Are you freaked out from any change to your routine?

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Years ago, I was told at work we were moving to the next building. I got very anxious about this and asked a whole lot of questions about what the other building is like. The other workers didn't seem to mind too much.

I went on a trip with the other coworkers, and I needed to know in advance where and when we'll be going, and then looked up those places on the net. Had to know everything in detail.

Who else hates any kind of change? And if there is one, must know what exactly is going to happen next, all the details?

I also get freaked out by changes in routine and it is because my needs are overlooked too much.

A library in a city I lived in was renovated. It used to be full of private corners you could hide and read in. They redid it in an open plan office style. I can't cope being in there anymore. That is just one example of why I am not ho!ding my arms open wide whenever I hear the word change.

Because a change can be so difficult to cope with just like you I need a full list of details.

Even the thought that my routine might be disrupted in any way gives me anxiety. To say nothing of the fact when it actually happens and I get extremely anxious and very angry and I usually take it out on the nearest person. It's always a very ugly situation to behold. This is something that I absolutely dread because I have no control over what I say or do if my routine is distorted in any way.

I've been known to become very vocal and physically aggressive whenever this happens.

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*** High Functioning Autism - Asperger's Syndrome ***

ADHD, OCD, and PTSD.

Keep calm and stim away.

I remember at a previous job I had the office went 100% paperless and the team leaders had already been around everyones desk and thrown any and all paper away before their teams arrived in for work. I went absolutely mental when I got in.

I hate change, it has to be on my own terms. If my partner asks me what I want to do, I'll make a decision and in that very instance my whole mind and body has committed to that decision and that decision alone. If he then says he wants to do something else I tense up, get very anxious and frustrated because then I have to take time to adjust to doing something else. And I'm talking really really simple things like - "What game do you wana play today"

I don't mind not liking change, what I don't like is the whole uncontrollable emotion that comes with it.

I am perfectly fine with change, as long as I'm the one in charge of it. If there's a change that's out of my control, I really freak out. It can be something as small as where to sit. There are two seats in my home, one is mine and the other is my boyfriends. If he sits down in my spot, I get really nervous. But if I'm the one initiating the seat-switch, I have no problem with it at all (although it happens very rarely).

I don't have any routine, that's how bad my executive functioning and autistic inertia are...I would love to have routines, at least for stuff like brushing my teeth (which I often forget), and it would be easier if I could manage to do things in the same order every time, but it's hard for me to remember all the steps and I really have to force myself to follow any routine. When I'm in a good mood, it's easier, but in a bad mood I don't clean and tidy up, I don't brush my teeth or my hair and I don't go to bed at a reasonable time. I'm usually so caught up in one activity I'm obsessed with that I cannot stop it and thus I cannot follow any routine.

I don't mind change at all. I'm constantly dissatisfied with the furniture and other things in my room, so I have to change them. I don't care at what time anything is, as long as I get enough sleep.

Because of my INTP personality I don't really have a routine, at least after I moved out from family house where I didn't have that much freedom so I needed to make some routines to feel I am in control of my life. I was pretty upset when parents were changing my routine back then.

There are some things that I do repeatably now - such as "shower first, then read manga, then brush teeth and pee, and then fall asleep" and I get pretty upset when my flatmate locks herself in the restroom when it's my teeth brushing/pee time. I won't fall asleep before I do it so I have to wait. And because of school my weekly timetable is pretty regular - I know what classes are what day and when I have more free time to do other things. And when classes are cancelled/end I get the uncanny valley feeling. But it's not that big deal.

And I would say I am pretty adaptable now. I don't even check what tram I am going to get to school(30 mins of travel) - I might check the website to see what tram would be the best but I still end up leaving the house at random times and get into a random tram, unless the direct one is close enough (if there is a tram in 1 min and the preferred one will be in 8 mins I definitely won't wait - I will get in the first one and switch trams on random stops, even up to 4 times because it's more interesting). Sometimes I am late because of that but sometimes I am actually right on time or even earlier, depending what tram I am lucky to catch. Sometimes I will even catch the preferred tram that escaped right from my nose on some latter of it's stops. I call that game "teleporting". "Oh, my preferred tram just escaped. Now I have to teleport." <gets into a random tram>. Remembering the trams network and locations of trams stops helps a lot therefore route changes affect me but only if I am in a hurry and the tram is going longer way. Other times I will actually get into the tram that changed it's route because it's interesting "It should be going there but it goes there. Hmm... <uncanny feeling>" and while I do I check new connections I can use in the future and figure out what patterns have changed.

I actually prefer NOT knowing what is going to happen in the future further than 2-3 days nowadays. Because I don't know what I will be doing then and if having a plan set won't get in the way of a sudden opportunity. I don't like making or cancelling plans because it requires too much social interaction, decision making and explaining stuff to people. I prefer to go with the flow and be free to decide if I want to do something or not.

It's actually a problem in my job searching - I don't want to make a decision of being locked in a place for 8h a day for months in an unknown place and dealing with all the social interaction required to get the job (phone calls, job interview and stuff) without knowing if the job is interesting enough first. And companies don't have anything like "open days". So when I am reading job offers I am terrified. They are not detailed enough and I don't have any way to know the details without passing the painful recruitment process first.

Therefore you could say I do need all the details but I am really good at data collecting and have huge database that keeps increasing therefore most changes don't affect me.

But on the other time I like it when a friend says "Let's go somewhere" and we end up 150kms away. As long as I know I have a way to return home or a location for sleeping is set (and I know I will be sleeping over so I can prepare a change of clothes, toothbrush and my tablet for manga reading) I am 100% fine.
But don't make me plan/organize the whole thing - all the details I need to know to make decisions will overwhelm me. I am good at dealing with sudden situations (something breaks, restaurant is closed, bus escapes, we are lost) because I have strong analytical and problem solving skills, using the info and tools at hand. But when there is a lot of stuff to plan without much information available or there is just too much information to analyze in advance (research on one thing, in order to make a decision about something else till you finally are able to make a decision about the important thing and that assuming the other decision doesn't change and the information gathered is right... give me a break) my mind just freezes.

I am totally freaked out by any changes to my routine, simple things like changing my gym routine completely throw me. I like to know exactly what I am doing and feel confident doing it.

I don't have a very micro granular routine, when I eat dinner can be a little random, but that's often because working out what to eat is exhausting and confusing. My routine is more like: wake up at 7, get on train and read, work, read at lunch, work, read on train home, get a packet of sweets on the way back if it is mon, tue, wed , go to the gym, have protein shake, eat, read, sleep. Okay just realised how rigid that is ahahha. If anything changes I fully research it first, learn everything about it and then I may change things up a bit, still get stressed though.

That being said I can cope with change as long as I know about it in advance, I just get very tense and stressed out, I do frequently shut down though when it all gets too much. Things like being ill from work make me really upset and background anxious because it is a change and I can't do anything about it.

Some change is good? Recently my company moved office and I liked that change because I now work in a much smaller office with only 5 other people, instead of a huge open plan one with more like 40 people in it. Its amazing what a difference it has made, totally freaked me out though initially.