Monthly Archives: April 2012

04/30/12

Angel (@MindRetrofit) to “I Wish I didn’t have Asperger’s” #AutismPositivity2012 Flash Blog

The driving force behind this post is here please go have a look at the many voices who shed light on Autism Positivity.

To “I Wish I Didn’t Have Aspergers”

 

My heart calls out to you my friend – I call you friend because I already feel a connection. The search words speak volumes, and had I been diagnosed years ago I may have typed the very same words myself.

Only a few years ago I was praying for my son to be healed from autism. It was a confusing, lonely, and desperate time. The tears well up in my eyes right now because the most painful part was that I had not seen the amazing beauty that was flowing through my child’s eyes. He has taught me much more about life than any philosopher, or religious figure. He played a key role in helping me accept myself.

If it was not for him I may still be condemning myself for not being “normal.” Attacking myself in droves seeking answers to “Just fix my brain!” My son’s autism has brought healing that I am fairly certain would not have happened had our eyes never been opened to autism.

I am not denying the challenges. We have them and they are great. We share in sensory issues, social issues, anxiety issues, and eating issues to mention a few. All of those things can be very difficult and hard to handle on some days, but the positives can outweigh the negatives. My son is gifted with numbers; he has an amazing engineering, and musical mind. He sees things with a unique and intriguing perspective. He loves intensely – not necessarily people. :-) He has passion and is hilariously witty!

When I think of you “I Wish I Didn’t Have Aspergers” I wonder about your talents. I would love to hear about your special interests and see where they could take you. My own special interests connect to many things. I love and have a great respect for words. I see connections through science and spirituality flowing into colors and numbers, creating poetry and songs. I hear the silence of the moon that reaches down to all of us who look upon it and share in its loveliness.

I say to you that you are not alone! We share in connection with the sky. If you feel alone, seek out those of us who share in your interests. Seek out those who share the reality of our pains from past and present. Seek out those who are older and have wisdom. Seek out those who are younger and can challenge you. Do not seek to wish that you would no longer be who you are.

There are days when it can seem bleak regarding autism. It feels like no one understands. That is not true. Many of us are sharing our voices and we are sharing them for ourselves, for parents and caregivers who do not know where to turn, and for people like you. We know the feeling even if some of us have never wished our Asperger’s to go, we empathize with the struggle to live in this world surrounded while drenched in loneliness and misunderstandings. We may not have wished it away because we didn’t know what it was, but possibly we did wish to fit in and to be/feel “normal.”

Personally, discovering a name for why I feel and do the things I do has been a relief, and a blessing. The way I think gives me great insight to my children. Each day I accept more and more of myself the good and the bad – with the knowledge of my challenges I am able to move forward. With the allowance of seeking my special interests I am healing from past hurts, and the all too confusing life ride that I have been on.

The future looks bright – I believe that one-day autism will be fully accepted and acknowledged into our culture. I do not know when, but the more we know the brighter it looks. The more we understand the more we can develop resources and attitudes to help each other. Also, leading into better helps for those who have different kinds of challenges in the autism community.

The more of us who utilize the resources available and change our minds to accept ourselves the greater the chances are.  I confess I have my days when I cry and wish that my brain would just stop what it is doing, but I then go and read my friends blogs who understand my pain. I read the resources that explain my brain. I write poetry or stories to spill out emotions I do not understand. It brings healing, and it reminds me that I am not alone.

I look at my son and remember not long ago he couldn’t have a conversation with his brother and sister. He now plays with them on a daily basis. He is telling jokes. It wasn’t even crossing my mind that he would tell jokes two years ago. There is hope. Many of us share in similar pains – there are ways to find help in times of desperation. If I were to be able to speak to you directly, I would say:

“You are unique and have so much to contribute through your Asperger’s mind. You have something special that needs to be shared with the world. You matter and are who you are supposed to be. Find people to help you see that, and build you up in it. You do not need many encourages, only ‘real’ ones. Find a place that accepts you and where you can learn how to gain self-awareness and self-acceptance. Do not deny who you are – embrace it. Once you embrace your challenges and your gifts your life will change. You can do it. You are not alone. You are fully capable. Look in the places of hope, not the places of doubt or self-denial. Your voice matters too. Share it! And when the down times come do not fall for the voices that tell you that none of this is true. Go after the autism acceptance community with a vengeance and determination to remember who you are. We will all be here waiting to share and embrace you! Happiness is the understanding that you are not a disease, or defective – you are a remarkable individual who can achieve great things with the right tools, resources, and encouragement. Search upon those things.”

 Autism Positivity

Our positive outlook begins inward. A good thing about our autism is that in our weaknesses we see with much more clarity just how awesome our strengths are. What may be construed as a weakness can be manifested into great strengths. They may hurt deeply, feel overwhelming, cause us to be immobile at times, but if we look at them as a way to grow and challenge ourselves, I think we can find the positives.

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04/29/12

An #AutismPositivity2012 Flash Blog Event

To “I Wish I Didn’t Have Aspergers”

A couple of weeks ago, someone somewhere googled “I Wish I Didn’t Have Aspergers”.  The phrase popped up in a blogging dashboard and struck the blogger as being particularly sad.  She wished she could have answered.

We don’t know who it was.  We don’t know where he/she lives.  We have no idea if he/she found what he/she was looking for in that search.

We do know that search directed that person to a blog.  We do know the searcher clicked on it in an attempt to find what they needed.  And we do know enough about the challenges of autism to know that person is likely not alone in that sentiment.

So, we got to thinking.  What would we say to that person?  What if it was a kid, desperately trying to make it through tough years of intolerance and ignorance?  What if it were a person who might never stumble across the amazing voices speaking for autism acceptance?  What if that person thought himself/herself all alone?  What would we say about the present?  What would we say about the future?  What would we say about happiness?  And hope?

Each of us in the autism community –- self-advocates, parent advocates, friends and family, teachers, health professionals—we would all have different messages for #IWishIDidn’tHaveAspergers.  But likely we would all try to send the message that there is a brighter future and that friendship and support are out there.

We are asking every blogger in the autism community to write a message of positivity to #IWishIDidntHaveAspergers.  So that next time that individual (or another) types that sad statement into Google, he or she will find what they need – support, wisdom, and messages of hope from those who understand.

And – for those of you who do not blog but wish to join in – please post your positivity message to http://autismpositivity.wordpress.com/ or send us an email at autismpositivity@gmail.com

Please join with us on the last day of Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month – April 30th – in a flash blog of autism positivity.

To participate:

  1. Publish your post on April 30th in the following title format:  “[Your Blog] to ‘I Wish I Didn’t Have Aspergers: #AutismPositivity2012”.
  2. Share your post on Twitter and Facebook, using that hashtag.
  3. Add your link to the Autism Positivity website and grab the badge:
  4. Share/reblog this message to your blog, page, etc.

This Autism positivity Flash Blog Event is the brainchild of Thinking About Perspectives, a group of bloggers committed to increasing autism awareness and acceptance via open and respectful dialogue.  We are:  30 Days of Autism, Outrunning the Storm, The Third Glance, Aspie Kid, Flappiness Is, Quirky and Laughing, Life on the Spectrum, Fairy Tale Forgotten, The Aspie Side of Life, and Inner Aspie.

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04/28/12

Um…Not Gonna Do It

I had planned on finishing another post and putting it up, but no. I am coming out of a shutdown and feel like it is not a wise decision to share what feels very exposing. Not today anyway. I think I will wait until after Monday. I had too much fun with my mom and the kids today at the beach. I was feeling down, and my heart has been feeling achy. Some of that has to do with things that I have read. It is a mix of discovering answers, realizing that there are certain things that are definitely not going to change about me, and it is somewhat hard to adjust to. It is not a negative it is adjustment. I have another new book Asperger’s from the Inside Out by Michael John Carley. It looks like a very good read. An Aspie friend of mine read it and she liked it very much.

