Privacy vs. recharge time

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I know a lot of people on the Autistic spectrum like to be alone. Why?

The main reason I've heard is to recharge. Social interaction is too tiring. Isolation provides rest.

Another reason I haven't heard as often that I can relate to in a more extreme way is privacy. I don't want to have to explain myself all the time. If I get the urge to do something that is weird I need time to not feel like people are judging me. Being surrounded by watchful eyes puts pressure on me to hide many very significant aspects of myself. I feel like 75% of who I am needs to be hidden so that people don't judge me harshly or give me weird looks.

I need privacy to be my freakish self. I can't relate to the recharge time as much. Socialization takes effort but I feel like I've got a lot of stamina and I don't get tired by it that easily. I just don't want to feel like people are judging me.


So is it recharge time or privacy that makes you want to be alone? For me it's privacy.

For me it's both. Socializing drains me and as you said, you need your privacy so you don't feel watched and judged. I don't particularly care all that much anymore what people think of me, however it is beyond annoying to get their unsolicited feedback on how *different* and *weird* I am...don't they have anything interesting to say that I've never heard before? After all, I don't rudely comment on how I perceive THEM (NTs, I am assuming) as boring/draining/stupid...

I consider the time I personally take to be alone recharge time after being a social situaiton, and time alone before I enter a social situation charging time. To me, privacy and charge/recharge time are pretty much synonymous.

Whenever I am at a family gathering or work where I interact with a lot of people all I can think about after a while is being alone in my room to freely stim as much and as intenesivley as I want (I still do it in public but hold back how much or how intensely I do it), study my special interests to calm me down, and just sit and rock back and fourth to music and do anything I want without having to be watched or interrupted. Plus I get so frustrated in social situations, I can never understand facial expressions or gestures and it ticks me off to the point where I'll excuse myself to be alone somewhere and bang my head into a wall.

I also require time to be alone before hand to do my routines and whatnot, because if I don't my day and mood will be much worse.

I can very much relate to this!

For example, I like to write at my computer, bounce to the bathroom mirror talking to myself, and bounce back and stim by squeezing and twisting a favorite soft T-shirt. And as I stim, I often visual sports or movies and sometimes make fighting sounds. Yes, I'm aware this comes off as weird! But to me this is a productive and creative session, and even if it's not, it's a lot of fun! Plus, I want to be free to try new stuff without being judged.

(when I was actively taking speech lessons, I would sometimes combine some or all of this with reading my word lists into a tape recorder, and if I had a winning book I was reading through, reading passages of that into the tape recorder. Again, made for a productive session )

I need them both.

I like being alone, and I don't feel the need to socialize. I don't have the need that most people have to see people or interact with people.

Both.

both indeed.
i often need time to recharge from socialisation, but plenty of times i just dont care and stay by myself, just give me a good book and i'm happy for hours, preferably if i'm not disturbed

I couldn't vote because both options, privacy and to recharge are applicable.

I chose privacy, but I need both.

I think you summed it up nicely in your post, when I'm on my own I can just be myself without any worries or cares.

I need both, but if I am to pick one, then it would be privacy. I get tired from not having privacy. So I guess they are sort of interconnected.

I think you forgot the "Both" option.

Both for me, but privacy even more than recharge, because recharge can be integrated in that as well as just being myself without interruption.

Both. Recharge more if I have to do something that day. Privacy all the time. Recharge time doesn't replace me time. I spend most of my time away from people.