“If you want my help, then stop rejecting it!”

If you’ve already read my post, “It’s not good enough. I’m not good enough,” then you should know that I tend to be somewhat perfectionist when it comes to my schoolwork, or just about anything. This has been the case since middle school, I believe, and it gradually got worse from then onward. I think it probably hit its peak when I was in my later high school years, and did not get any better afterwards. My academic fastidiousness was particularly noticeable in how I handled many of my homework assignments, and it would sometimes cause me to have nervous meltdowns.

To clarify, however, I actually did pretty well in terms of my schoolwork throughout most of high school and college. Although I struggled quite a bit with the workload and would habitually complain of having too much to worry about at once, I usually completed my assignments with commendable results and performed very nicely on exams for the most part. So I wasn’t exactly having troubles with learning the material or studying it.

Instead, I believe much of the ongoing anxiety came from my desire to do as well as I possibly could with each assignment for every class, combined with my constant lack of confidence in my ability to do so. I typically approached each piece of homework I was given, from minor daily assignments to big, long-term projects, with an intention to do a really good job and impress the instructor, as well as myself. In the majority of cases, I was able to complete my homework without getting too worked up about the outcome or how I was going to be graded. Naturally, it was the larger, more complex assignments that tended to bring me a lot of stress and make me worry that I wouldn’t be able to do well. Smaller projects could also make me anxious if I didn’t fully understand what I was supposed do.

Anyway, as I’m sure most kids would, I often asked my parents for help with my homework whenever I was having trouble. At least half of the time, my mom or dad (sometimes both of them) was successfully able to assist me with whatever I was struggling with, without a whole lot of drama. I must admit that in several cases, they may have done some of the work for me, particularly when it came to long-term writing assignments. I can’t blame them for doing this as I actually used to have some difficulties with writing, believe it or not; specifically with trying not to sound too awkward or vague.

Unfortunately, there were far too many instances where my anxiety and perfectionism got the better of me and led to usually brief, yet unpleasant conflicts with my parents. What I mean by this is that I would sometimes become a little fussy or upset when the help that they were giving me didn’t meet my expectations or went against what I wanted to do. This more often occurred with writing assignments, and nearly always involved my parents wanting to do something with the assignment that was very different from what I had in mind. The idea of completely abandoning my ideas or going with something that I didn’t think could work filled me with severe apprehension, and thus usually resulted in me having some kind of emotional outburst or temper tantrum. On occasion, the same thing could also happen if I simply didn’t think that what my parents were suggesting was “good enough” or wasn’t helping all that much.

Whatever the case, I would make quite a scene while my parents tried to give me the best help they could with the assignment. Being so overwhelmingly stressed out and confused, I would stubbornly reject their suggestions and shout at them angrily. I would moan or yell things like “This won’t work,” or “This isn’t what I’m supposed to do,” or “I still don’t know what to do,” or “No, that’s not how I wanna do it!” Eventually, seeing that I wasn’t listening to reason or willing to give their proposals a chance, my parents would throw up their arms and say, “Ok Tim, I give up! You’re on your own! We’re trying to help you, and you just aren’t letting us!” At this point, I would implore them to continue helping me and try my best to explain why I couldn’t go with their recommendations. Afterwards, I would usually either calm down gradually and let my parents assist me in the way they were suggesting, or I would stick with what I thought was best for the assignment, with or without my parents’ help. Most of the time, I believe the former was the ultimate outcome.

Looking back on these nervous meltdowns, although I definitely regret being so rude and stubborn with my parents when they were trying to help, I honestly do understand why I behaved the way I did. As I mentioned earlier, my perfectionist way of doing things was really problematic at this point in my life, and so I was very easily stressed out by my schoolwork. I cared a great deal about my academics and wanted to do as well as I could on all of my assignments. At same time, I didn’t like taking risks or trying things I wasn’t confident I could do successfully. I wanted to feel completely safe in what I was doing with my homework, to know that I was “doing what I should be doing.” Meanwhile, I always looked up to my parents and believed that they could give me the solution to any problem I was having, especially it if was school-related. So when my parents tried to help by suggesting something that I thought was risky or pushed me out of my comfort zone, I understandably became very nervous and conflicted. On one hand, I wanted them to help me and I knew that I couldn’t proceed confidently without them, but on the other hand, what they wanted me to do was at odds with what I thought I needed to do with the assignment. So I think you can see why this would lead me to get into intense arguments with my parents.

All the same, I still realize that I should have been much more appreciative of my parents’ assistance, and I wish I didn’t give them such a hard time when they were just trying to be helpful. Believe me when I say that my mom and dad had to put up with quite a lot on my part; they showed a remarkable amount of patience, tolerance, and understanding when most people would probably lose their cool and give up on me completely. For that, I am forever grateful to them! I still go to them for help with my schoolwork every now and then, and they never fail to make me feel much more confident in my ability to get it done successfully. I try to express my gratitude for their assistance by achieving the best academic results that I possibly can, letting them know that it is only thanks to them that I have been able to succeed so well. If it weren’t for their ongoing, unconditional support as well as their patience, I wouldn’t have come even close to accomplishing what I did in high school as well as in college.

C’mon let’s go, let’s go! Move dammit!

I wish to start this post by confessing that I may have been slightly off in my previous posts concerning Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Upon closer examination, I think that I might actually have Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), instead of just ADD. I say this because, as I will soon explain in further detail, I not only have trouble paying attention and focusing on my current task, but also with being mentally and physically still when I need to. After doing a little bit of “research”, I’ve discovered that this tendency is often a symptom of ADHD, which makes sense to me since “hyperactivity” does indicate a sense of restlessness and impatience. Therefore I wish to apologize for not realizing this much earlier and constantly saying that I am diagnosed with ADD, not ADHD (I am unable to officially verify that I have either disorder, but I will assume that I have ADHD simply because it seems extremely likely).

