My Competency Fluctuates - Anyone Else?

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There are times when I'm on - comfortable in my own skin, enjoy the company of others, brain clear, balance good, etc.

Then for long periods of time, I get really introverted, avoid people and tasks, foggy thought process, tripping over myself. I get really frustrated with myself a lot during those times.

Giving an example - just in typing this, I made 3 typos that I caught before hitting Submit. I'm usually superb at spelling and good at typing, but I didn't see the errors until I looked it over a few times. Aggravating - who knows what other errors I missed (feel free to show me - LOL)!

Anyone else?

I also find that I go through cycles, and you described it very well. Especially with the "foggy thought process", that's something that I had trouble putting words to, but I experience as well.

I went through this today. For half of therapy speech took significant effort and I was barely able to get words out. For the other half, I was able to speak fairly fluently. We blamed the sudden fluency on ritalin, which I'd taken an hour and a half before in the hope that it would make a difference at my appointment. I still don't know if it really made the difference.

Yes. That's so typical of autism I'd be more surprised if someone reported their skills always stayed the same.

Currently I'm pretty much on a downward slope. I just hope I can keep my independence, because if you can't take care of yourself, people start taking it upon themselves to make your decisions for you.

Yes. I generally blame it on being bipolar but from what I see here it may be from being ASD.

Yes, I've been in the fog myself recently. At work, I've been double-checking all of my math to be sure I'm getting it right. And just focusing on reading a book has been a challenge the past few days, which is really frustrating because reading is my favorite pastime. Earlier tonight I gave up on the book I was trying to read. My thoughts kept drifting and the words weren't "soaking in." So I tossed aside the book and turned on the TV. I didn't really absorb the show I watched either, but that's probably for the best...

I do that as well, but I don't know that it's related to AS. I have known plenty of (presumingly NT) people that did the same thing.

Yes Yes and Yes!

You nailed it right on the head.
(isn't that a terrible expression? ekk)

Yes. It's stress and burn out with me. Sometimes I just need to let out my frustrations, through pen or throwing things and I'll return to how I was.

My issues do stem from some hormonal/chemical imbalances which do make my autistic symptoms worse. The stress just accumulates at the right moment, when all my separate issues are occurring at once.

Or sometimes I just need to take a break until I get back to where I was.

I think I experienced this, but I attributed it mostly to fatigue, being drained, sleep or food deprivation, weather effect (temperature, air pressure, clouds, rain), subconsciously longing for activities that I hadn't done for a while (or got bored with those I did until then), forgetting learned skills and knowledge which I do pretty fast anyway when I don't practice them or I'm out of routine, for example working on Mondays, after a holiday, or being alone home for days, unable to think or do something useful.

Apart from them, there were times when I suspected unexplained reasons behind it, some kind of mood fluctuation.

Ever since I was a kid. Depending when people catch me, they can either think I'm an absolute brain, or mentally enfeebled. That last perception people have of me really pisses me off, and I have to remind them that I'm college educated, and am a (unpublished) writer.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Glad to see that some others experience this, but also interested to find out that there seem to be non-Aspies that deal with it too. Makes me wonder if it's a separate issue. Still learning what may or may not be Aspie traits.

I'm currently taking a very mild anti-depressant that seems to help with the brain fog. I also have apnea, and use a CPAP - before this my brain fog was unbelievable. I literally sat on my bed, unmoving, for about 8 hours.

But even with those treatments, some days I get lost in my own head for minutes at a time.