I am looking forward to reading it.

I am sure it will wake some things in me and bring about new discoveries. In the book 22 Things a Woman with Asperger’s Syndrome Wants Her Partner to Know, I am getting ready to start reading chapter 8 “She only needs one friend…and the winner is, you!” The title alone helps me. I am most certainly going to go through this book in some detail when I am finished and share my personal experiences and how this has helped me. I wish I could shout this from the top of mountains, but since I cannot I will say it here “OMG! GO GET THIS BOOK!” Aspie girls if you can get your partner to read this I think it would be very beneficial. I also recommend reading it yourself. As a matter-of-fact I think parents would benefit as well and could find it a useful tool to help their Aspie girls find the right type of person to date – if they feel like dating.

It has given me so much clarity.

Several of the things mentioned in the book have been deemed as negative in my life. It made me feel such guilt and at times wishing that I were just “normal.” The confirmation by another person that it is not just me, and that they are not negatives is life changing. I am not making things up, or completely absurd – it’s my brain! Oh, thank you God! It still makes me kind of sad though because I want so much to make others happy, but I realize I have to walk in my own skin. If I am going to truly accept myself, I have to make changes that will help me. It confirms that the directions that I am taking in my life are the right ones. I do understand my needs more than I thought I did. I have gained more of my voice, and am able to walk a little more sturdy in my own shoes. Am I rambling? Am I being evasive? Sorry.

So yeah, the book rocks.

I can apply many things in this book to friendships as well because I see numerous parallels. I have had few friends and I am not good at keeping them. The ones that I still have in my “real” life are NT’s who have not given up on me. I do not have many, but I have a few who come after me when I have been silent for too long. (Even though they are mostly online now I have had them in the “real” world as friends. :-) ) They make sure I know that they are still there and they check on me, try to encourage me, and remind me that they love me. I get pumped up and excited when I am encouraging them though. I end up talking to them about all of the things they are doing or want to do and my enthusiasm tends to get them super stoked and I see them start to step out a bit more. I love that!

It is über awesome to see people thrive in their gifts!

I cannot tell you how happy that makes me. People sometimes don’t believe me, but it is true. That is who I am. I got distracted thinking about my one friend who has started a cake/candy business. I am all smiles now and forgot what I was going to write. Um…Oh, yes, yes. I remember I got kind of sad the other day reading this post Devoted but Dateless. It put into perspective the challenges that single mom’s with special needs children feel. I felt sad for her not in a pity way she is not looking for that, it is the sadness that so many people need companionship.

We all need it and so few are willing to do the work for it.

It made me think about how people can find those of us with special needs and our children to be too much work. That can get me onto a whole series of rants that I am not going to go into. However, I will say I have my own feelings of being a burden and too much work for people so I think it taps into those emotions. Hence, the reason I am not going to write about it. I am not going to go off on a tangent. :-) Speaking of relationships/companionship, I think this connects to my train of thought Pity, Respect, and the We/She Dynamic. At least it did in my mind. HA! I also read these and thought they were very good.

Theory of Mind and Mindfulness

Body Images

I have Aspergers – Part 1: Who I am

I have Aspergers – Part 2: Getting the diagnosis

I have Aspergers – Part 3: Life after an autism diagnosis

Back to Rudy Simone’s book “22 Things.”

I am trailing full circle in my thoughts. I REALLY like how the book is clear, direct, and short in each chapter. No fluff talk! And how she shares a short blurb “Partner’s Words” at the end of each chapter. I think it is so wonderful to read positive words from partners. I loved this one the best so far.

“If you’ve dated mainly NT women in the past, you may have some habits that need to be unlearned. With NT women you have to think of a second layer underneath what they’re talking about and thinking, and do a little ‘dodge and weave.’ An AS woman is merely blunt and there’s less tact involved. Don’t look for the subtext or the game. It isn’t there.”

~ Rudy Simone’s book 22 Things a Woman with Asperger’s Syndrome Wants Her Partner to Know

YES! This helps me to understand some girls who are friends as well. (No wonder they are shocked by some of the things I say. Lol!)


 

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04/26/12

Going For A Top Ten List

I feel the need to keep me light today, but I feel like I need to write. My vulnerability is trying to take hold of me and cause me to feel fear. I am doing a frontal attack! With the hope of helping myself, I am writing a list of things that have caused people to love me, leave me, enjoy me, or can’t stand me! Why? Because even though some people may not like these things, it is me. I do know that some people love these things about me and I need to remind myself that the way I think is a good thing. It also helps me see that I tend to have a lot of fun in life. Even when I am working through emotional things, or feeling exposed.

Top ten things that have caused people to love me, leave me, enjoy me, or can’t stand me!

10. Connecting details as a person talks.

For instance, say someone mentions the movie Se7en. While speaking to me about the deep philosophical truths that ring through the movie, I go down several paths. Here we go — Brad Pitt, discussing his entire film history and my personal feelings toward his acting. I find it to feel all the same except in 12 Monkey’s which happens to be a favorite role to date, second running Fight Club, third running Meet Joe Black. (There are other movies as well, but these roles I like him best I believe.)

Still I have a hard time getting past the commonality of his acting throughout each role. I am not saying he is good or bad, only the same in comparison to the roles and acting of Kevin Spacey. When looking at the two I see character embodiment more so in Kevin Spacey. This attracts me to him and his movies more so than Brad Pitt.  Morgan Freemon I find feels the same in his characters as well, but I enjoy him very much on the Science Channel Through the Wormhole. Again, I am not saying anyone is superior or is insufficient in their acting. My preference is Kevin Spacey.

This leads into the little amount I know about their personal lives. I was very confused by Brad Pitt’s choice of women throughout the years — this topic will definitely come up if one mentions the movie Se7en. Why, because he dated Gwyneth Paltrow. It pops open the questions. I will not go into all of my detailed thinking, but will say I am an Angelina Jolie fan because she is so intriguing and has a very interesting life history. I am not drawn to all of her movies, but I appreciate the more vulnerable roles she has played one being Gia. This then, leading into a conversation about Kevin Spacey being so private, I just enjoy his life style.

I obviously kept this short, but you can image how someone could get frustrated or excited talking to me just by bringing up a simple movie. Eventually, I would lead back into the philosophical truths — expelling into another round of wonders and connections linking poetry, songs, philosophers, spirituality, and whatever else that popped into my head. Of course, ending in song and dance, if I had not already been doing that throughout the conversation. :-) (To add a little more detail, I would have gone into other ventures by connecting other actors in different movies with them such as Anthony Hopkins, as well as music since Gwyneth is married to Chris Martin of Cold Play, who reminds me of the pastor at the positive church we had been going to… I’ll stop now.)

9. Making up random silly lyrics to the tune of songs.

Like the time a radio guy who was doing his show at a place a of business that I worked at, was very rude to me and accused me of hanging up on him when his phone had actually been connected to his fax somehow. Every time I picked up the phone, I heard the sound of a loud fax machine in my ear screeching, so I hung up. He did not apologize after he discovered that I am NOT a liar, or a DUMB girl. So I made up this song to “Hot Blooded – Foreigner”

Mike Boyle yelled at me,

he’s got a temper of 103,

he tried to make cry can’t you see,

He’s hot tempered, hot tempered

Um….yeah, those types of things. I had a whole song, but I cannot remember it all now. I do this all the time it makes me laugh. However, it can annoy my fellow humans.

8. Separating my food so that it does not touch and eating one thing at a time.

One must eat the least favored first. Let me clarify that I do not do with with all foods, it is contingent on look, taste, texture, and smell. As well as how they will look, feel, and taste if mixed together. (Telling people to stop eating so loudly will go under this one.)