With that out of the way, let’s discuss my problems with staying still and waiting placidly (probably caused by ADHD). Indeed, a lot of times I find it difficult to be calm and comfortable when I’m forced to wait for something to progress or when something is not proceeding as quickly as I’d like it to.  In other words, if things aren’t moving along at a nice, ongoing pace or if I have to deal with several delays, then I can easily become slightly irritated and “on edge”. This is especially the case when I have to remain seated in a chair or keep standing for a long time, and it’s almost unbearable when I have absolutely nothing to do. On some occasions, it will cause me to complain out loud to others or put me in a grumpy mood.

In my earlier years, this issue with hyperactivity and impatience was much more troublesome, and it led to quite a few temper tantrums and arguments with my parents. I would frequently become very upset if I was told to wait and be patient in a place that was extremely boring and uninteresting for me. I can remember a couple of instances where I made a bit of a scene in public, whining and yelling to parents that we leave a store or restaurant or museum right away. Yeah, my parents put up with a great deal of annoyance and frustration on my part, and I’m immensely grateful that they hardly ever lost their temper with me. They seriously deserve a lot of credit for how patient and understanding they were with me, even when I was driving them insane and would not shut up.

Like with many other problems related to my Aspergers, the issue has gotten much better over time, but has not gone away completely. There are plenty of instances in my current life where I get incredibly anxious because I have to wait for things to move along. A perfect example to point to would be when I’m driving. As you probably expect, I like to drive as fast as the speed limit allows (which I like to think is about 8-10 miles above the limit, depending on road conditions), and I take every opportunity to do so. I am very easily annoyed, therefore, when I am forced to drive slower than I’d like due to the speed of the car in front of me. I will say to myself “Oh, COME ON!” and let out a soft groan, begrudgingly staying behind the other driver and matching their speed. I might keep hoping that the car will eventually make a turn, and sometimes I will consider passing them if I have the chance. Unfortunately, I never feel confident enough to pass a car on a one-lane road, and I will usually have no choice but to just wait until I am able to drive at my preferred speed. Yes, I know that this sort of thing can annoy just about anyone, but I get particularly annoyed by the idea of being forced to wait and spend more time driving.

Now there may be some of you who are a little confused by all of this, after I mentioned in my earlier post “All the time in the world…” that I tend to take more time to complete certain tasks than others do. It may seem logical to assume that I would be perfectly ok with things going slowly so that I am able to keep up. The thing is, actually, that my sluggish, time-consuming pace also irritates me much of the time. I am regularly frustrated by my failure to accomplish tasks in a speedy fashion and to be more productive throughout the day. It’s one of the reasons why I often have  slightly low self-esteem, as I will frequently put myself down for not meeting my own desires for productivity.

Fortunately, as I mentioned earlier, I am gradually getting better at being patient and accepting the fact that things don’t always go as quickly as I’d like them to. At the very least, I don’t whine or complain as much as I did when I was a child, and I’ve learned that demanding that other people pick up the pace doesn’t resolve anything. I still have some progress to make, though, especially since I will eventually be living on my own and have to deal with situations that require a huge amount of patience. With the help of meditation, exercise, and other resources, it is my hope that I will be able to maintain good posture when it is needed the most (e.g. going to the DMV, talking to employers, getting loans from the bank, and attending special events for loved ones).

Asperger’s and Stimming: Hair-Pulling

I have a question for my Aspie readers: How many of you regularly engage in something called “stimming,” which means repetitive, self-stimulating activities? I’m talking about things such as foot-tapping, finger-biting, playing with pens, making noises with your mouth, picking your nose, messing with your hair – stuff that you find yourself doing impulsively on a regular basis, usually when you’re bored, nervous, or excited.

Come on guys, be honest. I’m willing to wager that many of you with Asperger Syndrome or ASD (or possibly without any disorder) do at least a small bit of stimming every once in a while. No need to feel bad about it, though. It’s honestly nothing to be ashamed of and in most cases it’s perfectly harmless, healthy behavior. I personally do it nearly every single day, typically whenever I’m not doing anything else with my hands or not engaged in any other busy activity.  A few examples of my stimming activities that I’m willing to share include tapping my face with my fingers, fooling around with whatever small objects I have near me, speaking meaningless gibberish, folding up or breaking pieces of plastic or paper, and picking at my teeth. There are tons of other forms of stimming I engage in regularly that I choose not to share since many of them are honestly somewhat embarrassing to share. I think a few of my fellow “stimmers” might understand what I’m talking about here.

For those of you who don’t stim and don’t understand why people like me do it so compulsively, allow me to explain. The best way I can describe it to people unfamiliar with the concept is like this: imagine that you have this really painful itch that comes up frequently during certain times of the day, such as at work or while watching television. Let’s say that this itch usually occurs when you feel stressed, nervous, or not doing anything interesting. Unfortunately, there is no available remedy to make the itch completely go away so the only thing you can do to subdue the pain is to scratch the itch. You may not want to scratch this itch, especially in front of other people, but the pain is just way too overwhelming for you to ignore it. Over time, you will probably end up scratching this itch as soon as it comes up without even thinking about it – you just do it on a normal basis as part of your daily routine. This may not be the very best illustration of why people on the autism spectrum stim, but I think it’s fairly accurate.

In any case, I believe most people reading this article can agree that, for the most part, stimming isn’t something that people should have to completely avoid doing or that can cause harmful side effects. The reason I say “for the most part” is because there are instances, although relatively rare, where an instance of stimming can lead to unwanted consequences to one’s body or other important parts of the person. I say this from personal experience, having once engaged form of stimming that was quite unhealthy and had some negative repercussions.

Starting in early middle school, I began impulsively pulling hair out of my head. This would usually occur during classes or when I was feeling bored or anxious. I would either pluck individual strands of hair one by one, or I would twirl a bunch of strands at once and then pull them all out. Please do not ask why I did this instead of something much less damaging to myself. I honestly have no idea why I thought pulling my hair was an appropriate way to calm myself down or pass time. Plus I knew fully well at the time that it wasn’t good for me to do, so I’m guessing it must have been really effective at alleviating my “itch”, so to speak.

