Adults with Aspergers Seem 'Normal' to Me

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nessa238
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27 Apr 2012, 8:21 am

Sweetleaf wrote:
nessa238 wrote:
pensieve wrote:
If I don't eat the same sandwich for lunch but I want to make something else I would probably starve. My brain can't decide what to get and usually I end up panicking and then making myself a sandwich. I like when I have leftovers from dinner the night before. It's so much easier.

I need to eat around the same time everyday and there's people downstairs who are going to do some filming. I want to stay right away but I need to eat. I need to decide where I'm going to go when the filming starts. Otherwise I'll have a hypoglycaemic reaction. I like it when I'm able to focus anyway.

I have severe sensory issues too which I need medication to decrease. Still, I have to wear dark glasses so I don't get a migraine. I will still get sensory overload despite being on them.

I don't dissociate when I go down town, I have derealisation, which makes me see the world as kinda weird a dreamy and I hallucinate. I'm pretty sure I have depersonalisation too because I don't feel close to people. It's like there's a wall between them and me.

I pushed myself once...I ended up having severe seizures and shutdowns followed by cognitive regression. So now I pace myself. My symptoms are worse since the regression too. So push yourself, regress and less people would be saying you seem normal.

Don't really. It's an awful thing to go through. I've had to rehabilitate myself twice now. Know your limits and don't let people that tell you you're not trying hard enough get you down.


"Severe Seizures"?

So you have epilepsy as well as autism?

You have this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epileptic_seizure


One does not have to have epilepsy to have a severe seizure.


What exactly has caused the seizure then?

It's linked to some kind of physiologically-based medical condition so what's the diagnosis?

ie something physical is happening in the brain to cause the seizure - what is the medical diagnostic label for what this is?



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27 Apr 2012, 8:28 am

Sweetleaf wrote:
Well I am ok with interacting with the delivery person, I mean I'm the one answering the door they are the one knocking, hoping they were sent with the right order and maybe spent a while trying to find the place...and last time I ordered pizza I did it online with no credit card and just payed cash when they came.


I looked online now to see if any Chinese places around me let you order for delivery online. The two that said they do said they were too far away when I put in my address. I don't like pizza and only occasionally eat it if other people get it and it's eat it or go hungry.

I'd rather just go to a store where I can get away with nearly no interaction with the cashier. Maybe I'll manage to get myself down to the store today to get some more souper meals. I ran out of those.



nessa238
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27 Apr 2012, 8:30 am

Sweetleaf wrote:
Sora wrote:
nessa238 wrote:
Yes I realise that

I was talking specifically to a person who was posting on a discussion forum though so I'm presuming she'd at least be able to order herself a pizza online and hence not starve (as long as her sensory issues weren't playing up too much on that particuar day and she was able to work out how to put her account details onto the computer, which, as she's got some kind of advanced Maths degree I'm guessing shouldn't be too much of a problem for her

One never knows though as one thing I have learned is not to expect the slightest degree of logic or consistency in these matters


Having my brain (and not that of someone else who is different from me in this aspect), it occurs me as perfectly logical to not be able to do it as an autistic person, going to an unfamiliar website and filling out an unfamiliar form without support. Depending on the style of writing and despite that I can score very high on IQ tests, it can be very difficult to understand the written directions that are given to lead people through the process of ordering.

I don't have an advanced maths degree (like Tuttle?) but I guess a high IQ and having been in regular ed will do as these usually make people think means I can do all sorts of things others can including ordering pizza. I struggle with it anyway, I'd certainly try and perhaps I'd succeed - if not, I'll make someone else do it (and, for example, go hunt for cutlery instead) and likely ask them to teach me if I think it is useful and that I can master it.

Watching (non-autistic) friends ordering pizza online or by phone I know that it's perfectly logical to them to be able to do it because that's how they function. I'd think it odd if they couldn't do it - though the guys are sometimes too lazy to bother and will try to wriggle out of ordering food.


I would have trouble ordering pizza on the phone because it involves calling someone and I don't do so well with that it provokes much more anxiety than it should but yes I have been physically unable to make calls before because it was simply to anxiety provoking or whatever....so I use phones a little as possible.