7. Saying exactly what I am thinking with no explanation.

This could be things like in the middle of a conversation about global warming I clap and jump up and down while saying: “I love the way the iPad screen looks when it is shiny and clean.” I am listening to the other person, really I am. I see no need for an explanation because the statement is clear, right?

6. Doing what I call the “spastic butt dance.”

I tend to do this anywhere or when someone is trying to tell me something serious. When the urge comes to do a spastic butt dance one has no control. Oh, and add clapping, jumping up and down, doing ballet spins, and laughing loudly. :-) Yikes!

5. Mimicking hip-hop girl’s dances or Hispanic salsa overemphasized hip action.

This can kind of get on people’s nerves. Do you see a common theme? I am an out-of-control silly dancer and cannot seem to keep my moves in check. I will say that despite people’s frustrations with my uncontrollable moves they still laugh. However, it can get annoying with me asking; “Do you like my moves?” repeatedly. David came up with a statement I cannot remember where it came from, but I think he started it about the third year of our marriage after I asked for the thousandth time he said: “Yes, and we are all very impressed.”

4. Acting like a cat.

That seems to bother people.

3. Saying things like:

Oh, so you do like me, good to know.” Or “Oh, so you don’t like me, good to know.” and walking away. The proper etiquette is to pretend that you do not like the person when you do, and to pretend that you do like the person when you don’t. I will apply in my number three this as well. People do not like it when you say things like: “OH, I like you!” or “I DO NOT like you at all!” Especially, when you are in your early to late 30′s.

Reminder: Do not say what you are feeling and pretend as if you feel the opposite. Good to know, I will not remember and I can pretty much guarantee that I will not pretend anything. If I like you I like you, if I don’t I don’t it is usually nothing personal it has to do with personality compatibility. I hope I am not coming across as rude — I really enjoy all types of people. There are just a few that do not work well with my personality and vice versa. My issue is that I do not know how to “pretend” being compatible — other people seem to be able to do this.

2. Staring at someone with no expression.

I have been able to send people reeling with this one. Not even on purpose! I admit I have used it to my advantage on occasions. My way of getting back at people for being mean to me. Shh! Then, there are other times when I think my expression is very clear on my face, but no one knows. Oh, well.

1. Asking people a million questions.

Making people feel like they should be a walking web browser or Evi. I waited all my life for Evi. :-) My mom got so frustrated with me as a child with my constant questions and connections. Her token answer became: “Go look it up in the Encyclopedia.” Also add “dictionary”, and “We’ll go to the library so you can get some books.” We were frequent library groupies it was our hang out when we moved back to the states when I was little. It was one of our entertainments when she became a single parent. It didn’t cost anything, and I wasn’t allowed to talk much, (like that stopped me) but it gave mom a short break. It was a marvelous time for the both of us — it was something we both had in common and enjoyed. In defense of my mom, I am a tenacious question asker. :-)

Well that is it. I have many more, but I think I did well at keeping it to 10. Yea, me! Feeling better already.

Side Note: (added 5/1/2012) It did not occur to me to explain why I chose Evi over Siri until just a moment ago. Frankly, there is only one reason – I like saying “Evi” in my head it sounds pretty. Siri does not. Sorry Siri.


 

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04/25/12

A Bit Of My Meltdown History

I used to be a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan, I guess I still am I just have not listened to much of their music in a long time. Back in the day, I had frequent explosive meltdowns. Their music helped me to scream, sing, shout, and dance to get some of my “rageness” out. One of their songs that I had a deep kinship with was Bullet with Butterfly Wings. Part of the lyrics are “Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage“. (It’s a bit hard and angry if you have not heard it before, you have been warned.)

I would hold in all of my pain, confusion, anxiety, fears, and desperation until I exploded. I now understand that many other factors contributed to this as well. My sensory issues, lack of sleep, lack of food, people in my life constantly being unpredictable, and/or messing with my routines on purpose. My rages were birthed from desperately longing for peace and calm. This rage was normally directed inwardly and promoted mental self-attacks and/ or self-harm. Part of the reason for inward destructive behavior had to do with my inability to describe and explain what was wrong.

I could not gather my thoughts.

I did not understand my emotions. I had no way of explaining to someone why I was upset. I was unable to express myself clearly. When I did attempt to explain myself I was not heard. I was constantly told that I was being childish, overreacting, or somehow what I was feeling did not matter compared to what the other person was feeling. Not only that I was told things like I was just being jealous, I was too insecure, and/or I was too needy.

I felt trapped by my own words. If I used them it caused people frustration, if I didn’t use them people got angry/hurt and read me wrong. Many times all I needed was a simple, honest, and direct explanation. If I do not get that, it feels like the person is hiding something from me or deliberately trying to deceive me. It gets my Sherlock mind going and I start evaluating every single detail, combing over words, information, actions, connecting this and that until I come to a conclusion.

My conclusions were correct many times, but I was convinced otherwise.

This disconnect of knowing something is correct in my psyche and being convinced that what I know is wrong, caused tremendous meltdowns. I have not always been correct in my assumptions, but I was correct about them not being forthright and completely honest in my way of thinking. To them they saw no problems with their white lies, or “keeping” certain things from me. But I knew, I could feel it. I could tell that their words did not match or their “fluff” words made no sense to me.

I hate fluff words! The silly dance of flattery, mixed with digs, or trying to read between the meanings to know that they were “correcting” me in a polite way caused me many upsets. It would cast me into a million questions and cause everyone to get frustrated. It caused me even more frustration because after hours of finally getting to the root, I found it plain idiotic to waste so much time on nonsense when it could have been all cleared up within minutes with honesty and directness.

I would try to control the bottled up emotions for as long as possible.

Eventually they would manifest, through tears, violent rampages on things in the house, or myself, sometimes the person if they pushed my limits or were violent toward me. Something would burst inside my brain and words I had no control over spewed out of my mouth, anger poured out from all the confusion. Fear and the feeling of being attacked caused me to go into self-preservation mode. After the meltdown settled, which usually consisted of me being beyond exhausted, feeling like I had been in a wrestling match with Rowdy Roddy Piper, I would cry. The consuming feelings of guilt and shame took over and every time I would vow never do that again. I had guilt for being destructive with objects, or with my words.

I felt shame for saying things that I never meant, or for harming myself in some way. I was a self-harmer starting from childhood. I would shutdown and lose my words when I was upset, then I would act out and infuriate my mom. She had a terrible temper — it calmed in later years, but I was afraid to talk to her some days. I know that some of this was my misguided perceptions of her words. I had that mixed with her temper that I was constantly trying to stop from erupting. She too was controlling her meltdowns in the outside world — home was a safe place to erupt. Not that it was right, it only now makes sense because I understand all of her stress and anxieties she had.

I am jumping ahead now.

I did not learn how to control them other than hide them. I learned to hold them in until I could find a safe place to let them out by myself. I ached to stop these meltdowns. I thought that by becoming a Christian it would help me love so much that I would no longer have meltdowns. This goes back to my initial prayers of begging God to fix my brain. That led into additional layers of unnecessary guilt/shame for about 14 years.

My thoughts caused me to feel like not only was I failing at being a “nice” human being, I was also failing at being a “loving Christian.” This made it all too clear to me that I would never be acceptable unto the God. And if God won’t love me whole else will? My views about God have changed a great deal. Stripping off the façade image of what others try to claim Him to be has helped me in many ways with guilt and shame. It has been a slow process, but that is what I do. Slow and steady baby! I was not consciously thinking these things, but I see it clearly, as I write.

This is ALL faulty thinking.

