Answer to the original question:
Yes, my Aspie-issues get worse with stress. My non-ASD-related issues and my allergies also get worse with stress.
My definition of stress as a noun/process (I'm not good with grammar-words)=anything that eats up mental/physical energy faster than it can be replaced.
My definition of stress as an experience=overloaded, sitting somewhere between "struggling to function" and "not functioning."
...About being normal:
wavefreak58 wrote:
You're stuck on a word.
WTF is normal?
Jamesy wrote:
You have to see things from my perspective though wavefreak. really i am only just starting to have get used and adjust too living a not 'normal' life. I am still finding it very hard to cope with and get my head around this fact
I feel for you, Jamesy, because it sounds like you feel like you don't fit in with anybody and don't measure up to what you think you need to be (am I wrong here?). I've gone through something sort of similar, and it sucks. It can take time to adjust your perspective of yourself and where you fit--for me it was a sort of disillusionment.
If you think about "normal" in the mathematical sense that describes patterns and averages, then it's fair to say there's more to life where you fit in a pattern or your statistical placement based on specific traits/abilities/ways of being....the calculations that determine what's "norm-al" aren't a reliable indicator of value beyond quantities.
What's "good" or "bad" is largely subjective, and "weird" is subjective, too.....for example, I'm told "normal" people are often energized by socializing, whereas I'm exhausted by it. I think their experience of socializing is weird, and I'm sure they'd think my social exhaustion was weird. Who's actually weird, me or them? Depends on your perspective. wavefreak58 is right when he says that the social concept of "normal" is totally relative.
You already are a kind of normal--your kind of normal. You could look at all the mainstream-normal people and say, "they're all weird," and you'd be correct based on your perspective. Your kind of normal may not be the most common, but does that really matter and is it really a bad thing?
People are taught to believe that to be statistically "normal" is the best way to be, but if you think about it for minute, there are a lot of reasons to think this is BS. For example: Creativity and invention require deviation from the norm; Positive social changes like giving women the vote and ending slavery required deviation from the norm; Ultimately, society's ideas of "normal" are always changing---those changes start with deviations from what's "normal" as individuals slowly realize that being "abnormal" in some way works better for them (and sometimes it turns out the "abnormal" way of thinking/acting/being works better for everybody).