Adherence to routines?

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Dear all

I have suspected Asperger's for a while and I have seen a psychologist who knows about AS. She thinks I have it but she is not allowed to do the assessment herself, so I am going to see a psychiatrist (which I am worrying a bit about - but that's another topic).
I am writing a small thesis(!) on why I think I have AS, and my psychologist says that I should focus on social issues, communication and routines as those are among the cornerstones of AS.

But I am a bit confused about what constitutes 'adherence to routines'. It is my impression that a routine-person would insist on everything being exactly the same every day. Therefore, I don't see myself as a routine fanatic.
I am disorganized and my CD collection is most definitely not meticulously aligned and arranged in alphabetical order! I don't get a nervous breakdown if I don't get a particular brand of bread spread for lunch at exactly 12 o'clock. I like to try new things - provided I am the one who introduces the change!
If I have one thing planned or envisioned and people suddenly make changes, I find it hard to cope with those. Changes that are imposed on me from the outside require that I will have to remap the whole situation, and I find that challenging and exhausting. I really hate when supermarkets move stuff. Then I will have to remap the whole supermarket and navigate accordingly. That is exhausting and frustrating.
Generally, I need to know what I can count on.

So I am a bit confused. Does this count as 'adherence to routines' or not?

I interpret it as adhering to routines involving certain things or situations that the person has a preferred routine for, but doing the things that they don't have a preference about, catch as catch can or willy nilly.

In other words if you like to eat your supper in front of the tv while watching the local news every night, take a long shower and then lay in bed and read until you feel sleepy, that's a routine to you. If you like to keep your toiletries in the bathroom in a certain way and if they get disturbed or rearranged by someone else you immediately go to great lengths to put them back in order, that is a routine. If you only use one particular brand of soap or shampoo, not because of skin sensitivities or because of it's performance or because thats the only one you can stand but because you like the smell or texture or something like that about it and you would go without bathing or shampooing if you didn't have it, that would be a routine. If you always separate your foods on your plate so they don't touch and eat them in a clockwise order, that is a routine.

However, just because you may have these little routines doesn't mean that everything will be a routine, unless you are a drill instructor. You can be extremely precise, reliable and disciplined about some things in your life and just as scatterbrained, forgetful, messy and disorganized in other parts of your life. It usually depends either on habits that you have developed over time that you prefer to keep, or sometimes the importance or lack of importance you consider the objects or situations to have.

Having a routine interrupted or changed suddenly can cause some people to go into full meltdown mode and it can cause others to show mild annoyance even though they are actually fairly distressed about it but they know that nothing can be done about it. Usually these routines or organization tactics seem much more important to the person than they actually are, and the lack of perspective can grow the longer a person adheres to the routines, etc.

That's just my two cents on it, I'm no professional or anything.

As post above and in simplicity it is adherence to non functional routine.

One thing with adherence to routine, as with stimming in autism is, it's a compensator for a dysfunction of cognizance as to where one is and what's going on around them. Routines help one maintain a sense of control and order. It's kind of like a pilot flying at night relying on his instruments to tell him where he is, what direction he's heading and his altitude. If the instruments go haywire so does the airplane. Likewise, if order in where things are placed and routines are disrupted, it causes extreme disorientation for someone with autism.

So it's more than just keeping strict routines. Lots of NT's do that and they're called "creatures of habit" or "sticklers" etc.

What's of significance is why people with autism need routines to stay orientated and to maintain order.

Dependence on routines is determined by how well one can or can't neurologically navigate without them.

Last edited by briankelley on 06 Apr 2013, 7:17 am, edited 2 times in total.

What brian is saying really makes sense.

I thought about why routines are so important to me. Routines ensure less processing in my head because I don't have to think as much in that way. When a routine is broken, I have to deal with it. It kind of causes a chaos in the head like information overload. I don't know if it's related to executive function or multitasking. With a normal brain, broken routines are processed easily, but a dysfunctioning brain (like mine) finds it harder to process. This is just my thought.

I think anyone including non-autistic people have certain routines because that makes life so much easier. But how you react to it when a routine is broken might be different if you have autism. So regarding the OP's example of supermarket shelf rearrangement, I'm sure anyone would find it annoying, but if you find it extremely distressing, then that probably is an indication of your autism. As someone else pointed out, what broken routine distresses you badly might be different from person to person. And how severely you get distressed by it might also differ. If your adherence to routines is extreme, whatever it is, to the point of being irrationally strict, then it might be considered as autistic "adherence to routines". I guess it still leaves ambiguity as to what's "irrationally strict".

