Your most problematic ASD trait(s)

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Fairly straightforward...just curious if you have an ASD trait--or traits--that tend to be more problematic than others you have.

For me, my tendency to fixate on things and my problems with executive functioning cause me the most trouble overall. I have a really hard time organizing and managing tasks, for instance. I very nearly got fired from my job a couple years ago because I was so fixated on one of my duties (which had become a special interest of sorts) that I neglected some of my other responsibilities. Oops.

my insomnia and ocd drive me crazy, and my poor motor skills made me afraid to learn new things i really wanted to learn. i was too embarrassed to try and learn anything and i regret it now. also my social phobias were very limiting, but i more or less got that under control now.

Anxiety and not knowing what I'm feeling. The two combined can be pretty debilitating. I'll be feeling a negative emotion, but not really be aware of it. Anxiety then increases and I won't really realise. I'll think it's a really stressful situation that is causing it, but in hindsight or when pointed out by someone, it's actually because of a secondary emotion making everything worse, which I don't even recognise and therefore can't solve. A bit of a circle really.

My inability to understand human relationships. Both social and formal. I can get by interacting with people but it's not an organic process with me like it is for NTs. When I face a new social situation I usually mess it up because I have to learn and practice before I know what to do. Rather than risk embarrassment or making a social errors, I end up tending to hang back and avoid doing anything that might be wrong, which leaves the impression that I'm anti-social or very shy. But I've not found a better way of dealing with it. I suffer from mutism which is a problem but nowhere near as destructive to my life as simply not comprehending interaction with others. I think the mutism is a result of literally not knowing what to say.

The other thing that gives me big problems - and I'm not entirely sure this is due only to AS, though it must be partly from it - is not being able to understand anything practical. I have no sense of direction and can't read a map or follow or give directions, for example. I have spent countless hours wandering around lost every time I have to get to somewhere I haven't been before. I've ended up taking taxis really short distances just to avoid having to find the way myself. I find it incredibly difficult to understand things like public transport systems, application forms, bank accounts, how to make appointments - I don't understand where others learn these things. Do your parents teach you as you grow up or do most people just pick it up as they go along? Do they mess up and get things wrong the first time they do it? Is this even an AS trait?! I assume it is because it's connected to not understanding human relationships and interaction.

Those are the major problematic ones. My obsessions aren't a problem, they're almost always a positive thing for me. My sensitivity to physical things is annoying but liveable with. My emotional sensitivity is part of me that I'm happy with.

Executive functioning for sure.

I'm one of those people who gets wrapped up in the process of inventing processes. NT call it over thinking or overcomplicating things. I can spend so much time creating a system to get things done, that nothing ever gets done.

You know what though? I don't think it's necessarily an executive functioning problem anymore. I honestly believe that society is to blame to a great extent. I don't mean this to sound like an "it's all society's fault" rant though. Our (human beings in general) lives are far more complicated than than they have been throughout history.

We are inundated with appointments, demands, to much information (how much junk mail to YOU have around the house?), information that comes in hard copy that we don't always know whether to toss out or keep because somebody might make us have to look it up later, phone calls, alarms, people knocking on the door, etc. etc. ad naseum.

I'm becoming more and more convinced that it is society itself that has become dysfunctional, not necessarily us. Life is so much more complicated today than it was just couple of hundred years ago, that more and more of us are falling behind, not because we are necessarily dysfunctional, but because life itself has become more complicated than many of us are capable of handling well. As life continues to become more complex, I really believe there could come a time at which we all begin to realize that even the "average" person can no longer handle its complexities.

I think we are already either very close to that point, or maybe even already there. The evidence, as I see it, is in the plethora of people insisting that disorders like Autism are fast becoming the new explanation for common problems pretty much everyone faces today. The "new norm" as they seem to put it.

Maybe there isn't anything "wrong" with most of us. Maybe the world really is going completely bonkers.

The worst for me is probably the overwhelmingness of trying to take on a task where multiple steps are involved. If I don't carefully think out the steps first, I feel very much out of control and will more than likely give up said task before it has even begun.

Sensory issues
Anxiety
Executive dysfunction
My tendancy to go mute around ppl I barely know
Inability to put my thoughts into correct words

The traits I find more problematic are:
-Sensory issues;
-Meltdowns;
-Anxiety issues;
-Destraction when a thing doesn't interest me;
-Focusing on particulars so much that I loose the perception of the whole world around me.

Sensory issues, speech impediment, then what named dysthymic disorder.

Another problem that doesn't have a name so far as I know is that I'm not aware of emotions until they reach their boiling point. For instance, if there's something wrong in a friendship I don't realize it for a long time. I may feel confused or irritated without knowing why, and suddenly when I realize what's bothering me it has usually reached such an intensity that I can't stand being in contact with that person a minute longer.

That I don't understand nor am interested in relationships and typical NT stuff is not a problem itself, but causes a lot of trouble in areas where I can't avoid dealing with people and the NT rules.

Meltdowns are quite rare as I have learned to avoid many situations that could trigger one.

Stimming is not a problem because I don't care what people may think about it. Others need to talk at their cell phones when waiting, I need flapping, rocking, playing with my squishy toy -- no big deal.

The getting lost thing is called "directional dyslexia". Some aspies have it as a co-morbid, but not all.

Anxiety. They all say it's part of my AS. I think it causes me the most problems than AS alone. I will also place learning issues next. I have a hard time understanding things and my attention span is short (could be an ADD trait I have) and the way I process things and learn. I needed accommodations to get through school because of it. I had help with lot of my school work. It's not a high concern anymore because I am not in school but if I didn't have this issue, I would have been better off. But I still place it as second for my most problems.

Depression and anxiety.

Severe OCD; ruminations and rituals and extreme anxiety. My organisational skills are fairly awful, and I suffer from severe depression, but I really feel those have more scope for being treated than my OCD. It is very intractable because it is related to the autism.

Aso, tiredness, poor co-ordination and severe sensory issues make living harder. They make me slow.

Also, just extreme problems pocessing bad memories. I have a diagnosis of PTSD related to past situations I have been in, and I really think the autism makes it a lot harder to process horrible memories because I get them playing back like a film, and I feel the negativity of the other people, even from situations years and years old. It's horrible.