It didn’t take too long before a visible bald spot started forming on my scalp. To make things even worse: I continued to pluck hair from that area, making the bald spot increasingly noticeable to others (again, don’t ask why, I don’t know). As soon as my mom detected this issue, she became upset and tried her hardest to stop me from making it any worse. She attempted to stop me pulling any more strands from that area of my scalp by applying lotion to it every day. This solution wasn’t very effective, as I took every single opportunity that I could to yank more hair from that spot when the lotion wasn’t there.

Eventually my mom lost her patience and decided that the only way to resolve this issue was to cut my hair super short so that it would be extremely ha. So after a year or so of having this bald spot, she took me to a barber shop and had them give me a buzz cut. This was meant to be temporary, and I was supposed to let my hair grow back until the bald spot was no longer visible. My mom likely thought this would teach me a lesson and convince me to find other ways to stim when I’m bored or nervous. Ironically, I actually grew to like this new hairstyle, and I insisted that I be allowed to keep it from now on. That is essentially why I have short hair today – because I couldn’t stop pulling my hair so I was given a haircut that prevented me from doing it anymore. If I’m honest, I prefer having this hairstyle more than having the bowl cut I used to have.

Of course, I do not want to suggest in any way that it was good that I pulled my hair to the point where my mom had it cut short. It was absolutely terrible having that bald spot, and I hated having to come up with a story about a barber “messing up my haircut” whenever someone at school asked about it. Also, what if I ended up not liking the hairstyle, and I had to find a way to grow back my hair without letting myself pluck it out again? That’s why I strongly discourage people who stim from doing things that can potentially damage their image or bodily/mental health in some way.

There are plenty of better ways to “alleviate the itch” that don’t involve hurting yourself at all, most notably through the use of stimming toys. Stimming toys are small trinkets designed specifically to allow people with Asperger’s, ASD, and other issues to emit tension in a healthy, non-distracting manner. If you are interested in buying these toys, simply look up “stimming toys” on Google or Yahoo and you’ll find countless results. I own more than a few of them myself and they have proven extremely effective in keeping me relaxed and subduing that painful itch – that is, when I have them with me. The rest of the time I do things like tap my face, play with pens, and make annoying sounds with my mouth.

This is… uh… my p-post… about… y’know… t-t-talking… and stuff

I really do not want to come across as arrogant or self-congratulatory here, but I must say that I am an exceptionally skilled writer. Despite what I said in “It’s not good enough. I’m not good enough” about rarely feeling 100% satisfied with my work, I will admit that, from an objective point of view, I can write some rather commendable pieces. This is at least what I’ve been told countless times by family members, professors, and other people who have seen my academic essays and blog posts. Additionally, I believe that I’m rather good at writing emails, personal letters, and even simple text messages. The bottom line here is that when it comes to written communication, I am usually able to get my points across effectively and express my thoughts eloquently.

Verbal communication, however, is a completely different story for me. Oh boy, if you think I can speak about as well as I can write, then you are dead wrong. When I try to express myself verbally, it hardly ever comes out precisely how I’d like it to. I could practically go on forever describing how poor I am at oral communication, so I will try my best to give a sufficient explanation of the issue without going too overboard.

To start with, it seems like I have profound difficulty getting the exact words that I want to say to come out of my mouth. It’s hard to fully explain what I mean by this, but I guess you could say it’s very similar to what tends to happen when you’re trying to talk to someone while extremely nervous. Consequently, whenever I’m trying to share a certain idea with or make a specific statement to someone else, what I end up actually saying to them does a poor job at articulating that sentiment. In most cases, my speech suffers from terrible diction, very flawed grammar, incomplete sentences, unclear phrasing, constant repetition, misuse of certain words, and tons of “um’s” and “eh’s.”

Allow me to illustrate what this can look like in daily life. Let’s say that I’m having a casual conversation with a friend, and we are talking about the most recent Pixar film, Inside Out. A one point, I wish to comment on how I adore the movie’s ability to make the audience experience sorts of emotions, putting them on a sort of “roller coaster of emotions” as it progresses. Now the statement that I would want to come out of my mouth looks something like this: “Yeah, what I enjoyed most about this movie is just how emotionally powerful it is; how it is able to make us feel all these different sentiments depending on what the characters are going through. There are moments when you are genuinely happy and cheerful when watching it, as well as moments when you seriously just want to cry your eyes out. That is simply amazing!” Unfortunately, the actual words that come out of my mouth will most likely sound like this: “Uh yeah, I r-r-really liked how that movie… y’know… makes you feel and… feel all these feelings. There are m-moments when you’re really happy and moments when really you want to cry. I mean… uh… y’know… it’s just… so moving!” As hard as I try to articulate the former statement, for some reason, I cannot help but speak the latter statement.

This issue is prevalent whenever I am engaged in nearly any sort of dialogue with one or more other people, regardless of who they are. It occurs when talking to my parents, friends, other family members, bosses at work, academic professors, or complete strangers. The only time when I can speak much more fluently is when I’m talking to myself (yeah, I do that a lot, and I’ll cover it in a future blog post). Unsurprisingly, verbal communication becomes even more problematic for me when I’m trying to be formal and respectful with the other person – e.g., meeting new people at a party or answering questions during job interview. Indeed, the very first thing people tend to notice about me is how awkward I sound when talking to them.

Expressing myself in words is even more difficult in situations when I’m feeling very stressed or under a ton of pressure. My speech is then filled with even more “um’s” and “eh’s,” and I can hardly get any of the words that I want to speak to come out right. On top of this, I can’t help but stutter a little every couple of seconds, and take long pauses to process my thinking before I continue speaking. It’ll essentially sound like I’m about to have panic attack, even if what’s happening at the moment doesn’t warrant it in the least. This most likely connects to my struggles with anxiety (See “Not allowing myself peace: Anxiety and Me”), since it tends to affect me a bit more harshly than it does most other people.