I find using the phone ok for task-based things - I have no problem talking to anyone over the phone to get something done. I don't like chatting over the phone though - I'd far rather talk online via MSN/email/discussion forum

I would tend to let my partner deal with the person who brought the food to the house as that's an area I'm far less confident with ie face to face interaction, as I have far less control over how the interaction goes and there's far more potential for the person to judge me negatively

When I've lived on my own I've dealt with the delivery people/other people who come to the door so I can do it, I just don't enjoy it due to the random nature of how the other person reacts to me - I prefer consistency. I present a consistent response to others but they don't always do the same back for me and it's the unpredictable nature of this that I find very off-putting. I'm a control freak and perfectionist basically - if something can't go as I want it to go I'll often not want to take part.



nessa238
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27 Apr 2012, 8:42 am

xero052 wrote:
Verdandi wrote:
xero052 wrote:
To answer the OP, everyone, ASD or NT, only 'seems' normal. Everyone is hiding something, an AS person is hiding the fact that she is taxing her mind to the fullest during social interaction. Myself, as one with mild AS, find that the extra effort I put into being social is rewarding; others may not. I disagree that a 'normal looking' aspie is in fact 'disabled'.


You should limit your speaking to yourself when making such broad, generalizing claims. You may not consider yourself disabled, but others may consider themselves disabled.

When I read posts like this I wonder just how ignorant people are of what "disability" is intended to mean.

The World Health Organization describes it as:

Quote:
Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations.

Thus disability is a complex phenomenon, reflecting an interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she lives.


Notice it doesn't define these limitations as absolute or extreme. This means that anyone experiencing impairments can be considered disabled. It does not mean that one is victimizing themselves, and it often means that people understand their own limitations, often better than those around them who might characterize them as self-victimizing.

When someone describes the effort that goes into presenting a "normal" front as disabling, this doesn't mean they're ignoring everyone else who puts up a front to cover up various things. But it doesn't mean that every front must relate to a disability, or that saying one is disabling minimizes the others. You're adding more commentary to what people are saying, despite the fact that no one actually said those things. If you need to do that, then perhaps you don't have much of an argument at all.



I agree with everything you say. Sorry if I'm a bit strident, I'm in the midst of law school finals, and have been answering legal hypos all day and night. :) I also wasn't trying to put words in anyones mouth, just trying to set up a rhetorical framework. Hopefully this post will be better.

I guess what I meant by the self-victimization thing was that I resent that in order to have the fact my mind works differently, I essentially have to medicalize my personality. For example:

in college, a person with AS qualifies for 'special accommodations' for testing and class. Provided, that they have a medical diagnosis of AS. This is where I become troubled. From my perspective, there's nothing wrong with me; the school has arbitrarily tailored its curriculum to a more NT learning pattern. Because my purpose is to learn and I would have no problem accomplishing that but for the NT-oriented curriculum, I do not like that I must be medically diagnosed with a condition. I appreciate that the school is trying to accommodate my difference, but I don't like being forced to claim that I am disabled. Being disabled carries social stigma, no matter how much people protest. It is a negative word. And the fact that it is pronounced by a doctor is even worse- for millennia doctors and disease went hand in hand, the association between AS and illness is inescapable.

My objection, I guess, is that in order to gain any kind of understanding for society, it must be because we are 'disabled' and therefore worthy of pity. I would rather be recognized as a fully functional human being who functions in a particular way. I want the motivation to accommodate me to be 'we need him', not 'we ought to help him'. I hope I've made the difference clear. It's not simply a question of semantics, either. I don't want to need a doctors note in order for people to help me, I want to be recognized as a valuable person in my own right, and be allowed to give my talents in the manner that's most effective

As for the WHO definition of disability, I know that it is a broad term. The reason it is designed so broadly is, as I alluded to above, being 'disabled' allows a person to qualify for all sorts of social services in many countries. Understand, all social services share a pedigree of charitable services. That is, their social role has traditionally been filled by (usually religious) charities. They typically served the homeless, the maimed, and, to an extant, the insane. Again, the motivation to help was borne out of pity, or a sense of religious obligation. Carry this forward to the present, and you see that the justification for services, or accommodations, or the like, is need-based. The only reason we help a person is because of his lowly status, be it destitute, or mentally ill, or disabled. Whatever the program, there must be some valuation of the person before aid is given. So, in order for society to justify special treatment at all, a person must have some sort of defect.

