Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 230 , Friday 14/06/2024
I am going to shamelessly nick an idea of a dear friend & my left big toe will henceforth be known as ‘Geoff the Gouty Great Toe! (Big toes used to be called Great toes back in the olden days seemingly)
An awful night last night I ate something that Geoff really disapproved of & he was not shy in putting forth his view ! I took his disapproval for an hour then medicated his ass with some codeine & paracetamol.
Up early this morning despite the disturbed night & Mrs S. being on holiday. Pavlov’s Squirrel !
Had a fairly easy morning & rested my poor,sore tootsies.
It struck me this morning in the light of the last couple of days entries that there is one major problem with yon Social Prescriber getting me to go to this Social Cafe …. They are not providing me with the tools to cope with this first!
One of my NT guides pointed out ,& I’m paraphrasing here, that just because I can do the whole socialising thing doesn’t mean I should. There is such a concept as ‘too much of a good thing’.
I remember the last time I was in a prescribed ‘social’ situation - attending the Cardio rehab course after my MI. Long story short , it was a disaster , I ended up storming out on the penultimate session because the social pressures were too much!
Today ,online, one of my prominent traits showed up - I can be very blunt at times, I fail to ease my point into a conversation - my NT brain proffering to ‘hammer home’ the point rather than be more subtle & gentle.
My ASD diagnosis report picks up on this & makes the point that it can ,& indeed has, trip me up in social situations!
If I decide that I really do want to move out of my current comfort zone into a more physically social one then I need to work with the various health professionals to get the sequence right & get the tool kit first!
Tonight I felt that I struck a decent compromise for tea. I did have pizza , but Ham n mushroom not a meat feast - I felt the latter might be taunting the gout gods just a little too much.
At this point Geoff is quite happy so long as I don’t try anything too athletic. Hopefully that will continue thru tonight!
Final Thoughts.
Geoff has made his views very clear on the whole diet thing, namely that he is in charge!
Is it a good thing or a bad thing I have anthropomorphised my big toe ? Is this an indicator that I should resist mixing directly with the rest of the human race?
Thank you to all those who are helping me on this journey, in a myriad different ways. I am thankful to each & every one of you! 🫂 🫶🐿️🖖
@Tim_McTuffty@actuallyautistic hey Tim, I think you wanna use the edit of Masto and change the NT to ND? Or did I misunderstood and you did mean NT? 🤔
Sorry about Geoff, though I did enjoy some chat time with ya 😉
Don't put too much pressure on being social though. Even people who struggle less with it don't always want or need it that much (or so I've been told 😉). Person to person is good but when you have online friends, they are real too! (except when they start saying silly things, like putting weird stuff on yon pizza 😂). It's still contact, even though you don't see/hear/touch and all... For me, I'd be lost without my online friends... They mean loads to me and I enjoy spending time with them. But the lovely thing about online is, for me, that I can engage when I feel like it. There is less pressure to immediately interact. ITMAS... 🤔
Yeah I meant ND - my brain is being particularly obtuse at the moment!
Thanks for the heads up , edits have been made.
Pretty much all my social contact is online now, which suits me fine TBH , I know that I should want to get out & attend parties & chat with folk at cafes etc but one has to put so much effort into masking to do that. Especially as I cannot hide behind a Squirrel suit in the analog world. I think I’m a little quantum like that - your can either know my real identity or know my real self , but not both. Schrödinger would have a field day !
I have some truly fantastic online friends here including a Cheeky Dutch Pixy , and for that I am truly grateful! 🤗🥰
@Tim_McTuffty@actuallyautistic you're very welcome 🌸
And yeah, I do meet up with friends at times but I'm not too much of a "going out" person. Too many people, too much noise, often too many smells.... Big nope.
Much of my chats are online too and they're just great so I keep enjoying them as much as I can. 😊
Big huggies! 🤗 😘
@Tim_McTuffty@actuallyautistic
Everything Tum. Sorry about Geoff. Have you considered starting a food diary and everytime Geoff plays up noting down what you ate that day. It may help you pin down what aggravates him.