Moving meltdown approaches: Call for help!

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Hello everyone.

To make a long story short, I am being forced to move at the end of September. (I'll eventually write the tell-all book and sell the movie rights: betrayals by difficult extended family, my trust in people further eroding, and so forth.)

My immediate problem:

The stress of the move is freaking me out. I feel meltdown coming on, and am trying to hold things together. I am not sure what to do. I may need to move back in with my parents. That fills me with anxiety. They're good people, but come on--I've been on my own for the last 20 years and feel like a failure.

I am really agitated and finding autistic/Asperger's behaviors on a steady increase. I'm abhorring social contact, wanting to withdraw from everything, feeling intense emotion and not having good expression for it, obsessing over every tiny detail and getting so fixated that I feel I am disconnected from the real (NT?) world.

Any thoughts? I could use some advice here.

Thanks!! !

Whew. Even writing this and posting it filled me with severe anxiety.

Moving is such a pain. I have had to do it too. Just take it slow. Move a little at a time to the new place. Gradually increase your time there until you grow tolerant. Thats what I do if possible.

I'm a self-diagnosed Aspie and I'm not a doctor and I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express but if you need someone to write the Forward for your soon-to-be bestseller then let me know.

Moving just sucks. I moved back in with by Mom years ago for a few months and I had similar feelings of failure and anxiety. I think the anxiety is caused by living with parents for the second time thinking the arrangment will be just like or similar to how things were when growing up. Parents grow older as do their children so I was glad that my time back at home was not a repeat of my childhood. I think the failure feelings come from comparing other people's successes against your own. Just because someone is successful in say their career does not mean they are succesful in every aspect of their lives.

I also find my Asperger behaviors increase when I am stressed out. Work has been stressing me out where I had to move computers from one network to another while limiting downtime. There were times when too many people were talking or directing questions to me that I had to take a few deep breathes to help prevent a meltdown. During this time, moving the computers was my biggest concern and all else took a back seat including socializing. I'm learning to recognize my shutdown tendencies better now. Concentrating on the activities of the day as opposed to the move as a whole can help and getting out of stressful circumstances if just for a minute to collect your thoughts can also help.

good luck

Wow, guys. Thanks very much for your insights and reassurance. They are a BIG help. I know I'm not the only guy who has ever moved, but getting such positive and encouraging replies from fellow Aspies really lets me know that I can deal with this.

Guys, I am still pretty stressed about this, but I will reread your words a few times and I'll read them again over the next few days to calm myself. I'll try your suggestions, too. Thanks for helping me!

I moved this past February and had the same issues.. I was stressed and nearly unable to do anything prior to the move... stress was incredibly high and my tics and such were nearly uncontrollable... i managed to make it through only to end up with a major meltdown a couple of weeks after moving in where I took an entire week to get myself together.

It's stressful. What I would say that I wish i had done is map everything out... write it all down... plan everything you possibly can. It helps.

Thanks, Grimfaire.

I'm sad to learn you had such a tough time with it, but I sense a lot of the same stuff going through my head now. I hope you're doing a lot better now.

I am going to plan the hell out of everything. It's a compulsive behavior, but it will help me. I have set up a spreadsheet on my PC to keep track of my daily progress (e.g., bags of trash thrown out or donated, boxes packed, etc.). That will help.

Also, I am going to keep up with my workouts and am going to be doing some serious meditation to deal with all this.

Thanks.