Tonight on Greentea: Aspie artist making it...MILLIE ! !!

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It reminds me of the joke where the mother tells her daughter that it was silly to climb the tree as the boys asked her to, because all the boys wanted was to have a peek at her panties. So the girl says with a wise grin: "Don't worry, mom, I'm not stupid, I took them off before climbing." - in some strange way, we are wise but not clever.

precisely.

Hi again millie, and welcome back to Green-tea-v!

You can't complain, I gave you an almost 2-week rest from my incessant questioning!

You mentioned somewhere in the threads that there's a kind of therapy more geared to Aspies in Australia, and that you had a positive experience with it. Since it sounds very interesting and most of us haven't been exposed to such a thing, I was wondering if you'd feel like telling us a bit about it..?

Thinking about this more- I am one of the people with ASD that has significantly higher stress and anxiety levels than a lot of people. SO there are breathing exercises - simple diaphragmatic exercises - that i am doing to calm me down in the day.
I am also factoring in short, five minute walks.
I am using a rubber ball to clench as a way of releasing cramping tensions in my forearms.
I am doing yoga stretches more often because of the need to stretch tense joints.

When I come home now, I go straight to my room and have some time out before i have to engage with my son or ex. It is necessary down-time - unwind time.
I have begun to use music as a therapeutic tool which blocks out too many random sensory noises. (it is the latter that really wrecks me sometimes.)
I am planning and list writing in order to reduce anxiety when out and also to stay focused, as i forget a lot of things when in different environments.

anyway, hope it helps people. At least if i pass on the info, it is free to people.

I liked your description of the machine girl painting with the flowers millie. I once wrote a story about a machine girl when I was younger, whose job it was to stand guard over a pothole in the street that led to a different dimension, and she was forgotten by everyone else and left standing there until the pothole was rusted away, and she fell through into the alternate dimension which was only blue sky; so she kept falling on and on through the sky until she too rusted away into nothing.

Am I allowed to interview too? If so - Millie, when you were a child, were you really imaginative? Did you create imaginary worlds to play in? If so, what were they like?

EVeryone is not only allowed, but totally encouraged to ask millie questions!! !! (just remain respectful and observe T&C at all times)

I wonder...so...do people relate to other people or do they relate to their "fantasy" or "perception"of another person? I see people as objects and i cannot connect. So, often I create a fantasy perception that i can then try to relate to. That has been how my imagination has worked. These Mark 2 imaginary people have nothing to do with the original model! it makes for a whoopsy life.
There has been a bit of talk on WP of late regarding associational thinking.
I live in an internal world that is imaginary. That is why I paint.
I don't know what it is to live in the world.
ALl i know is i live in my own reality and like it there, even though it can be hell.
I have always painted, always written, and created imaginary worlds - alternative realities. But i like to think of these as the primary reality. I have never made worlds out of fairies and unicorns though. I would read National Geographics and go wild with fantasies about other cultures. I collected wine labels and these would be imbued with fantasy stories. I would look into the coloured glass of my marbles and they were microcosms....

your story sounds good.



and make sure you come to the Inaugural Women and Girls ASD Conference in Brisbane on August 7th, Sunshower.

Now that I know about it, I will.

It's interesting you say that about people and objects millie. My experience is that I was the same way (just as you described), but I used to describe it more as the outer world being "two dimensional" - where people were just what I saw and heard on the surface, and there was my inner imagination world (in which I spent most of my time). Up until I was about 17, I didn't even realize that there was more than two dimensions (I thought that was all the outer world was). Then one day on the school holidays - it was literally a single moment, when I was walking from the kitchen into the backroom, something clicked in my head and I suddenly realized that a third dimension had existed all along in the real world (peoples inner thoughts and feelings, everything going on below the surface) than I'd never known about. And from that day forward my perspective changed drastically and I've lived more half/half. But I still feel, where that third dimension is concerned, I am severely vision impaired, and although I can find that plane now, often I'm groping around in the half light trying to figure things out.

Do you think a lot in images? I find I envision a lot of my understandings in visual analogies (like brick walls, fields of flowers, swimming in the sea) - which would make sense from a artists perspective.

One of the reasons i find conversing in two way face to face conversations so tiring is that i have a very pronounced visual brain. Like a movie screen. filled with flickering images as i talk. in bright colour and it is very wonderful a lot of the time. So, it is a bit like dreaming ALL the time. That is great for creativity as I can see things in my mind' eye with clarity and acuteness.
BUT, it means this is always going on when i talk to others, so focusing on them and their faces and their words and then constructing images out of what they are saying becomes a juggling act and there is a kind of data overload.

That is how i experience it. Like you, I also think in analogies to the extreme.
If i think someone is a "brick wall" i see "brick wall" in my mind very clearly.
we seem to have a lot in common in the way we process things.

it is a busy brain. and i am travelling fairly poorly at the present time...wading through life a bit and feeling rather lost and despairing and depressed. sometimes i do not even want to be on the planet anymore. But i keep on trucking, like a blind buffoon in the dark night.....

at this conference i am speaking at in Brisbane with attwood and henault, it is my hope we can start actually getting some kind of mentoring program happening for younger girls with ASD's. not that i am a great mentor, but i thought it could be good to try to encourage younger girls to reach for their goals and to strive for the best they can have and do. I dont want younger girls with AS to have my life. I want them to find themselves and who they are and be proud of it from as early as possible. it is so important. what else do we have?

millie, the tips you mentioned that you received from your therapist would be very useful to me. I really should start, at least the 5-minute walks and the music.

I was wondering today at the bus stop and told myself I'd ask you...What clothes do you paint in? What feels comfortable? What lighting do you use? And any other things that are important to surround yourself with as you paint?

Greentea, Well, this is news to me and all.. 2nd, I wish Millie a great amount of luck on any artistic endeavors...



ProfessorX