What is most interesting about this whole situation is that, as mentioned in my post “Tim, please… keep it to yourself”, I actually really like to talk to other people. Despite how challenging it can be to express myself verbally, I still like to engage in conversation with other people (predominately family and friends) whenever I can. To make matters worse (again, as I explained in “Tim, please… keep it to yourself), I cannot help but open my mouth a bit more frequently than I should, often dominating the conversation and going into lengthy rants. As a result, I sometimes end up making a bit of an ass of myself, chattering on and on while sounding like a blend of Jeff Goldblum, a political talk show host, and a nervous 7-year-old (yeah that’s the best description I could think of).

I realize that problems with verbal communication aren’t exactly uncommon among Aspies or people on the autism spectrum, so I’ll bet there are plenty of people out there who can identify with what I’m saying in this post. I have already mentioned before that knowing how to properly converse with other individuals simply doesn’t come naturally to us as it does for most neuro-typicals. So I do understand why there are many people with Asperger Syndrome who prefer not to engage in verbal dialogue with others at all. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that it really sucks not being able to express oneself as fluently or clearly as most others can. It is my hope that we each eventually find a way to make oral communication much simpler for us, as it would be especially helpful in matters such as getting a steady job and expanding our social lives.

Girls, girls, girls~

It should come as no surprise to anyone when I say that I’m currently single. I have already mentioned my struggles with socialization and making connections with other individuals multiple times throughout my blog. To summarize my problems: I don’t feel comfortable hanging out in large groups of people; I have significant trouble having fluent conversations with people without talking too much; I’m unfamiliar with many social cues and rules that most others follow; and I find it difficult to stay in touch with people after I meet them so that we continue to know each other after meeting. In other words, I lack several skills that are often crucial to forming any kind of good relationship with someone, let alone a romantic one.

In fact, that I’ve been in almost zero intimate relationships so far – I think I’ve only had one woman so far that I can consider a “girlfriend”. I do, however, reach out to women online every now and then via services such as OkCupid and Tinder, and I have been on a couple of dates (some of them online). Despite how socially isolated I still am, I’m on the search for potential partners, though I try to be as careful as I can not to jump into relationships that probably won’t work. Hopefully it won’t be too long before a find a woman that seems compatible with my personality and is willing to put up with me as an Aspie.

With all that said, I would like to take a moment to discuss a bit of my history with girls and affections for them, specifically as a kid and teenager. While it was difficult for me to socialize or communicate with any of my peers during those years, girls were particularly challenging and I made relatively few connections with them in school. Even as a young child, trying to interact with females that were my age commonly made me uneasy, sometimes to the point where I would avoid as much as I could. To make things more problematic, I often developed crushes on girls that I became acquainted with, secretly hoping that they may eventually become my girlfriend. I was quintessentially an embodiment of the lonely nerd stereotype you often see on television (think Ugly Betty or “Screech” from Saved by the Bell).

I made every attempt I could to hide my affections and pretend I had no interest in those girls whatsoever. Unfortunately, I don’t think I was very good at hiding these feelings. At school, I would sometimes stare or awkwardly glance at girls that I found attractive or was acquainted with. Yeah, I know, I was a bit of a creep back then, and thinking about it today makes me cringe so hard. Furthermore, there were a couple of instances where I was so nervous and unaware of what I was doing that I ended up unwittingly revealing my affections for them. When this happened, I usually scared them away and they would not want to talk to me afterwards. I’m honestly fortunate that I had any female acquaintances and friends to speak of during my elementary school years.

There are two girls in particular that usually come to mind whenever I think about how poor I was at having social connections with females around my age. Note: I’ve changed the actual names of these girls for obvious reasons.

The first girl was called Jessie. I knew her from middle school and I always found her to be extremely cute. At one point I had the fortune of being semi-friends with her, though we didn’t hang out together or chat with each other all that much. To be honest, it might be a stretch to call her a friend given how little time I actually spent with her. If nothing else, we were good acquaintances, she was very friendly to me, and I developed a huge crush on her. The problem was that I was far too insecure to tell her that I liked her, let alone ask her on a date or something. So instead, whenever Jessie was in the same class as me, I habitually glanced over at her every couple of minutes, occasionally staring at her a little. This naturally made her feel uncomfortable, so she asked me several times, as nicely as she could, to not do that. I did my best to comply with her request, though I still couldn’t help but look at her every now and then. Eventually we stopped being close acquaintances, mainly due to me not voting for a friend of Jessie’s for class president, and I learned to stop eyeing her during class. Although I never got to hook up with Jessie or even become good friends with her, our “relationship” at least faded without any drama or humiliation on my part.

The same can’t be said about the second girl, unfortunately. Her name was Lily and I got to know her as a sophomore in high school. I actually didn’t notice her for a while until she started saying hi to me about every day and generally acted incredibly kind and cordial towards me. Of course, I began to develop strong affections for her and this time I was confident enough to attempt asking her out on a date. She (sort of) said yes, and we ended up seeing a movie at her place, which is where I found out that Lily was already in a relationship with someone. I was immensely jealous, though I attempted to hide it as much as I could from her and continued to hang out with her as friend afterwards. I seriously wish I could’ve allowed things to stay like this and accept the fact that she was already in a relationship, but back then I was far too impulsive and irrational to listen to my better judgment. You see, at the time, I was regularly exposed to romance in the media and had several male friends who had girlfriends, causing my feelings toward her to intensify to a point of desperation. This led to probably one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in my life so far, which was writing a letter that confessed my feelings for her. I’d rather not go into detail about what happened after I gave her the letter, but needless to say it caused our friendship to immediately cease and she didn’t speak to me anymore. While this outcome did bring me considerable sadness and embarrassment, I like to think that I learned an important lesson from this ordeal about relationships, non-reciprocal affections, and how not to handle being friend-zoned.

There are several other similar experiences with girls from my elementary, middle, and high school that I could point to, but for now I’ll spare you those stories for the sake of keeping this post as short as I can (given how long it already is). Anyhow, I’m happy to say that as I matured through high school and college, I became substantially better at talking with females, forming casual connections with them, and accepting when my feelings toward a girl are not mutual. This hasn’t fixed my problems with socializing and connecting with others nor has it made me any more appealing as a person to women. However I personally consider it progress that I no longer hide from females to avoid embarrassment or act like a complete jerk when one talks to me.

