In this post, I'll be talking about two of the things I use as stimming tools. Stimming is a repetitive action or body movement that is hypothesized to stimulate one or more senses (wikipedia.org). People with autism are prone to stimming to regulate sensory input and reduce anxiety.
Today, I was hanging out at my friends' house after class, like I do most days. For some reason, my autism characteristics came out a little more. I was having a hard time speaking and was engaging in repetitive behaviors. I was jumping around and moving my arms and hands. I was happy with sitting there, listening to everyone else have their conversations, and observing. One of my good friends has an iPhone, and I love to play games on it, especially when my autism is acting up. She understands this very well and will usually agree to let me play on her phone. The only thing is I have to agree to give it to her when she gets a text or phone call, which frustrates me when I'm in autistic states.
Recently, I've discovered this newer game on her phone that lets you draw pictures with neon. I've become addicted to it. I played it for forever today. Like I said, though, every time she got a text, I had to give her phone to her. When an autistic person is stimming and becomes focused on what they are doing, it frustrates them to no end to be interrupted. Even though she would give the phone back to me after checking the text, it still frustrated me to have to pause my game. I would make a disgruntled noise every time a text would pop up, slide off the couch, scoot over to her, and hand her the phone.
At one point, she had to keep her phone so she could talk to her dad. This annoyed me really bad. Luckily, two of my other friends have iPads, which have bigger screens :) An iPad has also been on my wishlist for a while. I love playing on them! I played on one of them for about another hour or two and just kept to myself in my own little world. I know several autistic individuals and autistic children who use an iPhone or iPad a lot. They seem to be very popular among autistic people. I know I like them! I can't wait until I can get one of my own, if possible.
One of my other stimming tools I've been using lately is a bouncing ball that has those little spikes all over it. I like to spin it close to my face. I also like to hit it back and forth between my hands. It kind of looks like a cat batting a ball of yarn around haha. In fact, one of my friends' nicknames for me was "Kitten" because of this stimming behavior. I curl up in the floor with my legs tugged up under me, which is something I found out a lot of people can't do, and bat a ball around. If permitted, I could do this for hours. However, I can also concentrate on what's going on around me. I'm still able to observe people and interact, whether I'm able to speak or not. This is one of my more repetitive stimming behaviors, as you can probably tell.
Although I engage in many other stimming behaviors, I wanted to talk about these two today. I will most likely talk about the others some other time; probably when they become more prevalent. This is because certain stimming behaviors come and go. Anyway, there's a glimpse into just two of my stimming behaviors and how they are some of the ones coming out lately.
"I live in the same world you do; I just experience it differently. I am a human being with feelings, just like you; I just express them in my own way." ~Me~
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Recharging for Another Week
I figured while I had some down time, I'd talk about a characteristic of autism spectrum disorders that I have had since childhood. That would be the need to shut myself away from people and recharge. People on the autism spectrum often get overwhelmed by too much social interaction. We can only handle so much at a time before we need to go and be off by ourselves for a while to refuel and process everything we've experienced.
On a daily basis, this happens for me late at night, when everyone else has gone to bed. Even when I was a kid, I had trouble falling asleep. I still do. I guess I always needed time to recharge, so my mind and body wouldn't let me sleep until it had processed everything from that day. Eventually, when my parents stopped trying to force me to sleep, I started staying up and doing things like blogging, journaling, indulging in my special interests, and other things so my mind could process the day.
On a weekly basis, I usually take all day on Saturday or Sunday to process the whole week. I stay in my room all day away from everyone. I try to limit my texting, phone calling, internet chatting, and other contact with friends that I see during the week at school. My family also understands my need to be alone and tries to limit their contact with me on my chosen day. Again, during these times, I journal, blog, indulge in my special interest, or do anything else that I feel helps me process the week I had.
Some people understand this concept and others do not. Neurotypical people (people who are not on the autism spectrum) tell me that they all need this down time away from people as well. However, in people with autism spectrum disorders, the time needed is usually longer. We can also get very irritable or hostile if our alone time is interrupted. Most of my friends are very supportive and respect my need of alone time. They see my need for it and give it to me when needed if possible. Few people, however, don't understand. I've had to learn to deal with people like this; the people that no matter how much you explain, they just don't understand. Some people just don't understand my need to be alone. I will tell them not to contact me for the day, and they will anyway because of something they deem important. However, it can usually wait until the next day. Here's a true example story of what happened just today:
I didn't go to church because I couldn't sleep last night. Going to church on little sleep is usually not a good idea for me. I woke up around lunch and ate in my room by myself. Then I spent the afternoon on my computer. See, one of my interests is names and name meanings. I like giving myself and my friends different names and nicknames. It's fun. That's pretty much what I did on the computer all afternoon. Neurotypicals may be thinking, "How in the world can someone spend so much time doing something like that?" Well, when you have an autism spectrum disorder, it's actually easy to lose track of time in a special interest. Another question may be, "How could a person find names so interesting?" When you're on the autism spectrum, a characteristic is having limited or peculiar interests. So, when you look at in the autism world, it's not out of the ordinary. Anyway, then something happened that irritated me to no end. All of my friends pretty much know not to contact me on my alone day. Well, I told one friend, my ex-fiance, specifically not to contact me today because he has been talking to me too much lately. However, he thought of something he deemed too important to wait until tomorrow and contacted me anyway. All he asked was if I could take him somewhere tomorrow that was in town after my classes. That so could have waited until tomorrow! And he claims to know me better than almost anyone. If he did, he would know that contacting me, when I specifically told him not to, would totally aggravate me; especially on my alone day. Depending on how I feel tomorrow, he may get an earful. I did come out of my room for a while to watch America's Funniest Home Videos with my parents. Love that show! And I love watching it with the family. See, I can handle some interaction, but I have to control it. It's when it's unexpected or beyond my control that it upsets me.