This is part of the underlying current behind the broader medicalization of society. We (society) want to help those who need special accommodation, but we have centuries of social norms that require recipients of special treatment to have some sort of defect in order to to deserve it. Thus, we begin to classify more and more things as disabilities. The problem is that the stigma associated with disease cannot be decoupled from the involvement of the medical profession.

So, I am not ignorant of what disability is 'supposed' to mean. I also agree that a person could describe the effects of AS as disabling, but that would be merely descriptive. I object to the term as a label. I would rather people think about AS/NT people the same way we think about short and tall, or left and right handed.

tl;dr
Sorry that I put words in people's mouths, I didn't intend to offend, and am sorry that I did.
My thing about self-victimization was concern that 'disabled' and it's medical context carried stigma, and that I resented my difference being recognized as a disease. Finally, definitions of 'disability' only further the troublesome medicalization of social problems; a less stigmatizing way is to think of AS/NT more like physiological differences.


I totally agree with what you say

When I enrolled at my local college several years ago to do a Website design course I told them I had Aspergers and they asked if I wanted assistance ie a support person to help me in classes. I said I didn't as I felt it wouldn't be of any benefit to me ie I felt able to cope with doing it all myself.

When I started the class there were two people who may well have had some kind of a Learning Disability in our group and there was a support woman as well who assisted them.
This support woman seemed to take a dislike to me - I saw her staring at me several times when we were sitting round the central table in the class ie she made me feel uncomfortable.
I was therefore glad I hadn't requested assistance as I thought this support woman was rude and ignorant - I don't know whether she realised she was judging a person with Aspergers but I found it a bit amusing that her role was meant to be to support people like me yet here she was acting in a judgmental manner ie it said it all! These support people basically only want to help the people they like; people they can relate to, not ANYONE with a disability - ie they pick and choose who to offer their 'support' to.

So there might be support workers available in universities/colleges but how much support they actually offer is an entirely different thing!



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27 Apr 2012, 11:57 am

Quote:
I totally agree with what you say

When I enrolled at my local college several years ago to do a Website design course I told them I had Aspergers and they asked if I wanted assistance ie a support person to help me in classes. I said I didn't as I felt it wouldn't be of any benefit to me ie I felt able to cope with doing it all myself.

When I started the class there were two people who may well have had some kind of a Learning Disability in our group and there was a support woman as well who assisted them.
This support woman seemed to take a dislike to me - I saw her staring at me several times when we were sitting round the central table in the class ie she made me feel uncomfortable.
I was therefore glad I hadn't requested assistance as I thought this support woman was rude and ignorant - I don't know whether she realized she was judging a person with Aspergers but I found it a bit amusing that her role was meant to be to support people like me yet here she was acting in a judgmental manner ie it said it all! These support people basically only want to help the people they like; people they can relate to, not ANYONE with a disability - ie they pick and choose who to offer their 'support' to.


Quote:
So there might be support workers available in universities/colleges but how much support they actually offer is an entirely different thing!


For me, the accommodations are quite attractive. I would be given more time for exams, which are very time-intensive exercises. I would also be able to have a note-taker for class, which would be a godsend as I cannot write/type and listen at the same time. But, in order to qualify for these, I have to admit to having a condition that many people conflate with a disease. I'm essentially required to get a diagnosis from a psychiatrist, psychologist, or a social worker trained in autism disorders. I would be ok with going to the social worker, but I would have a problem with needing a doctor's excuse.

I get that the idea is that if anyone could get the accommodations it would defeat their purpose, but I think that idea is flawed. If the goal of a school is to facilitate learning, then it should be open to accommodating all reasonable student needs, whether they have been medically defined or not. Someone who gets extra nervous when they take a test ought to be given an extra few minutes on a test, not because of any medical reason, but because that's the fair thing to do. Put another way, from the school's perspective, it would be embarrassing if its tests failed to accurately assess the knowledge of its students. So giving a person who gets nervous more time than someone who does not in fact is more fair, and more accurate. Too bad we have these reptilian-brained ideas about fairness, which views any difference of outward treatment with suspicion.



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27 Apr 2012, 12:18 pm

Don't take this the wrong way here, I am just generalizing from a personal experience, but psychopaths can seem really nice and like a normal person and then turn out the way you didn't imagine once you get to know them. A relative of mine met a man at work who seemed really nice, he asked her out for a meal at a nearby pub, and was very pleasent to her and we all liked him, and he even came across as very helpful. But when he got involved with my relative, he turned out to be a control-freak, a woman-beater, a paedophile, and got my relative into over £5,000 debt. He took her 10-year-old daughter and had sex with her - and he got away with it. That's the problem with these sorts of people, though - they only act really sweet in first impressions in order to get involved with a person and treat them like s**t (especially if it's a gullible person). This is very wrong indeed, which is why you got to be careful with who you're getting in with.