It is not true. I did realize that prayer journaling helped me stay in control of many emotions. I have journaled since I learned to write as a child. I was even scribbling way before I could write actual words. I can look back now and see the times when I stopped writing I seemed to have the worst meltdowns/shutdowns. There were times when I did not feel safe enough to write because others would steal my journals, or mock me for the things I had written. I was afraid to share my heart anyway, but most certainly in writing because as my mom puts it “Once it’s in writing that’s it now they can find it. It’s out there, and there is nothing you can do to change it.”

She has had terrible experiences with people using her words against her once she wrote them out. So have I, but it is the only form of communication with myself, and others that consistently helps me. I have no better way to communicate my feelings, or thoughts. I realized the other day that the feelings of guilt and shame stem from people making me feel bad and manipulating my emotions to get me to conform to their wishes. Being a person who gets physically ill at hurting another person especially with my words, I am easy prey for people who are emotional abusers and manipulators. Well I used to be, I have learned a lot in this past year.

I still need to stay on guard.

Not out of fear, but out of my gullible heart that wants to love and believe everyone is operating out of pure intentions. See I need to stay on guard because that is not true about all people, though my mind sways into that direction. I have past experiences with understanding to help guide me now. I did not have that before. I think with age, and looking back over my life this past year I have gained a lot of understanding. I see how many of my meltdowns/shutdowns have been triggered by not understanding that people have different ways of communicating.

This is not always the case, sometimes it has been strictly things like too many social encounters, sensory overload, or being tired. When all of those things are at an all time high meltdowns seem to be uncontrollable. Still for years I had no idea that there was a social/verbal/human play rolling on and we are supposed to know when to change into character based on where, and who were are around.

It is constantly changing, and maneuvering through our everyday lives.

It is a breathing living entity that no one knows, but understands is there and you are supposed to follow the rules that have no clear definitive explanations or directives. It is all very confusing — I do not understand why this game has to be played. However, knowing that it is there now has helped me not be so stressed – it doesn’t take away the confusion. :-) I speak in past tense in this post, but I actively work through these things on a daily basis. I have learned much, but the meltdown I had a couple of weeks ago forced me to deal with what caused such an outburst on my part when I have not done something like that in years.

I have some answers and I am processing through them now. Simple answer I was tired, overloaded, emotionally drained, confused by David’s behavior, and my life is changing in some pretty dynamic ways. After thinking about it, it isn’t all that odd that I would need to decompress. I didn’t know how to express myself. I also had been holding on to many things for over eight years, unable to understand my feelings. The more I read about certain struggles from people who are Aspie’s the more these things are making sense. My mind is connecting emotions to words, and sometimes it can be confusing and overwhelming.

Trying to process those things, and daily life can be a bit much — I need to give myself some slack.


 

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04/23/12

Lost Tooth & Got A New Book

Ariel lost her first tooth! She is so excited. She has been waiting and waiting. Daniel has already lost four of his teeth and she was getting pretty bummed. She wanted so much to start becoming a “big girl”. For weeks now her two front teeth have been a little loose finally, the front left one got crazy loose. Giddy with anticipation every day wiggling her tooth with her fingers, (Washing her hands every time before she touched her mouth and then afterwards.) becoming too fixated she decided to use her tongue. We got to see a big smiley face with bulging eyes and a tooth waving randomly throughout a couple of days. Yesterday it was very loose and hanging by a root thread. She wanted it to come out so badly. Calming down enough to have a little after dinner snack of rice cereal, banana, and milk, (She said I had to put all of that.) while I was sitting at the computer, David was cleaning the dishes I heard “Angel! Angel come here!”

Before you go on, you must know I speak of blood and vomit.

Just a warning in case you get woozy from that kind of talk. Don’t worry no one threw-up. I saw David bringing Ariel to me, her mouth full of banana and blood. It was disgusting! GOSH! I despise bananas! Yellow and red mush mixed with the utter terror in my babies eyes felt like a USA Up ALL Night horror flick. I scooped her in my arms, plopped her on the bathroom sink and told her to spit out the banana. Her face looked sickly, I found out today that the banana mush felt like vomit to her and she was having a hard time trying to get it out. She was shaking, and so scared. I got the banana out and David had gotten me a wet cloth to clean it by then. As I cleaned her tooth, I asked her if she was in pain because I did not know why she was shaking and so scared. She told that she was not in pain. I realized that she did not understand why she had blood from her tooth. It was not what she envisioned. Her vision was the tooth popping out and a nice shiny new one popping in. La la la I continued to clean it, wiggling the tooth the whole time, and talking to her about what was happening. Her little tears trickled down her face, but soon came the giggles.

David chimed in explaining more about what was happening as I gently wiggled the tooth out.

She didn’t even know until I lifted it up and said: “Look what I have!” She squealed with delight, and said something like “Wow!” then, examined her tooth. It did not last long because she had to examine herself in the mirror. We wrote out her story today from everything that happened I am going to put it on the home school blog later this week. For the rest of the evening she leaped around in excitement, hand flapping, jumping, running from room to room, explaining how the baby tooth was there, but now it is gone. Also, giving detail about the adult tooth, and its mission to wiggle and squeeze through her gums so she can have a grown-up tooth. All day long, I have heard about the adult tooth. I have been informed that she looks very different now, and that she likes to stick her tongue in the hole. Although it is very important to “drink water and clean out the hole so that no germs will go up there and cause an infection.”

She is our residential ‘WebMD.”

She just might know more about germs than some medical folks might. Hee hee It was all very exciting. The quantity of blood was substantially more than Daniel. However, Daniel pulled his teeth out himself and threw them across the room or in the trash without telling me so maybe he did have the same amount, but it had time to be cleared out before I discovered a missing tooth. She didn’t remember that Daniel did have some blood as well and that is what scared her the most. She didn’t know why she was bleeding. Now she knows and she will be fine when the right tooth to comes out. It is rather loose too. Fun stuff!

Guess what else I am so excited about?

Give up? M’kay…I finally got the book I have been waiting for, 22 Things a Woman with Asperger’s Syndrome Wants Her Partner to Know by Rudy Simone. It seems like a quick read, I am on chapter three jumped ahead to some other chapters and cried. I am going back to chapter three. I knew this book would help me have words and answers that I have needed. It has given me a lot of clarity already only reading these today. I do plan on writing about some of it after I have time to process a bit more. I know that this is a book for partners, but I needed it to help with my self-awareness. David isn’t planning on reading it so I can digest it all and process it as much and long as I like. Another thing I am thinking of is giving my blog a face lift. I am playing around with new looks for now, but I am saying something ahead of time so everyone knows in case you come back and it’s all different. :-)

Jolly Monday to you! (Or Tuesday wherever you are.)

 

 


 

 

 

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04/22/12

Bubble Fan “Almost” Meltdown

I have been trying to work on my meltdown post, but it is too long and I am not able to articulate exactly what I want yet. I need to keep working on it. It is exposing as well so I may be having a problem feeling so open and not realize it. Instead, I have decided to share about Daniel’s amazing job at self-control/ self-help. When Daniel has gotten upset, or gone into meltdown mode he has used me as his source of aggression release. Sometimes it is the house, or toys that he loves which turns into another ordeal. The majority of the time it has been taken out on me. I take responsibility for this to some extent because that is what I taught him to do. In order to protect the house, toys, Ariel and Joshua, and himself I guided him to use me as a punching bag. I did not know what else to do. At the time I would rather him come after me than pound his head against the wall, or destroy the house.

However, now that he is seven this cannot go on.

