Monday, November 2, 2009

Surrounded by Chaos! Moving is this Aspie-woman's Nightmare!

After picking my kids up yesterday, I walked into one of my biggest nightmares! A house in disarray, empty and full boxes mixed together on the floor. Medicines, pumpkins, school supplies, toys..."UGH!". My brain goes into overdrive just looking at the room. And this is just one room, the great room in my house! I'm obsessive compulsive by nature, which is common for a person with Asperger's. In fact, OCD isn't usually diagnosed separately from AS, although my "diagnosis sheet"...or "crazy sheet" (as I refer to it) lists OCD under Axis II; usually OCD is just expected as a co-existing condition or underlining symptom of Asperger's Syndrome. So, where does this bring me back to? Oh yeah, the house. My OCD causes me to expect order in my otherwise un-orderly world. For example, if I face a window head on, I feel compelled to count each side of the trim two times on the left, accompanied by two toe taps from the left foot, and then two toe taps on the right foot, followed by both hands, etc. I never really recognized that I did this as a child, yet I do remember rocking sideways and back and forth in high school...just enough to make things feel "even and orderly" in a world that terrified me so much. And NO, no one seemed to notice this (or, that just contributed to my weirdness). In fact, I remember the most calm when I was behaving like a gitty elementary student at my desk. I'm sure the teachers attributed it more to my not being able to sit still! So where was I again? Oh, yeah...packing. So far today I managed to get the kids off to school, take a nap, drink a cup of coffee, and write a blog. The house is still in shambles! Books are everywhere, and I have to mention that before I can pack my OCD book, I need to read a little more. Right now I am learning about how to decrease my OCD symptoms...more on that later! By the way, have you realized that my attention doesn't stick on one track? Yeah, thats a problem too. Big problem in the work environment. So, to sum this post up, I am sitting in an environment of boxes and un-orderly things that is causing me great distress. Still, even though I am extremely uncomfortable, I will tone this out until I spend a good 8 hours on the computer writing...until I finally freak out and need to start cleaning. Another AS trait? The innability to start and complete projects! ME, ME, and ME!

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