Some of us Aspies, on the other hand, act normal in order to fit into society because we don't want to be excluded or ridiculed, which is not wrong at all.
So it's like some mild Aspies can seem like an NT, then when you get to know them you notice some quirks and some odd ways.

Quote:
My way of looking at this 'hardly noticeable but noticeable enough to have people treat me differently' phenomenon is that in life you get on with some people and others you don't.

This is why I only have a very small circle of friends. Making friends is very limited for me. I either get involved with bad people who end up bullying me because of my quirks, or I find nice people who look past my quirks and just be my friend, which is what I want.

It also depends on the self-awareness. I've got a lot of self-awareness to the extent of NTs, which is why I always get so confused when people keep staring at me in public, because I can behave normal and put on an NT front and wear things that make me blend in with the rest and I know what is generally acceptable and what isn't, so this is why I write endless threads asking why I get it.


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27 Apr 2012, 2:51 pm

Speaking from experience here, my problems go quite beyond laziness, identity, etc. I tok several attempts to get registered to WrongPlanet. Why? Those visual puzzles ( I am quite good at word puzzles. ironically) just drive me crazy. I do not seem to be able to remember them. It is part of a sensory issue.
It amazes me how many people on here seem to ignore decades of research proving these disorders are biological. We have been there, and Done That as the T-shirt says.
In NO WAY are my difficulties the result of identity confusion, laziness or personality disorder ( though I believed they were when I was in my twenties. Lots of wasted time trying approaches for that).

Sincerely,
Matthew



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27 Apr 2012, 3:22 pm

Sweetleaf wrote:
hanyo wrote:
Sweetleaf wrote:

I would have trouble ordering pizza on the phone because it involves calling someone and I don't do so well with that it provokes much more anxiety than it should but yes I have been physically unable to make calls before because it was simply to anxiety provoking or whatever....so I use phones a little as possible.


I would go hungry before I would order food on the phone. Because of anxiety I won't make the call or get the food when they come and deliver it. I only get food delivered if someone calls for me and gets the food for me.

Ordering online can be hard because you still have interact with a delivery person to get the food, plus I don't know if places let you order online without a credit card.

Most of the time I eat cold leftovers out of the fridge and my cooking mostly involves heating up cans of stuff like soup.


Well I am ok with interacting with the delivery person, I mean I'm the one answering the door they are the one knocking, hoping they were sent with the right order and maybe spent a while trying to find the place...and last time I ordered pizza I did it online with no credit card and just payed cash when they came.

i can order over the phone, but i have problems answering the door (and the phone if someone calls - i panic).


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27 Apr 2012, 4:34 pm

xero052 wrote:
I get that the idea is that if anyone could get the accommodations it would defeat their purpose, but I think that idea is flawed. If the goal of a school is to facilitate learning, then it should be open to accommodating all reasonable student needs, whether they have been medically defined or not. Someone who gets extra nervous when they take a test ought to be given an extra few minutes on a test, not because of any medical reason, but because that's the fair thing to do. Put another way, from the school's perspective, it would be embarrassing if its tests failed to accurately assess the knowledge of its students. So giving a person who gets nervous more time than someone who does not in fact is more fair, and more accurate. Too bad we have these reptilian-brained ideas about fairness, which views any difference of outward treatment with suspicion.


Where I'm at, you'd get those accommodations at exams rather easily. If you have severe stress during an exam, and can "prove it" by getting a statement from your doctor, you'll get extended time. I don't think a formal diagnosis of any sort is needed just for those "basic" accommodations, but you do have to involve a doctor or therapist so they know you're not trying to "cheat". If you need a laptop due to dyslexia, you'll get it. I get my own room with better (sadly not great, but at least it helps somewhat) lighting conditions, extended time, and a black mat on my desk if the table is white. If there's ever a spoken examination, I'll qualify for getting a written one instead. I'm allowed to not say anything during project presentations, and just take care of the PowerPoint presentation or something like that instead. I tend to do more than my share in projects anyway, since I usually demand to do my part alone. So if I do the theoretical part, I do *all* the theory. Oh, and people even get extended time for pollen allergies. In December.