We have been working on self-help strategies without aggressive behavior for years now. He has progressed a great deal in this area, but there are times when he still is aggressive. A great resource that I found was Managing Meltdowns, (this is a quick read) and on this post Making our Way: Autism Video I have several other links to resources about meltdowns and tantrums. Deborah Lipsky has several resources that help a great deal with meltdowns, I have her book Managing Meltdowns. It is normally when he is overstimulated, and/or unable to verbalize what he is feeling. With his verbal communication and comprehension developing much more, we have been able to stop full-blown meltdowns before they turn into tornadoes bursting through the house. Not always, but much more nowadays. Daniel tries not to be aggressive — he is such a soft-spoken sweetheart that it is always a shock when he erupts. When he was younger, it was all day long, and turned into an everyday part of our life. I was constantly in protection mode for everything, everyone, and for Daniel. Because of this, I have residual anxiety about doing new things, or meeting new people. I do not stop trying new things or meeting new people, I try to prepare for it. He had no other way to communicate until we started occupational and speech therapy.

It can keep me on edge because of my own anxieties.

It can enhance my social confusion, and stress. Our play dates recently have been very good for all of us. I have been doing very well at not trying to explain every single detail of Daniel’s behavior. I have let him play and do his quirks and be himself. This has released both of us from stress. It is good because I have had to focus a little more on Joshua. He has been having confusion, and feelings of being left out. No one is leaving him out, but when he gets tired or overstimulated he has a hard time discerning the other kids’ behaviors. Geez! Where was I? Ok, we went out to play in the front yard on Friday with the neighbors. They had a wonderful array of bubble selections. When I saw the bubble fan, I had a slight panic. I have not let Daniel have a fan in a very long time. I do not know what it does to his brain, but he gets out of control, obsessive, and then very aggressive if the slightest thing goes wrong when he has a fan. Additionally, he was having the anxiety, and excitement of new people and being social. He also tried a Popsicle so add texture, taste, temperature, new food in general to the mix.

I swallowed my anxiety and decided to see how it would go.

He took to the fan right away and did not want to share, but he did and that was impressive. However, he was fixated on it. The kids all had a blast making bubbles all through the yard. I loved watching them play and have so much fun. Impressive things for me was that I had to continue to go in and out of the house to get water, band-aids, put things away, and take little ones potty, whatever else popped up. I left the children in the care of our neighbors! Yes, it may have been for a couple of minutes — a couple of minutes is huge for me! I felt comfortable enough to let Daniel be outside without me for a few minutes. It is amazing that I was able to do that with no fear. Granted I was only a few feet away, but Daniel can get in a load of trouble or harm only a couple of inches from me. :-)   The neighbors are very observant, and keep a close watch on the kids. Everything was fine and dandy until the bubbles started to run out. Daniel was starting to get too possessive of the bubble fan and I said it was time for it to go away.

He started getting angry.

He came toward me asking “Why?” repeatedly. He buried his head into my lap trying to push me over. When I stayed direct, and in control he got upset. He started raising his voice, jumping up and down, and wanting to come after me. I will say that it made a huge difference during this whole situation that the neighbors stayed calm, quiet, and let Daniel and I do what we needed to. I have had people interrupt, say things about him just needing “a whipping”, or that I needed to “nip that in the bud.” Those things do not help at all and it is not beneficial for the parent, or the child — it causes needless additional stress. I stayed calm and told him that if he did not stop he was not going to be able to have the fan ever again. He said: “Ever?” Because the “ever” word is a hard one and is hard to define since it is used often in a generalized context. I said: “I mean ever, as in you will not see it again.” He stopped, I watched his eyes as he processed everything, and about a minute later, he said: “Ok, I need white medicine.”

White medicine is about a 1/4 teaspoon of children’s Tylenol. 

It is a long story how that happened, but it works and he believes it helps him to calm down. He does not get it every time he is like that only during extremely challenging times. However, this was the first time that he asked for it on his own. I usually suggest it at some point before he turns it into his idea. Not this time, it was all his. We went inside got a little white medicine, a cup of ice water, and went back out. He blew bubbles with bubble sticks, and played with the other kids. No meltdown the rest of the night, or the next day. Huge! Another thing I confess I was a little happy that he had a moment in front of them because he usually holds everything in until we get home. It is always frustrating for people to only see “good” behavior because then, they do not believe you when you talk about meltdowns. I do not want him to ever have meltdowns for his sake of course, but I also know that they are inevitable. Today has been a couple on the edge moments.

I think the weather is messing us all up.

I told him how proud I was of him. I gave him details of why I was proud and that he should be proud of himself too. I pointed out all of the positive things that he did, like keeping communication with me, asking me questions when he did not understand, walking away from me instead of coming after me, listening to what I was saying instead of screaming over me, things like that. I didn’t add things like “instead of screaming over me” when talking to him. I stated things simply and in encouraging word form. I showed him my enthusiasm, which helped him feel excited too.

Here are some things I said:

  • You kept talking to me that was great!
  • You asked me questions, wonderful job.
  • You walked away and took a break that was a really good idea.
  • You listened to what mommy was staying, high five!

Those are what he needed to hear.

Adding additional information can take away from the positive and make it feel like he is still being reprimanded even though what is being said is a positive. I know this from experience. People adding things like that negated many positives that were spoken to me. “Oh, Angel you did such a wonderful job on that project even though you took a little longer than needed.” What? Then, it wasn’t a good job, I failed because I took too long! He was very proud of himself and told David about the whole thing later that night. Daniel was all smiles when telling his story about the bubble fan. Of course, he has been thinking about it for days now, but we managed to fill the void of his fan love interest. He was surprised with the arrival of Bronzor a gear Pokémon! He laid with me in bed and told me how much he loved Bronzor. He also informed me that the lovely plushy gear he has devoted his love to has replaced me. It is a good thing I understand such deep object love. iPad where are you?? Oh, sorry I love you PC you are so faithful. :-)

The bubble fan “almost” meltdown was a big moment for Daniel. (And for me too, we had several big moments really.)


 

 

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04/20/12

Tired Ramblings

I feel so fatigued and I am not sure why other than my restless sleep from last week. My body is still trying to catch up. My mind is fatigued too from all of the mental energy I have been using with socializing, trying to keep all of us focused with school, and my house that is a mess, and causing much stress! So today, I am rambling about whatever pops into my head. Like how I really, REALLY like…no love Udi’s Gluten Free Bagels. OMG! Those things are awesome! I haven’t been able to find some tasty gluten-free items like that around here. Until, the last few weeks. We had a nice and lovely Publix open right across the street. (Kind of across the street, ok a major highway that is practically across the street.) It is the most wonderfulest store in the entire world! (I have few to chose from here.) I am not saying that just because both of my sisters work at Publix, and my one sister happens to work at that very one with all of the lovely gluten-free items.

We have not had a store around here with many gluten-free items.

The items that are around here have been ridiculously priced. We have been limited to Amazon bulk buying, and limited items on there as well. I was making many of our items like bread, and pastas, but it started being more expensive so I went for the packaged noodles and bread. I really like many of the products, the kids do not mind so much, but David is not a fan of the gluten-freeness going on around here. He has his gluten-filled stash upstairs — some are down in the pantry. It helps to have it hidden otherwise the questions, my goodness the questions! They do not stop about gluten-free/gluten. What has gluten? Does this have gluten? What is gluten? Why can’t I have gluten? What happens when I have gluten? Why, why, why? Daniel absolutely cannot have gluten, for some reason it shuts down his communication and he goes into what looks like seizures. He does that with milk also.

Ariel and Joshua do not have that problem, I do have to limit their intake.