Going back to the subject of dating and romance in general, I think it’s safe to assume that I’m not the only Aspie who experiences difficulty with the subject. Given how Asperger Syndrome, or any ASD, generally involves some obstacles to social communication and interpersonal connections, it makes sense that intimate relationships can be particularly challenging for Aspies. I have seen plenty of people with Asperger’s share their past and present struggles with dating and relationships; this YouTube video is an excellent example. Moreover, I’ve read several online posts that explain why people with Asperger Syndrome can have trouble finding romantic partners. There’s an article from the Good Men Project website that, in my opinion, almost flawlessly explains the issue. This quote here probably sums it better than anyone else ever could: “For better or worse, thee is a music to dating, and while people with AS [Asperger Syndrome] can understand the verses (and often have a distinctly straightforward way of expressing ourselves that can be refreshing), we struggle with the pitch, rhythm, dynamics, timbre, and texture. The end result is emotional tone deafness.”

I do not wish to infer that most people with Asperger’s or ASD are incapable of dating or finding a suitable partner. There is no shortage of success stories throughout the globe of Aspies forming very loving, happy relationships with other individuals. Additionally, there are countless useful resources for people with Asperger Syndrome looking to improve their dating game (just Google “dating advice for people with aspergers” and you should probably find something that helps).

Sadly this does not change the fact that a considerable percentage of adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders are either unmarried or single compared to the rest of the population (See this link for reference). This isn’t simply because people with Asperger’s have difficulty socializing in general and connecting with people intimately. There are several factors about how many Aspies function, myself include, that can make them seem “unappealing” or “problematic” to many potential partners. This is only strengthened by stories of people who have been in relationships with Aspies and have reported being mentally overwhelmed and stressed out as a result. Whether or not most of these individuals gave their Aspie partners a fair chance, I can’t honestly say.

What is clear from all of this is that getting involved in the dating scene and discovering someone who can truly embrace and love us for who we are as Aspies can be a long, difficult road. There are some individuals, unfortunately, who won’t be able to acquire that special someone and live much of their lives on their own. In my opinion, this road can be worth traveling if it means possibly getting together with someone who can help make me feel complete as person as well as serve as a supportive and sympathetic companion for the other challenges that I will face in life. Although the odds might be somewhat against me, I am willing to at least continue giving it a shot and hold onto the hope that there maybe, just maybe, exists a woman that I share a great deal in common with and will be more than able to accept my awkward and strange ways. I mean, it’s possible that won’t happen at all and I will be single and lonely for most of my life. I don’t think it’ll hurt for me to at least try seeking love.

Asperger Syndrome and Executive Functioning

Ok, I have to return to the topic that was first brought up in “What do I do? What ‘should’ I do?” one more time. There is something that I forgot to discuss in the related series of posts that helps explain the whole situation even better. This will probably be the last time, at least for a long time, that I submit an entry related to this particular topic. Also, this post isn’t as long as many of the others I’ve been uploading lately because I honestly don’t have that much information to offer on this issue.

Anyway, so if you’ve already read the aforementioned post, you know that I will sometimes freak out and have a little mental breakdown if I have a particularly large number of responsibilities that need to be addressed. When this happens, I spend so much time worrying and stressing myself out that I can hardly get anything done at first. In many instances I will need the help of my parents or a counselor to help me calm down and get productive. I also explained that two important sources for this problem are my difficulties with time management, and my perfectionist tendencies – which includes a false belief that I’m never “good enough.”

There is yet another element to this topic that I neglected to mention in that first post. It actually explains to a considerable degree why I get overwhelmed so easily with schoolwork and other things. You see, my mother has told me that, since I have Asperger Syndrome, I struggle quite a bit with executive functions, which makes it more difficult for me to handle multiple responsibilities efficiently. What exactly are executive functions, you may ask? According to an article by Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child*, executive functions denotes the management of important cognitive processes that allow us to fulfill a variety of tasks. These processes include planning, short-term memory, problem-solving, reasoning, and self-control. So basically, they are the kinds of skills that facilitate multitasking.

In short, it appears that my mind sometimes has a bit difficulty engaging in these sorts of mental processes. This definitely sheds some light on many of my problems with stress, time management, social interaction, concentration, and even reading. Additionally, I have been able to verify from several sources** that many individuals with Asperger Syndrome suffer from a slight deficit in executive functioning, among other mental areas. Therefore, I can safely say that my brain might simply be setup so that it’s harder for me to manage many responsibilities at once without stressing out.

I’m afraid that I don’t really have much else to say about my issues with executive functions. I’m fairly certain my story isn’t really that different from other people who have Asperger Syndrome and suffer from deficits in executive functioning. It’s pretty much how our brains work, and there isn’t a whole lot we can do about it. After all, this is why Aspergers and Autism are called disorders.

Of course, I do not wish to imply that we are helpless victims or that there isn’t any way to cope with this issue. Far, FAR from it. There exists a vast multitude of ways in which children as well as adults with Aspergers or Autism can deal with their complications and be able to manage numerous tasks at once. I have already mentioned several tools that I use to help with ADD and anxiety, such as meditation, exercise, and audiobooks. I know of several other methods that individuals with Aspergers or Autism can improve their executive functions to some degree.

For instance, it can extremely helpful for Aspie students to have a checklist that breaks down each of their schoolwork assignments – dividing them into small, much more manageable parts. Some people also recommend having a sort of personal organizational system set up in their living space: with colored labels for where different items should go, reminders and checklists for various chores and tasks, and photos of what clean bedrooms and kitchens should look like. If you look online you should find dozens of recommended techniques, services, books, and iPhone apps to help children and adults on the Autism spectrum deal with their deficits in executive functions.

