Did the pandemic affect you differently than a neurotypical?

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Maybe it’s my personal introversion, or maybe it’s my ability to abstain for long periods without contact to the point it becomes my normal, or maybe it’s because I got hit with an undiagnosed injury that prevented me from having a sex life- and I’m only 25, so I don’t see missing out on it as that big of a deal since I don’t know what I’m missing out on.

But that’s kind of what I’m going on, is there elements in your personal life that went uninterrupted throughout the pandemic? Do you think your autism gave your pandemic experience differently from that of a neurotypical and in what ways? Do you think it’s actually even easier for us to weather through such events? Since we’re already familiar with loneliness?

It didn’t really affect me much, really just meant that the rest of my family was home all day, too, and that instead of occasionally going to a restaurant we get takeout. I didn’t have a job to be affected and didn’t go out for much besides appointments anyway. Things like eating and watching movies have never been “social” activities to me anyway, I vastly prefer doing them alone at home. I don’t really understand why people feel lonely and stuff with less face-to-face contact when they have plenty of virtual contact, including video chats, with the same people, but then again I don’t remember when the last time was that I had a friend who even lived in the same state as me. But I am naturally solitary and very much not a “touchy” person. I think I completely lost the ability to feel lonely at some point in my teens due to years of absolutely minimal interaction (combination of forced and voluntary), either that or “lonely” is now normal for me and I don’t know what it feels like not to be. It’s a bit surreal for me to hear/see just how much most people’s lives have changed because of the pandemic since it’s had so little effect on me.

There are some aspects of the Pandemic which actually made me a bit happier than usual.

For one, I've had minimal contact with my wife's relatives (they're not bad people----but they can get loud sometimes). Another is that I've had time to lose 25 pounds because I didn't have to go into work for 6 months.

I do understand, though, how the Pandemic has affected many people in an adverse way----especially when it comes to losing jobs and businesses.

Yes, it definitely affected me differently than an NT.

The pandemic worked out great for me personally. I'm not an easy person to be around and so everyone else on my floor of the office building decided to work from home. I live 1/2 mile from the office so it is no big deal for me to go there. I have the whole floor to myself. I can take my 250 steps every hour for my Fitbit and nobody knows (or cares). I've never had such a comfortable working environment. I stuck to my diet and exercise and got down to a healthy weight. I avoid reading news articles about Republican high jinx and other political shenanigans so I don't start dwelling on them too much. My mood is better now than before the pandemic. The best news is that everyone has said they want to continue working from home permanently! Wow! Peace and quiet all for me.

The pandemic has actually made me realise that I did more with my life than I thought. Also I kept craving going to social events even more than I ever used to before the pandemic hit. It's made me realise that I'm not as introverted as I thought I was, that I like being around people and chatting and gossiping. Being indoors too much causes depression and actually makes my anxiety worse. Being around people makes me think less and enjoy the moment more. If I'm feeling depressed, socialising snaps me out of the depression.

I remember during lockdown we had a plumber visit to fix a leaking pipe, and I secretly panicked when he finished because I didn't want him to leave. I just craved company (other than my boyfriend, as I live with him and see him every day) and wanted him to be longer fixing the pipe. I'm glad I didn't get to the point where I be phoning 999 just for some excitement (don't worry, I'm sane and sensible enough to know better not to do that). But I kept phoning my family and I was nonstop on Facebook trying to chat to people about the most mundane things.

The only things that changed in my "life", thus far, due to Covid:. Library, counseling, aikido

Library was closed over one year. Recently opened with limited hours. Have not gone yet, because work

Counseling has been closed since last March. Phone counseling only. I have not done it.

Aikido was Zoom only. Then in the park, no contact. Past four weeks, they made all the lessons in the dojo except two in the park. Rolando penis Sunday most convenient, but Rolando penis tried to get me banned from the dojo two separate times. Tuesday lesson, after work. Inconvenient to public transportation. Lisi and Rob right now but maybe after Kayla b***h gets back from "a leave of absence for personal reasons", Kayla b***h will teach


I loved how the streets were nearly empty during the lockdown

None of my friends or family got Covid. Me neither. But I have zero friends. They all dumped me. Rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead


The only thing I really don't like about Covid, it's too hard to find a public bathrooms and public urination illegal

Masks uncomfortable but you get used to it


Ulcerative colitis



Reluctant to leave the Pigpen


Often public litterbox, closed or janitor. Donkeys inside monopolizing the litterbox
For a long time

When my tail barely touched the litterbox, snakes have the nerve to bang down the door even if it says "occupied" and then anxiety and can't bowel movement




Unless I get Covid, coronavirus has not impacted my pathetic existence in any significant meaningful permanent way


In October 2020 got a job. It is now July 2021

Still not made redundant

38 years old and the longest I have ever had a job:. Nine months and counting


Large gaps in work history


Made redundant a lot of times


Grossly misunderstood

Yes. I freaking loved not having to deal with anyone. I started finding new places to go for walks. There's a gorge about 10min drive from my house that I knew nothing about. Now it's one of my favourite places to go.

Compare that to my cousin who was going crazy with boredom and missing people. Should couldn't open her business under restrictions so wasn't working and she couldn't go out with her friends. She was climbing the walls. She's a lot happier now things are getting back to normal.

No real change.

I'm still not alone. Still broke. And the house as a whole is still "waiting" for some financial miracle.