They go through emotional roller coasters when they have too many gluten-filled products. They also get very lethargic, and drained, sometimes with bellyaches. They are fine with milk. I cannot have gluten (much) or milk. I do not lose my ability to speak, but I do get very sick, moody, tired, and many body aches. Why am I talking about this? Because I was thinking about us moving and I am so excited that there are several restaurants where we are going that have gluten-free menus! Biaggi’s has gluten-free pizza! Pizza! AND Pasta! My eyes are rolling all around in food fantasy. I have not been able to have pizza other than my homemade pizza. It turns out pretty good, (after practicing) but to be able to go and eat pizza from Biaggi’s Yippie!!

AND Cheeseburger in Paradise has gluten-free buns!

Oh, I love those burgers! I am hungry and don’t want to cook tonight, can you tell? I do not normally give such attention to food. One restaurant here just started serving gluten-free buns and pizza, but their food is so-so. Plus I got offended at them for offering 10% or 15% off (I can’t remember) for people who bring in a church bulletin on Sunday. I looked at the sign and asked “What if I am an Atheist?” No one else seems to understand my issue with the injustice, but I am boycotting them on those grounds. :-) I don’t think it’s right for me to get a discount if I go to church, or if someone doesn’t even go to church and they just get a bulletin! I just find so many things wrong with the whole thing. Lol!

All right enough of that.

I have no great insights today. I am very silly, and feel like playing. I have decided that I need a live-in house helper to help me stay organized because no one here is able to help me. I need planograms and I need everyone to follow them. I just cannot keep up by myself. I get overwhelmed and unraveled with the mess that is starting to creep into my clean cubby area of solitude. My computer is the only one faithful at staying organized, and the iPad. Speaking of iPad, yeah I am not getting one (yet). I’ve been debating on an iPod or iPhone. It looks like I will be getting an iPhone since I will be out wandering all over the town and such when we move. People apparently want to get a hold of me and want to hear my voice. Blah! I am sure that it will turn into my new best friend and I will love it dearly, and will get angry at it with its tiny little touch pad driving me nutty and spelling things all wrong! I need a nice sturdy case so when I get angry I can throw it without any worries. I used to be a phone thrower during fits of rage. I broke many of my phones. Poor phones.

I have been working on different types of poems.

I have several Haikus and Cheritas that I have written. That has been fun — I am not ready to share yet. I usually just go all free style because I am so fancy free you know. Hee hee  Maybe that is making me tired too — trying to use a formula for creativity can make me drained. I have enjoyed pushing myself though. We have been learning all about poetry with school this week. They have not felt like writing too many, but we have been talking about the different types, and playing around with rhyming and songs. I think I have rambled long enough. I cannot remember the main reason for me writing this post. I had something to share I thought, but I got sidetracked with all of the gluten-free talk. I will leave with the video I took of the kids this morning. My silly birds! The boys will not let me cut their hair. It made me laugh flopping all about.

 

My Babies Being Birds

Oh, and this. Fun!


 

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04/18/12

You Down With EFD? (Executive Functioning Disorder)

Yeah, you know me… Ok, maybe a lame joke, song reference here. (Old school like “You down with O.P.P” Don’t ask me what it means — I don’t even know. Ha! I like dancing to it.) I love it when I am going through something and all kinds of resources, or other people share and it connects altogether. Last week my friend Lisa discovered resources (one of her other blogs) about Executive Function Disorder. If you would like a quickie visual before reading on I suggest this video (3:10) ADHD and Executive Function. I had been on a trail with seeking information about it, and I understood it to some degree. I had not applied it to a specific situation for myself until I started analyzing my behavior with my new social encounter recently. Let me say first, after my social outings with our neighbors I have not had any anxiety, or social/conversation looping with them. That is huge! I enjoyed myself, and genuinely like them. Bonus! Now comes the part for me to understand the degrees of friendship. :-)

As I read this article Executive functioning and the troubled brain this paragraph popped out.

“Executive functioning, put most simply, is the ability to plan and complete a task. It is a higher cognitive process that involves communication and organization across multiple  brain sites and pathways; it is the interconnecting virtual pathway that brings all aspects of brain functioning together. Executive functioning is involved in planning complex cognitive behaviors and expressing one’s personality. It allows individuals to differentiate among conflicting thoughts and filter out unimportant information; it also helps the individual anticipate future consequences of current activities and work toward a defined goal. And, most important from the judge’s perspective, executive functioning inhibits impulses that could lead to socially unacceptable outcomes.”

When I read this, I realized how much my brain is trying to process.

However, it gets all jumbled and unable to do any of it. This most assuredly happens with unexpected or non-scripted events. My brain does not know what to filter. It cannot determine what the most important thing is and categorize. Everything is important! All of the input matters, especially anything that is odd, or indeterminable. My brain does not know how to let those things go. It is not sure how to filter my surroundings, and/or people. The whole dynamic can trigger anxiety, which causes the executive function to be even more blurred. Then it can rise into faultfinding (normally blaming myself) or protection mode to try to stop the anxiety. In some cases, depending on other factors, I am able to pull out of this and get through the event. It does not stop the brain processing the event. It only delays it until my brain has enough time to catch up. From the 5 Executive Functions described in the video above I will try to explain what is happening in my brain.

I think others may be able to relate.

  1. Inhibit Your Behavior: Simply stated “hold in check, or discourage from spontaneous activity.”
  2. Visual Imagery: Non-verbal working memory. Mental maps to help guide/direct behavior. Hindsight, Foresight, Sense of time.
  3. Talk to Yourself: Verbal working memory that helps with goal setting/problem solving.
  4. Control Our Emotions: The ability to control/moderate strong emotions.
  5. Plan and Problem Solve: “Mental play- the ability to manipulate information in the mind to discover novel combinations that might serve to overcome obstacles.”

All of these things are going on in the mind of any person that we are interacting with. In short-term these actions are taking place in a matter of seconds for a mind that is not hindered by multiple factors. I am only using myself as an example let me share what my brain is also processing while it is trying to use its executive functions:

Anxiety
Sensory input/overload
Social confusion
Word confusion
Tone confusion
Non-verbal confusion
Environment confusion/unfamiliar surroundings
Unknown/unwanted people in safe environments
Lack of positive scripts
Inability to forget negative experiences
Distorted self-talk consuming my mind with trying not to be/do anything wrong
Looking/waiting for an attack (On guard)

These all can contribute to multiple forms of anxieties.

Those came to my mind while going back in time replaying my first conversation with my neighbor. (I am sure there are more.) I was able to suppress all of these things to function at a “normal” level. I have learned to hide most of this, unless I have already had too much stress/anxiety/confusion going on. If I am already stretched thin I can seem very quirky/odd/and speak out of intense emotions. My neurons feel like they are a bunch of bumper cars, hitting the walls of my brain and each other, causing the inability to think, problem solve, or discern very well “on the fly.” What I have learned to do is shutdown.

Stop talking, wait, and observe.

If I am with people where I feel the need to manage their emotions or behaviors it becomes impossible for me to even have my brain focused on myself. If I am with others who are not calm, or cause me high-stress in social situations I have to focus on other people, things, distractions anything that will help me not have a meltdown or explode with emotions. (good or bad) This explains many of my shutdowns in social settings, I have to in order to survive. Hello, conversation loops explained! There are not only conversation loops, but it is a movie that is playing over and over again. Apply full on sensory to the movie, reliving the encounter. This can be for a good experience or a bad experience. My past pattern has been to mostly loop on the negative because I was trying to trace what I did wrong, or try to figure out what a person meant (confusion). Those loops would be all-consuming and take away from positive loops causing me to forget good experiences that I have had.

I need positive scripts to be repeated.

I have plenty — I am talking plenty of negatives scripts that have caused it to be very difficult to trust the good ones. My brain does not allow me to stop what I am doing to let my other functions to guide me into goal directed problem solving. I think this is why I have to write everything down, keep lists, blog! For instance, my neighbor suggesting we do something, but not giving a clear direct day or time was an impossible task for me. I was only able to come up with a day last week because I had been pondering it for about a week already. I had been scripting it for a while, and semi planning for it. If I had been surprised by it I would have gone blank and felt confused, not able to respond…again.