* http://developingchild.harvard.edu/key_concepts/executive_function/

** http://cirpstudents.com/Research%20Library/assets/another-advanced-test-of-theory-of- mind–evidence-from-very-high-functioning-adults–with-autism-or-asperger-syndrome-.pdfm, http://www.du.edu/psychology/dnrl/Executive%20function%20deficits%20in%20high-functioning%20autistic.pdf, http://www.sacramentoasis.com/docs/8-22-03/core_deficits.pdf, http://aut.sagepub.com/content/3/3/213.full.pdf, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1991.tb00352.x/abstract

Tim’s Aspie Diet

Here is another topic that I think a good amount of fellow Aspies can relate to: an “abnormal” diet. I consider my daily meal plan to be rather unusual, at least compared to that of most other people around me. Much like with obsessive interests, I know that this is a fairly common thing among individuals who are on the autism spectrum. In one manner or another, what we like and do not like to eat on a regular basis somewhat differentiates from what’s considered “normal” in our society.

In this post, I will share some of the ways in which my average food schedule could be seen as odd or weird. This includes a couple of foods that I like to eat, what I typically chose to eat for certain meals, what I refuse to eat, and how I prefer to eat particular foods. This time I’m almost 100% confident that someone out there will be able to relate very closely to what I’m about to share.

Let’s start with breakfast. Now most people like to munch on things like eggs, cereal and milk, pancakes, waffles, and French toast. Here is what my typical breakfast looks like: a whole poppy-seed bagel (heated in the microwave for 40 seconds), two cheesesticks, a couple of carrots, and one or two pieces of fruit. Sometimes I will have some cereal as well, but never with any milk; I seriously cannot stand the stuff (on its own, that is). I’ll also eat things like donuts, bacon, and croissants if they are being served. You definitely won’t convince me to eat any pancakes, French toast, or eggs, and I might end up getting breakfast on my own if nothing I can tolerate is available. Also, if you think my typical breakfast today looks weird, I used to eat things like broccoli and leftovers from last night’s dinner for breakfast when I was much younger.

Next up is my typical lunch. On average it will include a strawberry yoghurt, a piece of fruit, sugar-snap peas, pretzels, and maybe a couple of Oreos. I will on occasion buy things like burgers, hotdogs, salads, and pasta for lunch, but the aforementioned list is what I normally eat at home or at work. This might not seem too unusual upon first glance, until you consider that I absolutely refuse to eat most sandwiches and salads. Yep, for some reason, I cannot tolerate vegetables and cold-cut meat between two pieces of wheat bread. I won’t even eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches anymore (I used to eat them for lunch at school, but now I try to avoid them as much as possible). Most pre-made salads are off for me as well, since they usually contain things I don’t like such as cherry tomatoes, celery, olives, cheese, and sea food (I’ll talk about sea food a bit more later). I will only eat salads that I make myself or ones made by my family, unless they add many of the items mentioned above. As a result, it can sometimes be a bit inconvenient for me to eat at someone else’s place for lunch, as there is usually nothing else available but sandwich stuff.

When it comes dinner, I normally eat what is offered to me to my parents or whoever is making dinner. Of course, if the meal contains something that I do not like, then I’ll try to avoid that food item and push it out the way. Only on very rare occasions will I refuse to eat the meal altogether, and eat some stuff that I like afterwards. If I am on my own for dinner, then I’ll usually purchase something from a nearby pizzeria or supermarket. Right now, I can’t really cook that many meals other than pasta and rice, and I mainly subsist on pre-made microwavable meals when I’m living on my own. If there are any leftovers of a meal that I enjoyed, then I’ll naturally have it for dinner.

That’s it for the three main meals, so I guess I should talk about snacks. For the most part, I don’t snack an awful lot throughout the day. Every now and then I’ll munch on the typical snack food such as peanuts, fruit, cookies, candy, and ice cream. However, there is at least one food that I really like to have as a snack which I doubt is common among most other people, and that is carrots. I’m not talking about baby carrots or sliced carrots that you’ll find at a party along with other vegetables and some dipping sauce. I’m talking FULL carrots, just without the long leafy stem at the end. I love those kinds of carrots sooo much, especially when they are first brought home and washed before put in the fridge. I consider them the absolute perfect snack for any time of the day. I guess you could say I’m also like Bugs Bunny in a way (maybe that’s where I originally got it from).

I would now like to list a couple of other foods that most other people seem to enjoy, but I either have to force down my throat or outright refuse to try. They include popovers, cornbread, olives, cream cheese, lettuce that isn’t chopped up in a salad, eggs, tomato slices, mushrooms, pineapples, melons, oatmeal, almost any kind of pie, lamb, tarts, and ham unless it’s dipped in mustard. Like I said earlier, sea food is a major turnoff for me, and I mean any type of sea food, even crab cakes, lobster, tuna, and sushi. I also can’t stand the taste of alcohol, so I’ll usually drink soda while everyone else is having beer, wine, or martinis.

I believe that is about it in terms of my overall eating patterns. I encourage readers who have Aspergers or any autism-related disorder to share some of their own “weird” eating habits in the comments below. In addition, I would like to say that there is absolutely no shame in having a food pattern that differs from that of most other people. I strongly believe you should feel free to eat whatever you feel like eating at whatever time you please (as long as it isn’t significantly harming your health, of course).

“It’s not good enough. I’m not good enough.”

Do you constantly find yourself worrying that the work you’re doing might not be “good enough?” Do you also tend to worry about not being “good enough” as a person in general? If so, then let it be known that you are not alone. In fact, a sizable percentage of the human race has some form of perfectionism; they believe that no matter what, they’ll never truly be good enough. I just might be one of those people who suffers from this the most.

If there is one thing that never fails to bring me severe stress, it’s the endless, relentless fear that I’m not doing an adequate job: whether it be on a specific task, or as a general fact. In other words, I have a pretty severe case of perfectionism. I stated in the post, “What do I do? What ‘should I do?” that this, along with my poor time management skills, makes it easier for me to panic whenever I have many tasks to handle at once. Just as I did with time management in the previous entry, I will now elaborate upon my issues with perfectionism and why it causes me so much anxiety.

