever to happen again.
These type of small, disquieting incidents throw me off my game and are quite stressful.
Speaking of stress and the neuro-typical...yeah, its one thing to whine and complain about a problem, the better question is what do I do about it? This Neuro-Typ hell? My answer is to try and stay calm and avoid as much interaction with them as is Aspianly possible. I will continue to interact with my friends, and will attempt to keep the stressors at a minimum. I'll see if that can work. I don't have any other answers or ideas.
At some point, I will regain my quiet, calm, predictable little world where my greatest joys are solitude and hugging my sons. Gone will be the phone calls from lawyers, the struggles at normalacy and appearing functional, the daily verbal interactions and subsequent misunderstandings...I long for peace...at some point....at some point