Issue with basic instructions?

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I get told to do something by my parents and I'm like oh uh ok. I always seem confused. My parents sadly say I don't listen they'll tell me to do X and I do something else or have to say "wait you wanted me to do what???" Sadly this inability to understand doing basic tasks my parents have this view "You better listen to the professors when they tell you to do something."

SHEESH! I'm 25 years old! and have gotten A's B's in college and do very well!! ! Yet I have issue with basic instructions. I hate it paints me in a negative light my dad's view is "OMG what age are you now 25??" Like I should grow up or know how to do something but I am lost and confused a lot. I can get involved in books college work etc. yet it's upsetting basic things confuse me. Can anyone relate?

I feel this way sometimes, too... Once I mess up, I feel like a complete idiot and I just keep messing up.

Yep. My aspie son and I have the same problem. I write everything down to compensate. My son needs to start accommodating if he's going to succeed. He keeps thinking he's just going to remember instead of accepting that he needs assistance to remember things, even when it seems pretty obvious.

I wasn't sure if the problem was with me or the person giving the directions. I've done delivery work for a while and sometimes when arriving at a guard shack I'll be given directions where to go and how to get there. Especially if it's something like a chemical plant.

Most people explain things in a way that makes sense referencing landmarks or signs for directions. Sometimes though people just recite the directions really quickly and look at me as if I should be able to move through their factory just as well as they do.

I run into this problem even more on the phone. I'm driving and talking and the person just runs through the directions really quick telling me how to find a location in a major city like Newark, NJ. Almost as if I'm a local and should know where the water tower is or a certain restaurant.

I find instructions overwhelming. I know as a child, my father would always give me a series of instructions all at once, and it felt like aggressive bullying, and I couldn't remember the list at all. Often, when someone gives me instructions, I don't even hear words, it just becomes garbled noise.

I once lost a job because I was verbally trained to close the store, and while I could close with someone to supervise and give me step by step directions, the next night I was completely unable to close at all. I didn't know what I was supposed to do in which order, and was basically told to figure it out for myself. I got fired the next day, because the store was simply not ready.

I was given instructions on how to close a different store I worked at in writing, and I had very little trouble.

I think there are two or three things going on that make verbal instructions difficult to impossible for me.

I've always had trouble with verbal instructions, but not with written ones.

I don't know why I can't follow verbal instructions, I can remember songs, lengthy quotes for movies and shows, even complete conversations dating back years ago. so it's not that I can't remember what people say, it's just for some reason I can't follow verbal instructions for more then 2-3 points.

It seems like an extreme overreaction to fire you just because you couldn't close the store by yourself on your first try. It's probably not a place where you would have liked working anyway, with attitudes like theirs.

Anyway, the answer is to keep a small notebook and write down all instructions. I have had to do this all my life.

I second the small notebook idea. I have just read about somebody else who does that, and it enables them to be successful with the basic info parts of life. I remember my aspie Dad doing this -- and he was an executive with an international construction firm -- so it must work!