@actuallyautistic#actuallyautistic I am officially done. I don’t know how people actually enjoy summer, ESPECIALLY with no AC. “85°F is such a nice temp,” just say you enjoy suffering 😭
But no, if I as much as utter a peep about how I’m miserable and overstimulated, suddenly I’m whining, complaining, a primadonna, and “oh so sensitive” about the heat that everyone is SUDDENLY suffering from at the same level as me.
@Kencf618033@chevalier26@actuallyautistic sweet! I'll skip the trip to the Apple Store and go to General Dynamics instead checks price $1.7 million .. .can I use Apple Pay lol
@chevalier26@actuallyautistic at that temp, not only am I complaining to everyone, but I'm reminding them the animals are suffering and they need to put water out for the flying as well as ground dwelling animals.
Want to enjoy the heat? Tough.
Although that temp is unusual for Scotland and I think we collectively whine about it.
I run my head scarf (fashion, not religious) under the cold tap at work. That's always good for a quick cool down.
Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 246 , Sunday 30/06/2024
Had a nice lie in this morning , I do like Sundays.
I took a day off chasin the Elephant today, it was getting dangerously close to overwhelming me, & they do say that a rest is as good as a change.
A dear, dear friend is starting the adventure of a lifetime tomorrow , moving to a new home on her own!
I wish her all the luck in the world & hope that she makes herself a fantastic life in the new place.
Had a very minor adventure of my own today - a trip over to Costco. Absolutely heaving !
I managed to survive the experience , but I regret being a ‘good boy’ & forgoing all treats 🙄🤦♂️
We binge watched Fisherman’s Friends 1 & 2 - a very pleasant experience😊
Final Thoughts.
There is so much going on at the moment , a day of peace & quiet has done me good.
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
🤗 😘 Fankoos sweets 💜
Yeah it will definitely be a huuuge change! Let's hope it will all work out and it will be a positive experience in the end... 🤗
Yay for being good at the store! I know you're working hard on Woof and I hope it will help you to feel better with time. I know it helped me loads to carry around less weight, less strain on the joints and muscles made a big difference (for me), to be in less discomfort and even less pain. 😊
Glad that you had a good day! I may be less online today myself. But I'll try to share some house bits before I log off for bed. 😉
Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 245 , Saturday 29/06/2024
Just another day in paradise (to quote Phil Collins)
I spent all day ‘chasing the elephant’ -> stop , think where we are , got it ? Right , good, I’m glad we got that sorted !😆
It was too close to being a chore today , I don’t like being pressured into doing stuff, by myself or others.
I did have a good time though, had a lot of laughs with loads of Peeps , who enrich my life beyond all expectation!
I may take tomorrow ‘off’ & just play on the PS5 or read , there is such a thing as ‘too much of a good thing’.
I would hate for my brain to perceive SM as a requirement , rather than a pass time.
Final Thoughts.
To Toot or not to Toot, that is the question,
wether tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous dad jokes, Or to take arms against a sea of memes…
(Apologies to The Bard 😋)
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
Owwww too much of the elephant 🐘? But they're so wonderful.... I just love elephants... I even adopted an orphan for a while... (if I had the funds, I'd still adopt one now, the Sheldrick Trust in Kenya is awesome.) 😊
But yeah, you're a popular master Skwerl, so that's a lot of work! I don't even have half of the friends you got and it can be a lot of "work". It's fun!! But when the spoons are low, it can feel harder to be able to catch up with it all. 🤗
Owwww gaming sounds sooooo nice!! I'll have to get stuff to my parents car later today, but they predict rain till about 11 here, loads and loads of rain... Ugh... Me not likey... So hopefully it will be dry for a bit when I have to pack the car. 😊
Have a good night sweets 😘 hope you're having wonderful dreams... 🤗
Catch you when you're up again! Let's chase the elephant 🐘 so we can catch it for loads of cuddles! 😁
Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 244 , Friday 28/06/2024
A really rough & disturbed night last night, the windows were open to keep the room cool but there was a decent wind & that was making a din. The PF in my right foot decide that it was jealous of all the attention Geoff has been getting & played up all night!
Thankfully today has been a quiet day , no dramas , or need to interact with anyone .
Spent a chunk of the day in the Fediverse chasing the elephant. 😊
Pizza & Thatchers zero for tea & a bit of a Supernatural fest.
Final Thoughts.
Peace - the most elusive of gifts for the ND mind I think .
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! 🫂 🫶🐿️🖖
@actuallyautistic#actuallyautistic One thing I’ve always struggled with is being made fun of for not singing during worship, or not being comfortable with public prayer. Knowing that these things are part of my autism, and not only are acceptable but just as honoring to God has improved my self-image tenfold. I would just like to encourage fellow autistic Christians on here that you shouldn’t let ANYONE tell you that your worship isn’t valid. Last time I checked, the haters aren’t God!
@actuallyautistic#actuallyautistic Another day of being told I’m “British” and “don’t understand U.S. weather” on social media because I don’t enjoy summer time and temps above about 72°F because of sensory issues. Have to school them right back by telling them I’m from the southern U.S. 😂
@Aerliss@chevalier26@actuallyautistic
I was born and raised in the Midlands. But my mother's side is Scottish and my father's Yorkshire. (I know, half Scottish and half Yorkshire. But I'm not tight with money at all... just careful 😅)
@Aerliss@actuallyautistic Even the winters where I live are sometimes too much for me. Every January and February we will get an odd few days where the high is between 70-80°F 🥴. And even on “typical” winter days the high temp hovers in the 40s.
Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 243 , Thursday 27/06/2024
Up around 6am after a disturbed night.
Achieved a couple of things today managed to descale the coffee machine , I was gonna clean it but that is not one of my favourite jobs so I fixed the kitchen tap which has been sticking for a while instead.
I also managed to rearrange the appointment with Beth, the MH Practitioner.
The sock aid that the Occupational Therapist recommended arrived today, I am officially old !
It doesn’t help that I went for the one with the nice fleecy lining rather than the cheaper plastic ones 🤦♂️
Today the sock aid , next week the zimmer frame!
On the whole today has been a much better day than yesterday.
Final Thoughts.
Life is such a rollercoaster, the best we can do is hold on for dear life !
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! 🫂 🫶🐿️🖖
@actuallyautistic#actuallyautistic Just found out that NT people have REAL habits that happen basically on autopilot. This is news to me.
What most NT people think of as a "habit" I think of as a "task," even if it is a part of my routine. For example, brushing and flossing my teeth is a part of my daily routine, but I have to make myself think about each action separately. I wouldn't call them habits because I literally remind myself to do them every night. It isn't automatic.
@theautisticcoach@actuallyautistic
Maybe I'm misunderstanding but life tends not to be worth it without some comfort & joy. Without them you are either fulfilling the capitalists dream of not earning enough to live on whilst working yourself to the bone or are suffering in some other way that leaves you totally drained & feeling worthless.
Diary of an ASD Squirrel. Day 242 , Wednesday 26/06/2024
TL:DR Occupational Therapy, socks & being geographically challenged !
Up around 5:45 , for those of you wondering about Geoff he has slunk off for now, satisfied that there are not enough puritans in my diet to trigger him!
Spent some time tidying up for the incoming visitor - shifted all the junk to my bedroom, which it turns out he needed to see 🙄🤦♂️
So had the Occupational Therapist round this morning a young chap, who was friendly & patient with my rabbiting on.
There is not a lot that he can do to help, mostly because as far as OT goes I don’t need a lot. He is going to discuss my case with the community MH team to see if they can help ( I hope Beth - who I was supposed to see today , see below, isn’t in that meeting ! ) .
He did say that he could try & help get past the agoraphobia & then help me with some of the more crippling social issues.
He also got me to order a sock aid - because I don’t have full mobility in my right leg & putting my sock on is frankly flipping annoying! So we will see how the sock aid helps. The one I ordered looks like an out sized sling shot 😆
I was due to see the Mental Health Practitioner at 15:00 today , sat at my local surgery for an hour before realising that she was sitting waiting for me 3 miles down the road at another surgery ! 🙄🤦♂️
Classic lesson in ‘read what it says in the text’ as opposed to letting autopilot run the show!
So now I have to wait to see if she will call me to book another appointment.
In my defence no-one in my local GPs surgery had the faintest clue if she was in the building or not!
If nothing else one wonders what they would have done in a fire or emergency situation 🙄🤦♂️
So now I’m stressed to buggery about missing the appointment & wasting her valuable time & her being, rightly, pissed off at me!
I’ve had time to calm down now so I’m just berating myself constantly for being a plonker!
Final Thoughts.
One of the possible co-morbidities of being Autistic is anxiety - & boy was mine triggered today.
Another on is ones mind shutting down under stress - & leading one to make really silly mistakes.
Ah well tomorrow is another day!
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
Best just jump around on the other foot then 😉 Hihi...
Hopefully there's something that could help you with it sweets!
Yay!!! That's good! 😁
🤗 😘 @actuallyautistic
I've never paid much attention to song lyrics. With repeated listening I might learn bits of it but for many songs I've got no clue what they say even after decades of listening. For me, vocals are just another instrument. Still, I've been the vocalist in several bands!
There's a big difference between Finnish and English lyrics for me. As Finnish is my native language, I find it way easier to decipher lyrics, unlike in English, even though my English is pretty good.
Now that I know about my auditory processing difficulties, I wonder if it's related to that. How about my fellow autistics? Do you pay attention to lyrics?
@LehtoriTuomo@actuallyautistic I love lyrics, and have a collection of songs I know by heart.
I get vaguely troubled when a song doesn't really make sense - so for instance Toto's Africa has lyrics that seem like they mean something, but on examination you realise you have no idea what the song is about.
It varies, depending on the genre. The lyrics & their meaning are more important in some genres than others. I love to sing & have been in a few choirs. I don’t enjoy singing in other languages purely for the sound, because when I sing, lyrics are important to me. It’s not enough for me to know the overall gist of the song. It’s less important when I’m listening, or merely singing along.
@actuallyautistic#actuallyautistic Wish more YouTubers and content creators added a toggle to their videos that could switch off background music. Idk about y'all, but so many videos have added music that is unnecessary, distracting, and overstimulating.
I have seen videos on YouTube where the closed captions settings have been programmed with a separate audio track with no commentary, so I know it can be done! Would probably be so helpful for so many people!
@chevalier26@actuallyautistic Hear, hear! I bitch about this a fair bit myself, too. I even emailed a complaint to YT two weeks ago, asking for an easy way to make background music optional. I sometimes complain directly to creators, but there's only been one that removed the music after that, and she's autistic. ND creators just ignore me completely, or say they appreciate the feedback but then do nothing about it. Sometimes I wonder if a campaign to leave a lot of feedback on videos would help, but it doesn't seem likely.