The reality of repetition for autistics.

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Okay after pondering how prevalent it is in how I type and b/c I did bother to listen to a philosophy audiobook about repetition once, I have decided to muster the effort to actually ask if anyone else thinks that repetition is an inescapable component of being autistic..

I will admit that I might be motivated to ask b/c of how in my recently ended experience as a student, repetition is as aggravatingly painful and tedious to commit as it the only way to learn most things esp. physical-ish motor-skill based doings and not so much polemical and inflammatory stuff.

What do you lot think?.

One thing I do dislike is having to do the same thing twice.

Other than that I am quite content doing the same thing over and over and don't get bored.

Would you say the second sentence even if it was strainful, painful or high-risk labour like say customer service or cutting wood with a ‘miter saw’?.

Side Point: Miter saws are low-risk. I was already very familiar with an early model one when I took a tech job that involved first building some benches. It didn't have a brake, so it took a long time to spin down to fully safe the way my boss used it. He'd run it up to full speed, touch the blade to a 2 X 4 to confirm position, make the cut, and leave the saw to spin down. Then, I cut one by just triggering the initial blast of sound, and coasting the blade through the wood, stopping just as it finished without ever hitting top speed. It took under a second for blessed silence to return. Bossman was incredulous.

On Topic: I learn best by being struck by the potential usefulness of a fact. I think that my brain does enough repeats to get it stored in the long-term without further input.
My NT father would never repeat himself, and I get very frustrated when a presenter covers a point twice. Even worse is if they start with a rhetorical question and/or go for three explanations.
As a handyman, I was never as fast as a specialist at any one trade, but excellent in novel situations they didn't want to touch. The jobs I did get fast on were ones I was able to partially mechanize by building jigs, etc.

Very interesting topic. Do not have much time to get into the deeper dynamics of it today, but will be back. In short, the brain actually functions and programs/reprograms itself by the principle of repetition, which depending if it controls you or you control it, can be either like an enemy or a friend. The principle of repetition exists in all of nature, but there cannot be adaption unless there is also something new, and the human mind as well as physical evolution for all life, I think, is revitalized and even survives to some degree by the factoring in of variety. This said, the need, craving for variety can also on a psychological level begin to function as a buffer to emotional pain to the degree that it functions like a drug. This is, in my opinion, very significant in terms of understanding human brain function in general, and especially in understanding autism.

If it's something creative, I only like to do it once, because it's like I can only do it well once, the next time I tend to overthink it, whereas there seems to be some kind of 'flow' involved for the first one.

Otoh, repetitive tasks feel like they free up my brain.

I don't like repetitive tasks. I'm glad I'm in a job where I can be self-sufficient, because it does feel as repetitive. I like to "break the monotony" a little, and work on a different task from the day before. I even like to learn new things so that there's an even wider range of tasks to make each shift different. I don't mean each day being unique, as that's not possible, what I mean is switching the tasks around so that each day isn't rigidly repetitive.

The thought of being in a job with long hours doing exactly the same thing every day just panics me. That is why I try to learn as many different skills as possible in a workplace, so that I can be useful for different tasks, rather than doing the same task day in and day out. I think I would start going senile out of boredom.

That’s sums things up for me too

=_= If you are like me someone who almost never feel exempt from the shame and/or guilt of c--y experiences and who has an antipathy towards mistakes, 'doesn't not care the right way' etc, etc al then it can feel adversarial. My 'crazy power fantasy' of 'rocketing' on stream of improvement where repetition is never done.



Ibid and/but reaching and maintaining an authentically anxiety liberated homeostasis is a legitimate pain in the a--- in societal sphere. Even the vulgarly phrased 's--t life syndrome' is a phrase which is gaining traction in the UK (seriously Google it, if you doubt =_= )from what I understand. Sure the process is more important than the solution b/c problems will always be replaced with other problems...but when your neurodivergent and how your going to 'adapt'/soak up information in the first place is a highly difficult thing?...>_< >8I ..repetition which can comfortably be maintained b/c a glorious achievement. This coming from sidetrack, let their be little doubt that employment/labour related concerns on his mind.



This I believe b/c I think to myself about my life-long hatred of repetition and how it can be subtly seen in how aside from songs, I usually never like watching a Youtube video more than once and hence how I get hooked with/to the novelty of generated recommendations for indeterminate amounts of time.

'Breaking old habits' is a difficult thing. Embracing the very component needed to make habits when it represents something which was so painful to survive throughout most of your life (school) and you are at an age when the brain apparently majorly slows changes?...-_- I have come to realize, painfully the importance of actually doing what you like for this very reason in a world where I am might callously be called a disappointment for barely meeting expectations.



Don't get me started on pornography and repetition.

Life itself is cyclic and repetitive. I think normal people are more delusional about this TBH considering how the whig view of history seems so matter-of-fact to them.

Stoicism was probably an autistic invention.

There's surely some clash and overlap here though. I'm not fully educated on the topics.

But the point I mean to make is that embracing the repetition and cycles feels natural and in accordance to how reality works. And, maybe somewhat ironically, this contributes to real progress since one would think that strategies for life based on reality would work better.

I like that insight.

Hi again. Again, this topic is very interesting to me. Imo understanding how the principle of repetition works and employing it consciously as a device in relationship to ones daily functioning opens the door to freedom. It is kind of difficult to think about though, as sheer mundane repetition or even thinking along that line can put the mind to sleep. And yet repetition can also be very comforting, but again, something too comforting can also put the mind to sleep. In fact even thinking in this vein is making me feel sleep, but I have been up since three this morning and am intending to dose off, so glad of this.

Anyway, one of the aims for me would be to reinforce certain favorable patterns by consciouslyusing the device of repetition, but also not to get stuck in doing this, that or anything.

The repetition principle surely does work uniquely in some ways for autistics, but, as mentioned earlier, I think repetition is a key factor in all human and animal functioning. The interesting thing in terms of brain function is how the brain processes variety and how/if the principle of repetition may or may not play into this, so I think it would also be of value to look at how the principle of repetition works in terms of the brain processing new experience.