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, June 25, 2018

Food Allergies and Sensitivities, Autism and Me

As I was walking through the farmer's market with my friend, I kept pointing out all the foods that I can't eat. It got me thinking, as the list has grown rather large.
Here's the current list of  not tolerated foods:
Soy
Gluten
Garlic
Eggs!!! (Boy, do I miss scrambled eggs, egg on toast and egg salad. Yikes!!!!)
Non-Organic fruits and vegetables(the chemical Sulfa is frequently sprayed on fruit. Sulfa is my most dangerous allergie as it could kill me, hence the caution.)
Asparagus- causes kidney stones
I guess the list isn't too long. It just encompasses a large variety of foods.
My friend asked me if I ever got bored on such a limited diet.
To the contrary, it makes my life significantly easier. There are less choices for me to stress over. I rather like having a short, specific menu.
I don't care to cook. First off, cooking on the stove requires great concentration and is probably the most dangerous activity. I can't tell you how many times I've been burned or scalded. Sure, they are usually just physically small injuries but I am quite hypersensitive to pain and they pretty much shock and disrupt my system. The less cooking, the better for me.
I don't have much patience. I'm very ADD and the energy it takes to focus is a hardship.
Quite frankly, there are a dozen different things I'd rather be doing than slaving over a stove. Not to mention the ensuing stack of dishes that would need doing.
I like it when my trips to the grocstore are as quick as possible.
This while storing food, figuring out how much I'll eat in a day or two perplexed me.
For some reason I'm unable to stomach foods that have been in the freezer. I don't know if it's because it tastes and looks different or if it's because I have to figure out how to thaw and defrost it.
I seriously do not like sitting at the family dinner table and eating in front of anyone. I don't need anyone to critique my food, my choice of silverware or how and what I eat. Ugh.
Life isn't easy.
Managing food isn't easy.
Finding safe foods is always good.
Not a lot of food truly tastes good to me.
It's just how I am.