As I mentioned earlier, I am completely aware that tons of people have this problem of constantly trying to meet a certain standard in their lives, and never feeling fully satisfied with themselves. It’s definitely NOT an unusual condition, and it may very well be that the majority of all human beings suffer from it. With that said, perfectionism seems to have a particularly powerful influence on my day-to-day behavior. Perfectionism affects my life in two key areas.

Firstly, whenever I am given a responsibility or task to complete, I will often spend a considerable amount of time making sure that I do a “good job” on it. This mostly applies to tasks such as schoolwork assignments, duties at work, and long-term academic projects. It can also sometimes apply to less substantial things like household chores, exercise, meditating, buying products, and even playing video games. In any case, as I engage myself in the task at hand, I will quickly become obsessed with getting the most praiseworthy result that I can; with being able to feel genuinely proud about what I have accomplished. Of course, when you’re such a perfectionist and nit-picky person, it’s not easy to be fully satisfied with your work, and you tend to give yourself unreasonable standards for quality. Consequently, I will spend far more time than necessary to finish a particular task, with much of it spent struggling to meet these standards. Most of the time, I will be unsatisfied to some extent with the end product and believe that someone else could have done it a whole lot better.

For example: I rarely feel completely gratified with my own posts on this blog. No matter how hard I try, I can’t shake off the impression that the article I’m writing could be a little better. As a result, I have to make several modifications to each entry before I consider uploading it. I will sometimes even send the post to my mother for a quick review. Even when she says that it’s perfectly fine, I’ll still feel a little disappointed with how the post turned out in the end. Since I am apparently unable to make it as fantastic and well-crafted as I’d like it to be, I upload it anyway, hoping that at least others will appreciate it. So I guess you can say that I’m not a huge fan of my blog, because I’m so perfectionist and self-critical when it comes to writing. I also tend to assume that other people write far superior blog posts, including on the topic of Asperger Syndrome (please don’t try to convince me otherwise, because that’ll mean you’re putting down your own writing, which I do not wish to hear).

The second way in which perfectionism enters into my life is on a much more general level. It would be difficult to explain this issue fully without making the post over 3000 words long, so I’ll do best to give a basic summary. Whenever I take a good look at myself – what my social life looks like, how independent I am from my family, how hard I study, how productive I am at work, what I do with my free time, how much I contribute to charitable causes, among other factors – I’m always extremely discontented. Particularly when I compare myself to others in those areas, I can’t help but feel awfully pathetic, unaccomplished, and lazy. As a result, I keep on thinking that I need to do a lot more with myself and follow the suggestions of others in order to become a more admirable person.

For this reason, I like to give myself a bunch of activities casually recommended to me by other people on a regular basis. These recommended activities can include things that my parents said I may want to consider, advice given by my therapist or counselor, interests a friend has which they want me to try out, or suggestions from a book that I’m reading. Whatever the source may be, I will often perceive the recommendation as something that’s mandatory, an activity that I need to perform in order to feel better about myself. I will typically add the activity to my to-do list, put a reminder for it on my iPhone, and try to make absolutely sure that I eventually attend to it. Alternatively, I may myself stress out because I don’t have the time to engage in that activity or because I simply don’t want to do it. Again, even though it is merely a suggestion, I will treat it as a vital task or a direct command from someone else, thus feeling pretty awful and lazy when I cannot fulfill it.

Even if I do commit myself to performing an activity that was recommended to me, it doesn’t guarantee that I actually will get to it. Either I may forget about it completely, or I might be too busy with academic assignment, work-related stuff, and other responsibilities to make time for it. When that happens, I will naturally feel somewhat guilty and stressed – criticizing myself for “being lazy” and not “doing what I should be doing.” Yes, I know that it never was 100% essential, yet I cannot help to perceive it as if it were, since I’m so unsatisfied with myself and I constantly think that I need to do more with my life.

Once again, I fully realize that I’m not the only one who has these problems with perfectionism and self-disapproval. It’s something that affects those with or without autism-related disorders, including those without any disorders at all. All the same, I have a good feeling that those somewhere on the autism spectrum likely struggle with it more than “neurotypical” individuals do. It may have something to do with our troubles with executive functions, how we tend to interpret what other people say, or perhaps the way we grew up as children. In any case, I think it’s very important for all of us to be aware just how critical and nit-picky we can be toward ourselves – far more than most people are in our lives. I, for one, am currently trying my best to abandon my perfectionist way of thinking, and adopt a more encouraging, more relaxed way of looking at things. I believe that many others out there, Aspergers or not, may want to consider doing this as well.

All the time in the world… and it’s never enough

I wish to start this post off by acknowledging that I actually don’t have that much on my daily schedule, at least compared to many others my age. Aside from duties at work and academic assignments, there really isn’t anything else that I have to worry about on a regular basis. Indeed, for the most part, the only two big responsibilities that require my attention are schoolwork and my current job. Therefore, I usually have a huge amount of free time on my hands.

Despite this fact, I often find it very difficult to accomplish all the things I want to accomplish throughout the day. For a number of reasons (that I will mention later), it feels like I hardly ever have the right amount of time to get enough work done. Indeed, even though I probably have a lot more free time than most other people, managing my time efficiently is still a major challenge for me.

In last week’s post, “What do I do? What ‘should’ I do,” I said how I sometimes get “stuck” because I cannot decide what to do when I have so much to worry about at once. One of the main reasons for this, I explained, was that I have trouble acquiring sufficient time to complete all of the tasks that I would like to complete. As I promised in that post, I will now go into more detail explaining what this problem entails, including why it exists.

To give a reliable summary of the issue: when I’m given a large number of school assignments, personal responsibilities, or casually suggested activities to do, I will unlikely be able to secure the right amount of time to execute a lot of these tasks in a single day. Put much more simply, there just isn’t enough hours in a day to for me to accomplish an amount of work that I can be satisfied with. As a result, what I can get done that day is fairly limited, and I’m frequently disappointed with how little I was able to complete. This is made much worse when I notice that others around me are getting a lot more done than I am, including fellow students, friends, and family members.