Anyway, if you have a friend on the autism spectrum (or even a neurotypical friend) that says they need some alone time, you should respect that. Give them that time. All of us need that time to ourselves to recharge and process everything we've experienced in our lives. We also all need time away from social pressures and expectations; to truly be ourselves. It's usually in these down times we find out things about ourselves, problem solve, build our minds, and other essential things. Let it happen.
"I live in the same world you do; I just experience it differently. I am a human being with feelings, just like you; I just express them in my own way." ~Me~
On a daily basis, this happens for me late at night, when everyone else has gone to bed. Even when I was a kid, I had trouble falling asleep. I still do. I guess I always needed time to recharge, so my mind and body wouldn't let me sleep until it had processed everything from that day. Eventually, when my parents stopped trying to force me to sleep, I started staying up and doing things like blogging, journaling, indulging in my special interests, and other things so my mind could process the day.
On a weekly basis, I usually take all day on Saturday or Sunday to process the whole week. I stay in my room all day away from everyone. I try to limit my texting, phone calling, internet chatting, and other contact with friends that I see during the week at school. My family also understands my need to be alone and tries to limit their contact with me on my chosen day. Again, during these times, I journal, blog, indulge in my special interest, or do anything else that I feel helps me process the week I had.
Some people understand this concept and others do not. Neurotypical people (people who are not on the autism spectrum) tell me that they all need this down time away from people as well. However, in people with autism spectrum disorders, the time needed is usually longer. We can also get very irritable or hostile if our alone time is interrupted. Most of my friends are very supportive and respect my need of alone time. They see my need for it and give it to me when needed if possible. Few people, however, don't understand. I've had to learn to deal with people like this; the people that no matter how much you explain, they just don't understand. Some people just don't understand my need to be alone. I will tell them not to contact me for the day, and they will anyway because of something they deem important. However, it can usually wait until the next day. Here's a true example story of what happened just today:
I didn't go to church because I couldn't sleep last night. Going to church on little sleep is usually not a good idea for me. I woke up around lunch and ate in my room by myself. Then I spent the afternoon on my computer. See, one of my interests is names and name meanings. I like giving myself and my friends different names and nicknames. It's fun. That's pretty much what I did on the computer all afternoon. Neurotypicals may be thinking, "How in the world can someone spend so much time doing something like that?" Well, when you have an autism spectrum disorder, it's actually easy to lose track of time in a special interest. Another question may be, "How could a person find names so interesting?" When you're on the autism spectrum, a characteristic is having limited or peculiar interests. So, when you look at in the autism world, it's not out of the ordinary. Anyway, then something happened that irritated me to no end. All of my friends pretty much know not to contact me on my alone day. Well, I told one friend, my ex-fiance, specifically not to contact me today because he has been talking to me too much lately. However, he thought of something he deemed too important to wait until tomorrow and contacted me anyway. All he asked was if I could take him somewhere tomorrow that was in town after my classes. That so could have waited until tomorrow! And he claims to know me better than almost anyone. If he did, he would know that contacting me, when I specifically told him not to, would totally aggravate me; especially on my alone day. Depending on how I feel tomorrow, he may get an earful. I did come out of my room for a while to watch America's Funniest Home Videos with my parents. Love that show! And I love watching it with the family. See, I can handle some interaction, but I have to control it. It's when it's unexpected or beyond my control that it upsets me.
Anyway, if you have a friend on the autism spectrum (or even a neurotypical friend) that says they need some alone time, you should respect that. Give them that time. All of us need that time to ourselves to recharge and process everything we've experienced in our lives. We also all need time away from social pressures and expectations; to truly be ourselves. It's usually in these down times we find out things about ourselves, problem solve, build our minds, and other essential things. Let it happen.
"I live in the same world you do; I just experience it differently. I am a human being with feelings, just like you; I just express them in my own way." ~Me~
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