Accommodations outside of exams are more difficult to get, but any significant disability (including mood disorders, AD(H)D, ASDs, physical impairment, etc, etc) will make you qualify for at least counseling and a study assistant (usually just extra private classes with a third-year or higher student). I've only asked for the first, since having people explain things to me usually doesn't help. I need to figure stuff out on my own. I've never heard of anyone getting a note taking assistant, but you're allowed to record classes, as far as I understand. Most professors use a document camera instead of the whiteboard anyway, and scan the notes after class so students can download them. The ones who don't are still required to publish extensive notes, so they just increase their own workload by writing everything twice. And lose popularity if their published notes aren't as good as the whiteboard ones...

I'm satisfied with the accommodations in my university at least. I belong to the group who at one point just "tried harder" (which usually means to pretend one's problems aren't there, instead of overcoming them - I was diagnosed for bipolar disorder, but waited several years with seeking an AS diagnosis), and the results were numerous stays at the psych ward, postponed exams almost every term, and in the end spending almost six years on a three-year Bachelor of Arts. In addition, that degree is a combination of classes from two different programs, so in reality, I am a Bachelor of Nothing. It qualifies for interesting conversation (to the frustration of every small-talker I meet), but not a job other than teaching or further studies that will only qualify me for academia, and barely that due to lack of specialization. The vocational counselors at the social security office took a look at my resume, planned on telling me to become a teacher, took a look at my diagnosis and told me to get a new degree. I very much agreed. I deeply regret I didn't accept my *disability* earlier, as it would've spared me a lot of time, energy and lost opportunities. Our current society makes that disability worse, by emphasizing social ability, stress handling and so on more than it ever did (a prime example of the latter is having everyone work in the same, big hall instead of separate offices). I'm sure the increase of diagnoses isn't only caused by awareness, but also by ASDs being more noticeable due to changes in our society. That doesn't mean it's not a disability, since 1) the problems would be there in another society too, they'd just be somewhat more manageable (I'd probably have less sensory problems if I lived before phosphorescent light was invented, but I'd still hate being outside on a sunny day), and 2) disability is measured against the demands of current society. Being formally disabled has opened doors to a career through social security financing a new degree, it has given me the accommodations and support I need to get through the degree (hopefully) without spending six years on it, and it has given me and those around me an explanation for why I am like I am.



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27 Apr 2012, 4:50 pm

The discussion about eating, or not, is very interesting.

I have a cousin, not autistic, who forgets to eat. It first became an issue when she left home to go to uni and ended up in hospital after fainting repeatedly. After that her parents visited regularly to stock her fridge and phoned to remind her to eat. She's now in her late forties. A few years ago her husband was away on business for a month and before he left he cooked and froze food for her, and phoned every day to remind her to eat. He had also left written instructions telling her how to defrost and cook the food.

This is someone who has to be reminded to eat and how prepare food, and she is also someone with a very successful career with a huge multinational company who last year bought a house for about £1.5 million, cash.



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27 Apr 2012, 4:56 pm

Marcia wrote:
The discussion about eating, or not, is very interesting.

I have a cousin, not autistic, who forgets to eat. It first became an issue when she left home to go to uni and ended up in hospital after fainting repeatedly. After that her parents visited regularly to stock her fridge and phoned to remind her to eat. She's now in her late forties. A few years ago her husband was away on business for a month and before he left he cooked and froze food for her, and phoned every day to remind her to eat. He had also left written instructions telling her how to defrost and cook the food.

This is someone who has to be reminded to eat and how prepare food, and she is also someone with a very successful career with a huge multinational company who last year bought a house for about £1.5 million, cash.



Why does she forget to eat?

That is very interesting.



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27 Apr 2012, 5:29 pm

nessa238 wrote:
Who_Am_I wrote:
Quote:
Are you familiar with the concept of 'just trying to get on with things despite the difficulties'?


Look. The other day, I was overloaded, and my visual processing broke down. The only reason I didn't get run over crossing the road is that there were no cars coming, because I couldn't work out the traffic.
Are you going to call that laziness?
I regularly teach my students with a foggy head and a thumping headache because a child has screamed on the bus.
Are you going to call that laziness?
If my bus ride to work is bad enough, the "simple" acts of making eye contact with my students and getting words out is enough to make me fall over with exhaustion after work.
Is that laziness?


