dorito
Emu Egg
Joined: Aug 07, 2009
Posts: 4
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 Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:23 am Post subject: is messiness related in any way to any kind of aspergers? |
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| I'm not very socially adept and my mom mentioned a couple of times that she thinks i might have aspergers. I'm also extremely disorganized/messy and i was wondering if there is any correlation between aspergers and messiness/disorganization or if that's just me/unrelated to aspergers. |
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i_wanna_blue
Within
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Joined: Aug 10, 2008
Age: 28
Posts: 7722
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:32 am Post subject: |
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One would assume someone on the spectrum would be the most organised. For myself this isn't the case, and for one reason only. Anxiety. It may seem strange but it's true. Anxiety doesn't turn me into a robot who goes from A to B to C, perhaps as one would expect.
Instead when I get nervous it's chaos and I go from A to K to V. The more relaxed I am the more rigid I become. I'll give you an example. If my anxiety is acting up, and it's my turn to pack away the dishes, I will just shove it in, in any old way, just to get as quickly done as possible. But when I'm calm I realise how much more attention to detail I show and how I enjoy placing things in order (almost ocd like).
Following routines come much more naturally to me too when I am calm. But overall as far as being messy is concerned I am either at one of these two points. A bit of a slob who doesn't care, or a really neat person who can't stand clutter. I usually fluctuate between the two. |
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ChangelingGirl
Brazilian Wandering Spider
Joined: Sep 19, 2007
Age: 26
Posts: 1614
Location: Netherlands
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 9:09 am Post subject: Re: is messiness related in any way to any kind of aspergers |
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| The way I understand it, some Aspies are extremely organized, and others are quite chaotic. I am very chaotic myself unless I keep a tight schedule of, say cleaning my room. I constantly can't find things like keys, shoes, white cane, etc., because I won't remember where I left them, don't put them int he same space, and am also blind so can't just look where they are. |
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OddFinn
Aboensis
Joined: Jun 28, 2009
Posts: 1277
Location: Finland
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 10:52 am Post subject: |
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My chaos is very organized.
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Maggiedoll
Loon
Joined: Jun 05, 2009
Age: 28
Posts: 2125
Location: Maryland
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:06 am Post subject: Re: is messiness related in any way to any kind of aspergers |
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| dorito wrote: | | I'm not very socially adept and my mom mentioned a couple of times that she thinks i might have aspergers. I'm also extremely disorganized/messy and i was wondering if there is any correlation between aspergers and messiness/disorganization or if that's just me/unrelated to aspergers. |
I think it's an executive functioning problem.
There's a thread on here about cleaning, and how I suck at it.. or rather, how when I try to clean, nothing seems to actually get any cleaner. It's like I take a look around, go OMG, I need to clean this! ..and then get overwhelmed, sitting there staring at the mess..
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willmark
Phoenix
Joined: May 14, 2009
Age: 63
Posts: 571
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 12:52 pm Post subject: |
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| I think it's related to your temperament. I am ready to conclude that ASD's are unrelated to temperament, though I have read arguments that ADHD is another way to explain the behaviors of people whose MBTI type is intuitive and end in a P. |
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WardenWolf
Phoenix
Joined: May 01, 2009
Age: 31
Posts: 522
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 1:46 pm Post subject: |
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Many aspies are horribly messy, myself included. The joke is that it's just "organization by layer".
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Willard
Nobody
Joined: Mar 24, 2008
Posts: 4077
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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| OddFinn wrote: | | My chaos is very organized. |
Just so. I do have a tendency to clutter my space with collections and special interest relatables, but there's a place for everything and everything is in it's place. I get quite agitated when there's a genuine mess. The world seems to run quickly out of control when organization begins to fail.
Cleaning, as in scrubbing and disinfecting, on the other hand, I sometimes let go far longer than I should. I'm certainly not obsessive about that. ::runs finger through half-inch layer of dust:: |
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poopylungstuffing
Lolliwink Slayer
Joined: Mar 09, 2007
Age: 37
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Location: Snapdragon Ridge
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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I have pretty severe executive dysfunctioning...and as part of it, my cleaning/organizing skills have always really really sucked. There is a sort of anatomy to the chaos though.