I can claim it's my fault for not going out too often before pandemic or something.

My life before pandemic isn't much -- walk about an hour worth of time to work, go to work before 8, go home after around 5 sometimes hours more, then walk home for another hour back.
Socialization varies, but then I don't value it as much.
And sleep inconsistently between 3-15 hours all year around, with occassional mess up to the 24hr cycle... Even now.

So on average, I've been working 10+ hours a day, 5 days a week, and occassionally heavy duty on holiday related events -- not that I do much or do consistently well.
And spent a good long walk about 2 hours a day, for at least 6 days a week.

Yet this pandemic made me realized one thing; my subconscious and further in-depth realizations on how much I have in common, other than autism -- with everyone in this house -- namely my family.


And with only one stark difference; I'm not as exerted as much as I barely go out. But I'm still.. 'Heavy'.
Does this mean the real culprit is simply walking in the city streets for few hours a day? But I like to walk.

This doesn't mean I don't have any sensory and stress related issues then and now. And without accomodations, no aides or protective stuff...
Just tolerance. I just don't have enough signs like anxiety or panic attacks or something meltdown inducing overwhelm. The only signs I have is more subtle, harder to catch, easy to dismiss as discomfort.

While not mentally and emotionally nerve wrecking, it's not any less stressful.

A part of me seem to feel a form of inability to rid of stress. Because I've been holding it back.

A part of me that maybe still suppressing long before diagnosis perhaps. Maybe the reason why my hands are not gentle, why I'm always this tense whenever I move and always overly controlled...

I won't be surprised if it's active stimming or something violent. And still not acting upon it.

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The fact that it was socially acceptable to stay home was amazing. I realize I was fortunate in that I could attend school/work remotely, but that's one reason I chose the field I did. It was a vacation from environmental stress.

The only effect it’s had on me was via the seemingly pointless restrictions that were mandated. Why order supermarkets to close their toilets and then open them again? Why did this library withdraw this connectivity service (which played havoc with my lifestyle) and then open again, when nothing has changed?

Why not do something effective, like stopping the fountains? All those extra water droplets in the air is a great way of propagating virii…

The only good thing I noticed was that it was a lot easier to cross the road, for a while.

The social part of it has barely been a problem to me at all. I'm naturally very reclusive, and it was quite nice knowing that there wouldn't be any unexpected social invitations etc. My preferred kind of socialising is in very small groups, preferably just one-to-one, and somewhere outdoors if possible - exactly the kind of socialising which wasn't affected very much by the restrictions, and there were even a couple of people who I saw more often than I usually would.

On the downside, "social distancing" just did not seem at all real to me. I live in a bed-sit with three party-walls and a "party-floor" on a cul-de-sac of tightly packed back-to-back houses. With everyone off work and the kids off school, the noise has been absolutely horrendous at times: neighbours TVs and music, kids playing in the street right outside the house, incessant yapping dogs, power-tools running, etc. And I couldn't get away from this in the way that I usually would, as the parks and countryside walks have been constantly packed with people using their allowed "exercise" time. I do feel really mean saying that, as I realise that the parks and countryside weren't put there just for little-old me, and everyone likely needed that escape - but my peace-and-quiet time is a life-line for me; without a sanctuary from the rest of humanity for a few hours most days, I go completely doolally very quickly.

One plus has been that I took the opportunity to trick myself into giving up smoking - if I started getting twitchy or stressed out, I just blamed it on all the other disruption instead of the nicotine cravings. I also drank less alcohol than usual because I don't drink except at social occasions (a lot of people have said that the boredom made them drink more). And those two together saved me enough money to buy my first Lego in over 30 years, which really helped to occupy my time!

I think that when the restrictions and the lock down started, I might have been more stressed than an average person since my routines got messed up, but as time went by, I got used to things pretty easily. I got to keep my job, just had to do a different thing from home during the lock down. With all big and small events having been cancelled, I didn't have the stress of should I go/should I not go, which is starting again as the restrictions loosen. Also a great reason to not to have to visit relatives too often, not that it made much of a difference from before since most of them live in places that public transportation doesn't reach all that well and I don't have a car, so I already had a reason not to see them that often.

Honestly, right now I'm mostly bothered by the idea of actually catching it; it's still as a fear in the back of my head, and the fact that it'll probably take time before I can travel again. I have money saved up so I could take a trip abroad any time when the restrictions loosen up enough.

Definitely. I didn’t buy into what the political dictators have been throwing around since the shock doctrine they enabled on March 2020. The W.H.O. staff have been all smily and calm during their press conferences, but their guidance was all about panic and turning the world upside down. Yes, there is a virus. In fact, 2 viruses. Covid-19 and the political elites and those profiting off it (Facebook, Amazon, Big Pharma). I have been very analytical, instead of just following the herd. God knows that very little people weren’t caught in the collective fear, so my view on things is one of an outsider. I was sick as a dog in February 2020, sure I had Covid. I saw a doctor, after over 2 weeks and still a sore throat and not feeling great. Got basically laughed at by the doctor, told to reduce smoking. I think the attitude of the doctor toward Covid was right, despite my frustrated reaction. The doctor knew something was up and that what I had was minor, but the political class, later on, did make it big to use it to their advantage. Anyway, there is no turning back, the world is what is has become and we don’t hear about the “emergency” situation anymore, because it has become our new reality. Deal with it. Anyway, stay safe, even if the government is the enemy, covid is still out there.