You mean your vision went blurry?

That might indicate an actual problem wth your eyes - do you wear glasses?

When was the last time you had your eyes tested?

I've had that effect as a side effect of taking an SSRI anti-depressant - everything in my visual field broke up and went blurry and moved around, like when a TV set breaks down and the display is moving around in a weird way

Do you take painkillers when you have a headache?

Are you in the right job if it's making you so ill?

Others have been advocating only doing stuff that doesn't make the sensory problems worse
ie keeping themselves safe from too much stress

You seem to be doing the opposite




No, not my vision, my visual processing: i.e., the ability to make sense out of what I was seeing.
I do wear glasses, and I was wearing them at the time. I was seeing everything, but I couldn't integrate what I was seeing into a whole scene that made sense.

Painkillers don't do anything, especially not in the half hour in between getting off the bus and seeing my first student.

It's not the job that overloads my senses, it's the bus ride there, particularly if it coincides with a lot of children being on the bus.
Walking to work makes things a lot better.

I do try to avoid overload, but sometimes it just isn't possible. If I don't work, I don't eat.
If I don't go to the shops to buy food, I don't eat, because noone is going to do it for me.


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27 Apr 2012, 5:40 pm

@ League Girl (can't quote on iPad)

My cousin doesn't feel hunger and unlike others who've posted here and most people I know, she doesn't get shaky or have headaches to remind her that she's not eaten for ages. Also, she's always busy with other things so although she knows intellectually she needs to eat, food is way down her list of priorities to the extent that she just overlooks it.

I am similar in that if I am busy I forget to eat and don't feel hungry. I can get to the end of a busy day and realise that I've not eaten all day but I don't feel hungry. My son, who has AS, very rarely says he is hungry so it can be easy to forget to feed him too. I make sure we eat regularly, but if our schedule is disrupted we both forget.



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27 Apr 2012, 5:56 pm

My mom says I was never hungry but I do feel when I am starving and then I say I am hungry and I have always loved sweets and preferred them and desserts. As a kid I would never ask for food she said but yet when she make us food and call us down to eat, I would eat, same as when I see my brothers eat, I would eat so it was never a problem for my mother that I was "never hungry." Now as an adult it becomes a problem because it never comes to my head to eat and when it does, it's a chore to remember and to do it. But I never let myself get so hungry I get sick because when I starve I will eat. Occasionally I will feel sick to my stomach due to lack of food for weeks despite the fact I do eat every day. I am not sure if this is autism related or just one of my quirks. My mother says it's just who I am. I always thought hunger meant starving and I thought that was hunger. Then at age 23 I learned from my husband that is not hunger, that is beyond hunger and I realized "What does hunger feel like? I don't think I have ever felt it."

My mother has tried showing me cues for when I am hungry but I keep thinking in my head "How do I know for sure that is a sign of hunger than a sign of something else like lack of sleep or stress. I don't want to over eat."


I know a solution to that is eat on schedule but I forget and it's a chore to follow. It was a lot easier eating when I was pregnant but I failed to eat every two hours and I still had a healthy baby and I was free from health problems. But I was very dehydrated and I lost weight during my pregnancy despite the fact I had gained weight.



hanyo
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27 Apr 2012, 6:22 pm

I don't forget to eat for days at a time but sometimes I get really into doing something and don't realize that I haven't eaten or drank all day until I start feeling sick and dizzy from it.



Matt62
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27 Apr 2012, 6:47 pm

I was weird about lunch (never dinner! breakfast was too often sweet cereal of some child brand or something). I would eat sandwiches if they were cut into quarters, but I always left the crust. I hated that. I also despised peanutbutter because the sticking to the roof of my mouth. Anything that did that could cause me to panic. It also seems I have hypersensitivity in areas of my mouth. Also, I hated mayonaise. It actively gagged me, no matter how hard I tried to please my mother. I truly died not want to hurt her feelings, but.. I could not eat these blasted things. And she would give me the same thing over & over, and over to were I would become intolerant of that food item.
I also hated pizza when I was a kid. Now how sick is that? One of the greatest food ever made! I love it now.
I tolerate more foods these days, but I cannot eat a lot of them anymore because of my Crohn's. Damn! I got to where eating was a real source of pleasure. And it got taken away from me.
Irony sucks!

Sincerely,
Matthew