A Few Questions

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Hello, I wonder if someone could answer a few of these questions for me?

Firstly, has anyone had any difficulties at their job or gotten into trouble because something happened due to their AS? I have a really bad short term memory, and when I'm on till most of the time I can't even remember who I just served. Once I accidentally gave a customer an extra £10 in their change. Sometimes when I'm given a job to do I completely forget what it was, or that I was even given one in the first place.

Secondly, when I was younger I used to sniff people, now I sniff my dog or my gerbils. I also chew all my pens and make weird noises over and over. Are these behaviours "stims"?

When I'm obsessing over something (eg Star Wars) words involving the obsession usually swirl around in my mind over and over again (such as, "Sith sith sith sith sith sith, force force force force). I also imagine myself being a Jedi and weilding a lightsaber and the force. Are these behaviours typical of AS?

Yes, yes, and as far as I know

I believe that most humans do this with respect to action movies, although I do not know how the normal range of quantity/quality of fantasies. Children have such fantasies very often, but adults talk about fantasies less often so it is difficult to tell.

As for the others statements, I cannot say.

I would say this is due to the Executive Dysfunction problems in AS. However, such Executive Dysfunction is also seen in other neurological disorders such as AD/HD, Tourettes, Learning Disorders, and various others. Something we generally all have in common.



Part of hyposensitivity in Sensory Processing Disorder which is inordinately common in ASDs.



Stims.



I would say in part a repetitive mental stim and also just something normal that everyone gets stuck in there heads, like a song etc. It might be of a different type of "stuck song" simply because ASers are different and have different focuses many times.

Last edited by Sophist on 22 May 2005, 10:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I get told by my boss quite regularly that I need to smile at the customers more and make more eye contact. She tells me off and my coworkers all make fun of me for being "odd."

It's annoying, but I'd have to say it's not so much getting in trouble as being unable to stay out of trouble. It's not like I do anything wrong...

And I'd have to agree with everyone else who's posted and say yes to all.

Yeah. I have a bad short term memory.. I get told to do so much stuff and I forget how many tablecloths i've gotten or if i've locked the door.. So I waste time going back.

Time is money at my work.

I sniff the cat, too. (her side).

I would laugh, but i can't, seeing as i have a replica of Harry Potter's wand in my back pocket...

I have a hard time remembering things. I don't have a job, but a lot of times my dad will tell me to put up the dishes or something, and I'll forget about it and he'll get mad at me.

Sometimes I imagine myself transforming into a gigantic red dragon that destroys buildings.

Whenever I am red with anger or stewing over past happenings during which I have felt mistreated and the words simply do not come to describe exactly what I feel, I often imagine myself turning into the Hulk and smashing things up and scaring the wits out of the people that hurt me. It is the best I can do when I can do nothing. It seems to make me feel at least a little vindicated.

Last edited by Sophist on 25 May 2005, 4:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

I worked in a bookstore stocking shelves for a short time as part of an employment program. What confused me was trying to follow their instructions while in a loud, cramped, overloading environment. I would be given books to shelve, and told to shelve them. But there was never enough room on the shelves. So they would tell me to take some books off. I could never figure out which books to take off, and I'd just sit there getting more and more overloaded. The other autistic person who had worked there before me, had gotten so frustrated with the place that he ate the calendars. While I did not do that, I don't exactly blame him.



I think smelling things is just a way of getting information, I do that as well. Chewing pens is a common stim in both autistic people and non-autistic people (non-autistic people don't tend to like to think of themselves as stimming, but they do!). Making weird noises over and over is more how most people would think of "stims" I think.