Why do you think people on the spectrum need routines?

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As to me, I always like to have an image on my mind of what is going to happen. If I'm going to a new place, a new situation I use to ask what's like, what I'm supposed to do there and if I'm going to meet someone new or people I know. In case of new buildings I usually need a floor plan (also for friends houses if it's my first visit there). And if I have to meet new people I like to see a picture first. And also to hear their voice if possible.

Just to prepare my mind...

And I spend a lot of time trying to prefigure situations, dialogues, group dynamics....


Now, my question.
What happen in our mind that make us so "painful" to manage changes? What's different compared to an NT-brain?

I never understood why I behave like that. What's the real reason?

The real reason is because we get sensory data in raw form, all at once. If I'm meeting a person for the first time they are more than likely a very intense collection of sensory data: what they look like, sound like, smell like, etc. These are overwhelming if not familiar. Once familiar, my brain knows that how that person looks hasn't changed so I can sort of use a learned dampening effect on their looks --- it also contributes to me not noticing changes in people's clothes and hair.

As far as routines, I don't know I can't answer that because I'm co-morbid ADHD which severely affects my ability to follow any routine I like or have set up for myself. I do things in the same way usually like at work I sweep and mop the same way, I don't start backwards of it since it doesn't seem to make sense. Everything else though isn't a routine it's just flying by wire.

I don't always need routines in everything, but if I let go of my routine of waking on certain times and having breakfast\shower at certain times, I find that I lack energy and motivation the whole day and just don't do an awful lot throughout. When I go to a course, school or a job I need to have some sort of routine and stick to it because on day of laziness and calling in sick could establish a pattern for me of not going. In a way, routine is what keeps me going. It's hard to get into a routine, too hard. But it's easy, way too easy, to break away from it. And when I do, I end up screwing up. It's a given. That's why I need routines. Of course, it's different for everybody else.

Like kirayng, I believe it's a sensory difference. NT's seem to be able to screen out what their brains don't need to cope with, but we are hit with everything at once and it's like a kind of shell shock. My brain goes into overload, I become overwhelmed, anxious and panicked.
For example if I have to go to a new place I'm noticing everything in the room at once - people, hair, shirt, space, vibration, light, hum, whirl, white, shiny, reflection, poster, ink, pattern, window, door, green, carpet, smell, paper, rustle, click, talk, words, cough, movement etc
This is what makes it painful. This is why I try to avoid new situations.

its unpredictibility....anything new whether its a matter of furniture being moved to a different position or new food or new support staff etc,the smallest change to routine-massive triggers for severe challenging behavior in own experience.

speaking for self purely,am unable to cope with change and unpredictibility and need to know what will happen at all times which is why am a user of PECS timelines [laminated boards that have symbols of every task and activity to be done during the day stuck on,from getting up,to nappy change, to tablets, to rabbit feeding to getting in a car, going shop and then coming back etc].

Im the same way, i plan things days a head, sometimes months a head before walking into a new situation. and once i tried to go off a schedual, it didn't work out. I literally cannot Mentally nor physically function without plans or routines and scheduals, if i dont have them, i cant handle anything and end up staying home on my computer.

today my schedual changed at school, we had to go to a lecture instead of classes and that had a big impact on me. i couldn't focous in class, i could barely speak, i was cranky and i shut down a few times at school.

you raise a very good question, why does my brain do this? why do most people on the spectrum do this?

I have no idea why. I personally seem to do better with less routine. Maybe it's because I'm BAP. When I have too much routine all of my motivation and energy disappears. It causes problems with stuff like school and work. I'm fine with routine once or twice a week, but it start to get problems when I go beyond that. When there's good or neutral changes in routine I always get energized and motivated.

Why do people on the spectrum need routines?
To reduce anxiety, create order and give room to achieve.

I think the answer to your question lies in these two threads:


trimming of synapses
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt265666.html


living in the past
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt153249.html

I don't use routines as far as daily or weekly scheduling, but I have a ritual for nearly everything I do because it's more efficient and/ or something to focus on.

For me, my routines provide a peace of mind. While performing my routines, I tend to be more relaxed. I tend to obsess less about other things.

When I am not performing my routines, I tend to be on edge. My mind is on constant alert, obsessing about everything.

I don't think anyone does well with changes in what they are used to like having to switch jobs or whatever. When we moved to a completely different environment a couple of months ago I had a lot of trouble adjusting to it....but so did my dad with different kinds of streets and traffic and a different job. He sounded pretty frazzled at times .

For me routines just mean things are easy to manage. I don't have to think about what I'm supposed to next. When the routine is changed I always feel confused or have anxiety. It's like being dropped into the middle of a strange place with a strange situation going on and my mind is spinning trying to get a handle on it. So without a routine I'm either all hyper and running around so to speak....or I just shut down and basically go catatonic.

My suspicion is that it is tied in with our black and white thinking patterns: there are the things we know, are familiar with, and can perform reliably, and then there's chaos, and we have no way of bridging the gap, to allow some structure to the chaos. At least that's what it's like for me; changing up my routine makes me very anxious, because then all bets are off; if one thing changes, there's no telling what else is going to change as well, and I have no way of knowing whether I'll be able to tolerate the change, so I try to keep everything exactly the same, or, barring that, I plan every detail of a new activity so that everything is accounted for and surprises are as minimised as possible; I'm a lot like KoR in that I don't handle unpredictability well.