My visuals get jumbled when I do not have a script.

My brain does not seem to have mental maps guiding me into the next direction for social situations. I have mental images, and I seem to get distracted by all of the images filling my mind while a person is talking. My energy goes into trying to discover similarities so I can have some sort of guide to have a conversation. I need connections and similarities because those are my (positive) scripts. I am not sure what to do next in a situation most of the time. I am usually looking to the other person as a guide and I use them to tell me what to do. I mirror unless I feel completely comfortable and safe. The threats of verbal attacks are always lingering. I am constantly waiting to be told that my words/actions were wrong/hurtful/mean/ or rude. It is not the only thing that I am thinking about, but it has been a large part of my self-talk. Although, I have come a long way at stopping this self-talk, it still lingers with each new encounter.

My hindsight can come years later.

My foresight is limited and my sense of time is virtually nonexistent. I need concrete time frames otherwise — I can be filled with anxiety, leading into fears because of anticipation and the unknown. It feeds right into my lack of self-awareness. Some of these fears have been enhanced because of my inability to know myself. The only guides that I had were jaded words, actions, and my own misinterpretations to tell me who I was. I have the ability to self-reflect. I do it throughout this blog. However, I am not attached. I go over it and over it again because I forget who I am! Not entirely, I am getting better with each cycle that I am going through. There are so many things to filter through when I self-reflect that it can take a long time to process. My emotions can take years, in certain situations. Many things play into that as well, detachment would be one that has caused the most hindrance in emotional processing. I have had to detach because emotions have been too confusing, too painful, too overwhelming, too disturbing, and too whatever else you want to add here.

It is hard enough to be consumed by other people’s emotions.

To “feel” people is overwhelming and draining, to try to add feeling, and understanding to my own emotions was devastating at times. I have been working through this, and I am happy with all of my progress. I have faced many of my fears, I still have more, but I am sharing them and working through them. The ginormous awesome difference this time around is that I am gaining so many positive scripts that they are starting to drown out the negative scripts that have been ingrained in my head for all of these years. They started as a child and continued to pile on top each other year after year. It did not help that I was manipulated, and controlled by others, and could be extremely gullible at times.

I gave my trust to people who abused it.

I still had walls and did not give away all of my trust to people, but it was enough to instill fear of being hurt again. As I have been pondering all of this, it occurred to me that Executive Functioning Disorder could tie into lack of self-awareness. Having a faulty system distorts the ability to problem solve and set goals. Many times, it is hard to even reflect inward and seek out self-awareness, how do you even start problem solving things like self-discovery? (Wiki reference self-awareness page) “Moreover, a series of recent studies showed that self-awareness about cognitive processes participates in general intelligence on a par with processing efficiency functions, such as working memory, processing speed, and reasoning.[12]”  I found a basic list of self-awareness (excerpt below) here:

Why is self-awareness important?

Self-awareness is important because when we have a better understanding of ourselves, we are empowered to make changes and to build on our areas of strength as well as identify areas where we would like to make improvements. Self-awareness is often a first step to goal setting.

Examples of self-awareness:

Preferred learning styles
Aptitude for specific career fields
Natural academic ability (athletics, mathematics, English, etc.)
Personality traits (introvert, extrovert, sensitive, judgmental, etc.)
Religious beliefs
Political viewpoints
Values (ethical, with integrity, scrupulous, etc.)

All of these examples in my life have been blurred.

I received no direction, or my natural abilities were not encouraged. If my parents did not understand them, they did not exist. I was left on my own to try to discover my own religious beliefs — I was guided by none or condemned by the other. I wasn’t able to discover on my own perspective or views, I became mixed and stayed away from certain things and obsessive about others. I later adopted the views of those around me because I did not know how to process on my own to find my thoughts. Whenever I stepped out to try I was corrected, ridiculed, or rejected. My natural abilities were misunderstood because I did not do things the way others did, and they were not encouraged. I had only one person in my life who spoke words of encouragement to me about my writing until recent years. It was my sophomore literature teacher, unfortunately, her words were taken from me and distorted by all of the other people who dismissed, or ignored my writings when I tried to share.

I still struggle with writing as being part of my identity.

I understand that I am a writer because I live, breathe, dream, ponder words and write them out, but I have creeping negative thoughts about my abilities at times. I do not let them stop me – I face them head on and tell them it does not matter. Every new sentence is a step at getting better, even if I make grammatical errors. Life is about practice, not perfection. (Easy for me to say in the moment. :-) ) This brings me to one issue that can cause my social confusion, and executive functions to go all awry when I encounter people I do not know how to keep my identity. I do not know how to stay me while interacting with others. I have gotten better with this, but what I have discovered is if we have things in common, my mind can drift into thinking we are the same. I do not hold my own identity because I have a tendency to think, “I am wrong” I can begin to adopt things about the other person without realizing it. I read this today as well “People with autism ‘have problem with self-awareness” and this popped out.

“Navigating social interactions with others requires keeping track of the relationship between oneself and others.”

I didn’t learn how to keep track of my identity I learned how to act. I have only become aware of my own identity in the last year. This is helping me to be more comfortable at being myself with others, still I have the jumbled words bashing with each other in my head. (Unless I feel safe.) I understand that everyone is doing some form of acting when in social dynamics. I am learning this stuff do not get me wrong. I have come a long way in my self-discovery, but I struggle with it. I think there are many components that Executive Function Disorder can play a role in with the issue of self-discovery. I am still pondering all of that. The Autism Discussion Page has helped me in so many ways and continues to do so. I gained so much from reading about Executive Functioning Skills. Also, The social and emotional growth through the 30’s and 40’s really helped me.

I was able to come to terms with my feelings about going through my teenage years at the age of 39!

I struggle with that so much because I am expected to understand certain things that I just don’t if it is not explained properly. The frustrations of others can make me feel so foolish for not understanding. I know that it shouldn’t, but it does. I will stop there and work on my meltdown post it will be addressing some cognitive issues. I think it is important to note that this list provided about Compensating for Cognitive Deficits can give great clarity to some of the reasons for shutdowns/meltdowns. The more I read the more I am understanding/accepting myself and feeling such relief that I can help guide and direct my children. Such a time as this to live in the days of information! Woot!

I linked to the full Google documents for EFS on the image below.

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04/16/12

Play Date…It Was Great!

Last week, no wait let me start from the beginning and try to tie it altogether. Several months ago, we had new neighbors move in next door. We are in a heavy house rental area, we rent, I want to always rent! I do not want to own a house for as long as possible! Houses are too committal I am not ready for that type of relationship bond. I believe I could only commit to a long-term relationship with a house that is the equivalent to an iPad. Oh! Imagine what that would look like. The possibilities…sorry I dosed into another world. It would take one magnificent house to tie me down that is for sure. Distracted much? The neighbors, yes they moved in. I peeked out the window, watched, studied, and HID! I freak out when new people move in. I never know how they are going to be, and I normally do not like talking to neighbors.

That is too committal too.

After they had moved in, and had been there a little while the lady came over and introduced herself. She suggested we get together. Well of course, I was already panicking because she had crossed over to our yard, so then the thought of meeting again was freaking me out. However, she seemed very nice, and I liked her vibe right away. Still I am always apprehensive with new people, especially those who live so close to me. It reminds me of the other neighbor next door. The first week we lived here I went out to the mailbox and there he was going to his mailbox in black satin boxers baring big red lips with the words “Kiss Me” (I am 98.6% sure they were the accurate words.) plastered on them AND no shirt! Oh, I forgot he did have black ankle socks to go with the attire, as he waved and said “Good morning” in a grumpy fashion. Believe me my imagination would never had made that scene up, those neighbors have proven to be not so pleasant on several occasions. They do not rent — we are stuck with them.