In my case, I have routines such as that I never go out once I have a shower. I'm very inflexible about that. I consider it to be autistic. At work I can't help checking small details to the point of being a bit slow. If I don't, I would be extremely uncomfortable. It probably involves "attention to detail" trait as well, but I also consider this as a bit of "adherence to routines" because I do it all the time. This is just my idea. I don't actually know if these are considered as an autistic trait.

I'm also preparing a small document about the same theme because my GP told me something like that might help the psychiatrist. So I would also really like to know what to put in the document.

Interesting thread. When I took the AQ quizzes I always answered 'no' when it came to the question of if I have a strict adherence to routine. However, I just read the following paragraph from The National Autistic Society website.

Many people with an ASD have a strong preference for routines and sameness. Routines often serve an important function - they introduce order, structure and predictability and help to manage anxiety. Because of this, it can be very distressing if a person's routine is disrupted.

Last year, when the bosses informed us workers that our 8-hour shifts would suddenly be changed into 12-hour shifts, I flipped out. People couldn't understand why I was so up in arms against the change. Frankly, neither could I. Anyway, I was so distraught I gave my two week notice in on the spot. I suppose, in retrospect, this is what they mean about adherence to routine. I guess I do have it.

I've got a question - how would you feel if someone carefully organised your CD collection - as a surprise would that disorient you ---would it make you feel strange or give you a lot of stress if you had to "be organised" or if you had to follow a routine imposed by someone else ....
would that make you feel extremely anxious and or exhausted ? If it did then you are not alone ! !

(I suppose what I'm getting at is that for a lot of us aspies even though at first sight we aren't routine driven , we can be often very inflexible in the way we like things to be . . . - even though I thought I was adaptable to most environments I had to realise that I'm probably extremely inflexible in so many ways)

I need to do things in the same order, or I forget to do many/most of them.

I need to do things the same way each time, or I forget a bunch of the steps and things don't get done right or don't get finished.

I need things to be in same place they always are or I freak out, because I navigate the world by objects -- I remember the bits of the above routines and procedures by visual cues. The world is easier to navigate and my life easier to hold together independently if things are always in the same place.

They only look nonfunctional from the outside.

Ooh yes! If somebody rearranged my stuff or had been tidying up I would get very, very distressed. I also find it very exhausting and annoying if I have to follow a routine imposed by someone else - for instance if I have to keep my desk tidy and I am not allowed to spread cookie crumbs all over the place

I probably have more routines than I am aware of, but I am still unsure what qualifies (thanks for all your answers - they are very helpful). Also the ´nonfunctional´ part confuses me. As Who_Am_I says: It makes perfect sense to oneself.

Also I think there must be a considerable grey zone - just like the case with stimming. I thought hitting your head repeatedly against the wall was stimming, whereas hair twirling, leg bouncing, fidgeting etc. was something everyone does. But those actions can be considered stimming as well. Hmmm.

So when does a routine stop being a 'normal´' routine and becomes an autistic one? Is that when it goes from being a 'habit' to being a 'cognitive tool' as Brian Kelly points out?

Thanks!

When it's done by someone of low social status (ie, an Aspie).

Think about this....following a routine and being very concerned about interuptions to that routine would have been a marvlous survival mechanism from the pre-historic era to at least the early industrial revolution. Many "bad" traits would be harmless outside of modern culture.

I got really irritated at my boss this morning because he started giving me work 7 minutes before 9am, which is the time I am scheduled to start working. I must have made a face without realizing, because he called me on it later. I had to make up an excuse (sleep deprived, wrist hurting, which are true but not the real reason) in order to slide out of that one. I tend to get mad if I'm interrupted with more work while I'm already working on something. I have to hide my irritation better otherwise I will find myself without a job soon LOL

I am not sure if that qualifies, as I know lots of people who don't like to work before their clock starts, but they are big on having a "good attitude" around here so I have to do a better job of controlling my reactions.

As for me I don't think I have a set routine as far as operating on a daily hour by hour schedule. But I operate within a very narrow scope regarding what I do. There's not a whole lot of verity. And I rarely do anything new. I guess I do best when I'm living in a rut.