There are multiple factors that contribute to this time management problem, some of which have been touched upon in previous blog posts. Firstly, I am only able to be fully productive for about 9-10 hours during the day because I have to take medication in order to be stay moderately focused as well as disciplined. The meds take about an hour to take effect in my body, and they wear off about 9 or 10 after I take them. This means that I cannot be at all productive in the early morning or in the evening; so late-night studying or reading is not for me.

Secondly, even while the medications are active in my body, I still have a lot of difficulty concentrating on the tasks that I need to be engaged in. I can’t help but be continuously distracted by my own thoughts about miscellaneous topics and by my obsessions with things like rock music, Nintendo games, and political controversies. As much as I try not to, I will inevitably waste an hour or more of my time lost in thought or reading “triggering” comments online (See “My Aspie obsessions over the years”).

Thirdly, there are a number tasks that take slightly longer for me to complete than they do for most people. I’m not sure if this is mostly due to my Asperger Syndrome, my Attention Deficit Disorder, or something else, but I normally require an extra amount of time to finish certain activities, such as reading, studying, exam-taking, cleaning, waking up in the morning, making decisions, and recovering from a workout.

Fourthly, if I have so many responsibilities to tackle at once, then, as explained in my previous post, I will become frozen with anxiety and worry myself to death. This, obviously, takes away a massive chunk of time that could be used to complete some of the tasks on my to-do list, thus adding more to my severe frustration. So this means that my problems with knowing what I should do in these situations and my problems with time management are reciprocal; they each cause the other issue to get worse and worse.

This is all essentially why my daily schedule, from an objective point of view, does not include a lot of responsibilities or hobbies. Just like with everything else, if I was able to be productive for much longer, stay more focused on my tasks, and get things done slightly faster, then time management wouldn’t so much of a problem. I could then occupy myself with far more productive activities, from volunteering at a local animal shelter to finishing the video games that I bought 3 months ago. Plus, I wouldn’t have to worry about being so incredibly stressed out whenever I have numerous responsibilities at once. As always, I hope that as time goes on, I will get slightly better at managing my daily schedule, allowing me to feel much more productive as a person.

Selling rocks

I think many of us have childhood memories that may not seem very significant upon first glance, yet are immensely special to us for one reason or another. These are moments during our youth that made us particularly joyful, and that we like to reminisce about every now and then – even if they didn’t leave that much of an impact on us. I have a couple of childhood memories that meet this description, many of which involve friends and family. One memory in particular that sticks out in my mind an awful lot is perhaps one of the most peculiar: it involves me “selling” rocks with another kid during recess.

Here is what I can remember from this experience: When I was in 4th or 5th grade, there was this boy I knew named Chris. To be honest, I didn’t really know him all that well, and I hardly spent time with him outside of recess. So anyway, I met Chris one day near one of the jungle gyms on the playground, where he was doing something a little odd with the small stones that filled the surrounding area. He was lining them up on the wooden barrier around the jungle gym, and occasionally talking to other kids, asking them if they wanted one. Instantly intrigued by what he was doing and having nothing better to do, I asked Chris if I could join him. Fortunately he was kind enough to let me partake in his little activity, which he called “selling rocks.”

So for the next couple of weeks that followed, almost every day during recess I would “sell” rocks with Chris. We pretty much collected little stones around the jungle gym area, picking out ones that we thought looked especially pretty, and placed them on the wooden slabs that surrounded the jungle gym. Afterwards, we tried to get the attention of other kids and ask them to “buy” some of the stones from us. Of course, we never actually charged them money or anything; we essentially just gave the stones away to anyone who would take them.

This “rock-selling” business went on for a while, but unfortunately, it didn’t last longer than a couple of weeks. I suppose Chris eventually got bored with the game, and I wasn’t really interested in doing anything else with him. Sadly, we didn’t do a whole lot together or hang out with each other much afterwards. I did see Chris here and there during middle and high school, but mostly because some of the friends I had at the time knew him. Essentially, that rock-selling game we played in elementary school is the only thing that connects us.

Nonetheless, that rock-selling game was more than enough for me to cherish Chris as an acquaintance, even if it was only for a brief period of time. The fact remains that, as boring or stupid as it may sound to other people, this little activity was loads of fun for me as a kid. Back then, until it was over, I looked forward to selling rocks with Chris every day. It’s hard to fully explain why I liked it so much, but I will say that it was one the only activities I genuinely enjoyed during recess. Unlike many of the other recess activities I tried out in elementary school, I was actually having a lot of fun with this game, feeling a little sad when I had to stop and go back inside. I suppose the fact that Chris and I were playing pretend, something that I loved to do as a kid, may partially explain why I was having so much fun with it.

More importantly though, this was one of the only recess activities that I could truly enjoy with another person. Indeed, most of the time when I was in recess, I was either forcing myself to play games with the other kids that I didn’t really like, or I was trying to have fun by myself. Selling rocks with Chris was one of the very few things to do in recess that was not only entertaining for me, but also involved someone else around my age. I got to interact with him in a way that I wasn’t able to achieve with the other kids in class, and I was just as engaged in this game as he was. It was as if we were doing something that, in a manner of speaking, “spoke to me”; allowing to me to be myself without having to do it entirely alone. This wasn’t something I got to do very often with other kids my age, even among my friends.

That’s why whenever I think of really positive moments from my childhood, one of the first to pop up in my head is pretending to sell rocks with Chris in elementary school. Sure it may not seem like too much at first, and I doubt that it made a big influence on my life overall, but I genuinely treasure the memory with all of my heart. Like I said, it’s one of those things that gave me so much pleasure as a kid, simply for being an activity that I got to fully immerse myself in with another kid my age. The fact that this sort of thing was rare back then might be sufficient to make it one of my fondest childhood memories. I guess all I can say for now is thank you so much, Chris. You may not be able recall our rock-selling game very well, but you ought to know how much it meant for me to be able to play it with you back then.