Focus Angel!

The nice neighbor lady (Most assuredly she is younger than me, but I use off words to describe people.) introduced herself, discovered that I home school, and wanted to get together sometime to talk about homeschooling. They have a four year old who is in preschool currently, and she is having a baby at the end of May I believe. (The mom, just clarifying.) She came over one day and knocked on the door. I am a freak about answering the door. I do not do it, and I do not care if the people on the other side hear me “Shh-ing” the kids or not. I hide behind the broken blinds (Thanks Mr. Nathaniel Cat), while the kids poke their heads right at the strangers. I don’t understand why they haven’t learned to hide properly. :-) I had to answer the door when I saw her, it isn’t that I do not want to talk to her I get thrown off and don’t know what to say. (I will try to shorten this story.) She came over to suggest us getting together again. I was confused with the open-ended invitation and did not know how to respond so I did not.

A few weeks go by — I see her outside and apologize for not getting back to her.

Oh, wait there was another time that she came, but I was sick, and having serious neck/shoulder pain so I could not go to the door. David did and talked to her for a little while, she gave him a paper with her name and number on it for me to call. At first, I thought she gave me an email, which I thought no problem I will contact her that way. Nope, it was a phone number. I could not call. It was too open ended. I didn’t want to call when she was busy, I didn’t want to disturb her, I don’t know her plans, when is the best time to call, how do I know she really wants to talk to me? (A good indicator for the last question is that she continued to try to talk to me.) I did not call or show up at her house because I did not know the right time, or I could not work up the courage to walk over there. I was constantly flooded with questions. Even though she told me several times that she is home all day, she gets her little girl at 1:00 pm and is home after that.

I just could not come to terms with a time.

Finally, last week she came by again. (Yea! For her because I would have given up by now.) I was all flustered because the morning had been a mess, and I had just gotten all of the kids settled into school about an hour prior. I looked a fright, and all buggy-eyed from anxiety of trying to gather thoughts to talk on the fly. She asked to get together and I could not think, I tried to stop my brain from running in circles and noticed that she really did want to do something. I combed over the days and said: “Wednesday, how about Wednesday we go to the park?”  Perfect, we set a date and a time. And began my social anxiety frenzy. (Part of the contributor to my meltdown the day before.) The kids did too. We were excited, and nervous. Remember I have had pretty much nothing, but negative experiences around here with other mothers. I did not have any good scripts — there are also the very fundamental views that play a major role in this area. I am too liberal for these parts. No offense, just the fact. (I am open to them; they are not open to me.)

She came knocking a little early.

It worked out, and we went to the park. It was fabulous! I had the best time. She was very open — I felt comfortable enough to share my views about homeschooling, and curriculum. I like to use “secular” home school materials mixed, with the Sonlight curriculum, STEM, Art & Music apprehension, unschooling type of methods, and multi-sensory as well. I am all over the place and I have encountered many people who believe it should only be one way. Each person has to find their own way to home school if they decide to do so, I respect their decisions — I wish those types of people would respect mine. I was also comfortable enough to share some about my religious views. Her daughter is wonderful, and a great playmate for the kids. Ariel had a blast being with another girl. She is younger, but I think that works well for Ariel. Joshua and Daniel like her very much too. Daniel did go off on his own and watched other kids on the playground. He was in observation mode most of the time.

He talked out loud about what kids were doing.

He did not talk to them, I asked him if he wanted to and he said: “No”. He was happy watching them, he was really happy. I can relate I think it’s the “people groupie” thing. We do not have to be involved or directly interactive to enjoy people. Make sense? We stayed at the park for a while. When we came home, all of us were super excited, and over-stimulated. We were all happy too. We plan to do it again, but I believe it was on Friday that they came knocking later in the afternoon. The kids and I had been snuggling in bed reading because for some reason I started to not feel well. The knock came and I was dreading who it was. When I opened the door and saw her I was feeling like I did not want to socialize, but then I thought about how much the kids needed it. The reality is, I need it too. The kids ran around our yards playing and having such a wonderful time. I sat with her and her husband and we talked and talked. I started feel much better instantly.

Come to find out we have a lot in common.

They are so pleasant, down to earth and have a great “take me or leave me” type of attitude. They had lived in CA for quite a while, even though they are not from there. I have found that many people from CA are very open and much more tolerant of differences. They had just moved from Washington though, which is another area that seems to be quite open. She went to school for her masters and is a teacher. (Not currently working) My first fears with our encounter were telling her about Daniel and autism. I cringe at the thought of telling people because I never know how they will respond. Again, I have many negative encounters that tend to drown out the few positive ones from around here (and family). She taught in a school with what sounds like an excellent program for special needs children.

She did not flinch when I told her that Daniel was autistic.

She and her husband both treated him so kindly and with his quirky behaviors, they had no problems. They let him touch them, get in their face, smile, and study them with no problems. They tried to engage with him, and he did several times. At one point, he came up to the three of us and said: “I like them” It was awesome. He has since shared with me that he thinks the “Mom and the girl are pretty.” He continued to pet the little girl’s hair, and it didn’t bother her at all. She doesn’t seem to notice anything different about Daniel. (Daniel does love the ladies.) He is very interested in the baby in the Mom’s belly too. :-)   I shared with her my home school blog, if she meanders over here I will feel a bit exposed, but it has been such a positive experience that I had to write it. I was filled with joy watching Ariel and Joshua enjoy themselves so much. They were so happy. I want that for them, I want them to have friends and be able to socialize. I wish it had happened sooner in this town, oh well.

Now our goal is to clean the house so we can invite them over to play.

The kids REALLY want the little girl to come over and play. Every time I have new (or uncertain) social interactions, I start to get anxiety. I get frustrated with myself, which adds to the stress. I want to be social, but then my anxiety kicks in and it causes me to feel like something is wrong with me. Thoughts pop in my head like “Why can’t I just have a conversation without freaking out, or getting too enthusiastic?” At one point she mentioned the Fibonacci number and I practicality jumped out of my seat, I may have clapped, I know I got overly excited and shared how I love the Fibonacci sequence. Then, I said: “If I begin to bore you, you have to tell me because I may go on and on.” I did control myself pretty well, but I was SO excited to hear someone mention it before me! Ariel found a snail shell that made her think of it. Yes! :-)

It has been a very positive and I am looking forward to our next play date.

I have a second half connecting to this post talking about Executive Function Disorder and how it plays into my social confusion/anxiety. I needed a specific situation to apply it to. I am also rounding that straight into my massive meltdown, and all of the things that contributed to it being triggered. I forget how all of these different components play into why I behave, or respond a certain way. Others do not have a clue — they only believe that I am responding out of immaturity or emotions. There is so much that goes into it, especially when someone else is responding out of their projected emotions.

I need clarity, I need direct communication.

Generalizations cause me to be thrown into a black-and-white thinking of dizziness when I am not specifically told it is a generalization. Mainly if it is a topic of emotion I have a problem, other things I have a better ability to discern what is a generalization. I have learned to reason through those — I have not learned to reason through emotions. I understand that others can get frustrated, or exhausted because of this, but I can’t change it. This is what happens with my kids, and it is another reason why I have been apprehensive with play dates. I talk very direct and literal with my kids. People have given me looks, or tried to cushion my words to my kids. They don’t get that. They get clear, direct, and literal. I was so happy to be able to talk to my children, be myself, and talk to another adult without all of these judgments and fears soaring through my mind.

That is what I call a great play date, all of us being ourselves! (Well as much as you can meeting new people. :-) )


 

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