My grandparents lived in a little cave of a house and my ASish grandfather's office was so dense with papers, that one felt likely to cause an avalanche.
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willmark
Phoenix
Joined: May 14, 2009
Age: 63
Posts: 571
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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| WardenWolf wrote: | | Many aspies are horribly messy, myself included. The joke is that it's just "organization by layer". |
Otherwise known as a "Horizontal Filing System". |
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daydreamer84
butterfly
Joined: Jul 09, 2009
Age: 28
Posts: 3515
Location: My own little world
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 3:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Hell yes! Organization/ executive dis/function has been one of the biggest problems in my life. I could say the same about my father who also has A.S! |
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elderwanda
Lemon Zing
Joined: Nov 18, 2008
Age: 45
Posts: 1555
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 4:37 pm Post subject: |
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Yes, I agree with the others who say it's an executive functioning problem. I don't thing all aspies have that so much, or that it's a requirement for being an aspie, but it seems to go along with the territory often.
I would LOVE to have my life and my surroundings more organized. I just don't have the skills to manage it, especially since I share my life and house with people who have their own problems keeping organized, in a house that is a bit too small. I could spend my entire existence doing nothing but trying to organize things, and it would still be a chaotic mess. Even when I've lived in situations where I hardly own anything at all, it's hard to keep it organized. If you look at books and magazine articles about organizing things, they always make the assumption that you don't USE your stuff. That you just want to store it neatly in the top of your closet. In my family, we use our stuff ALL the time. People have hobbies and projects, and it all takes up space which we don't have. You can spend all day packing things up in pretty, expensive Pottery Barn baskets, but there's no point, if you actually use the stuff that you own.
People who are naturally good at organizing things and keeping things tidy do not understand people who have trouble with that stuff, and tend to think that if you really wanted to, you could. |
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Fiz
The Outspoken
Joined: Jan 30, 2006
Posts: 1920
Location: Manchester, United Kingdom
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 4:46 pm Post subject: |
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| OddFinn wrote: | | My chaos is very organized. |
So's mine. Even when I make a mess, it's organised! However, I cannot handle dirt or anythig that causes bad smells. If there is a component of any mess that does this it's dealt with immediately. Anyway, I digress. I don't think that messiness is an attribute that necessarily correlates with Asperger's syndrome. As a person you are either tidy or messy (or a bit of both in that you can be tidy but then when you really can't be bothered you can be messy - this is me!!!) whether you have Asperger's or not.
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Ambivalence
The Obvious Factor
Joined: Nov 09, 2008
Posts: 3642
Location: Peterlee (for Industry)
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:02 pm Post subject: |
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I flip between very untidy and very tidy (edit - what Fiz says  ). When I want to I will tidy everything up and organise it neatly (with the exception of my CD collection, which I absolutely refuse to organise due to a nebulous feeling that that would be A Bad Thing) but I never make any effort to keep things tidy once they're organised.
I do have a possibly stereotypical habit of making lists (well, spreadsheets, usually, these days) of things that vaguely interest me, and then not using them for anything. I like the process of categorising and organising I suppose. 
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Tantybi
Phoenix
Joined: Mar 06, 2008
Age: 34
Posts: 1130
Location: Wonderland
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| Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2009 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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My problem is that I strive for perfection, and then I become overwhelmed with all the work associated to it, which also takes me twice as long to do between me trying to do it well and the bad luck I seem to run into, and eventually I just give up and let it be a mess. It bothers me, but I guess it's an all or nothing personality. A good book that has really helped me,
THE CLUTTER DIET by LORIE MARRERO (I think I got the author right). Last I checked, it's 12 bucks on Amazon.com, and well worth the investment. Best book I've ever read, and much better than Organizing for Dummies. They also have a website that sells the book and some other tools you can use, and you can join a monthly club like a diet club, but I haven't joined. THe book itself has helped me. Either way, I think it's just www.clutterdiet.com |
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