An autism video to watch about how I saw the world as a chil

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http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=KLDGGWNX

A question for others on the spectrum: is this how you felt when going into stores when you were a child?

I ask because I don't seem to recall this and I have classic autism. Just wondering if this is typical or just one way of many people process things. I had lots of sensory issues (wasn't a huge fan of the mannequins either), but I never saw things distortedly like that or thought the clothes were coming toward me or that the dummies would kill me.

This is every day for me. I just got back from Kohl's, and this is exactly what I experienced. So cool that someone made a video of it!

This video isn't an exact representation of how I see the world. I can relate to the loud noise and things seeming to jump out and overloading my senses, but little else. The challenge in making videos like this is the same challenge in trying to represent what a character in a movie is experiencing when he's taking LSD. A person who's never dropped acid before simply isn't going to get a totally accurate idea of what it's like. However, I think it would get the point across to an NT that we experience the world very different from them, the same way that a movie about a guy who takes LSD can get the point across to those who have never dropped acid that it's a very weird experience.

Well then, there's a GodTube.

My thoughts in a store are usually somewhat like this:

- Yay, I can see again, it's not insanely bright in here.

- Ah, and the air conditioning feels good.

- Oh, look, there's people everywhere. Geez woman, could you waddle any slower?

- I'm just in here to get X, Y, and Z, then I'll be out in no time.

- Crap, they're out of X. This sucks.

- That little kid sure is annoying screaming like that. Why do people insist on having children?

- Alright, I got Y and Z, time to get out of here.

- Geez, why does the line have to be so long?

- Dang it, I'm going to have to talk to someone.

- Alright, she's going to say hello to me. I should reply and ask her how her day is.

- Screw it, I'm not doing that. But I should be friendly...

- Blah, blah, blah, just hurry up and put my stuff in the bag already.

- Thank you. Now, to commence operation Golf Tango Foxtrot Oscar.

- Good. I remembered to get everything I needed.

- Oh geez, I don't want to donate any money today. Please don't ask me.

- Crap, it's bright out here. Where's my sunglasses?

This is pretty much my train of thought in stores too. Though I'm also adamantly trying to avoid bumping into people in the lines or in the aisles too.

Oh, and I forgot about the "I can't wait to get home and go back to [insert special interest here]" part. I have that thought at least once every 5 minutes or so. Maybe, in rare cases, I can go up to an hour without thinking that.

I must have been a much less severe case as a child. Usually I would engage myself looking at patterns like air went grates, floor tiles, embossed wall-paint, loudspeakers on the ceiling etc, feeling the smell of the room. Lights didn't bother me that much, and I was never freaked out by dummies.

Cloth shops/stores in particular were on my list of most unpleasant places. I hated to go in there, I felt the heat on my skin immediately whenever my parents took me in one. Trying on pants or coats was a torture to me.

That's just how the film maker perceived shops, but like with everything else, everyone is different. I don't think my daughter (on the waiting list for autism assessment) sees shops in this way at all. This guy seemed pertrified, my daughter is scared of very few things (although she's pretty terrified of the grape with the brown marks on it that she saw this morning). She can become quite hyper in shops and wants to touch loads of things (although every shopping experience is different), but she's never scared. Yesterday, we were in a shop for 20mins and she spent the whole time nagging me for a comic that she'd just seen (very expensive type with a cheap plastic toy on the front, which I didn't buy) and smacking me and my mum gently on our bums.

interesting. it makes me think of more of theory of mind problem than sensory. you're associating mannequins and clothes with headless people and crowds instead of what they are, inanimate objects.

i don't really have any thoughts in a store. i tend to follow who ever I am with, looking at their feet. I spend most of my energy avoiding people touching me. i get excited over some things and jump around sometimes. last time I went I said the name of the items I saw out loud and then got stuck repeating one.

I dislike the brightness but if I walk very stiffly without having my hair or clothes rub on me too much I can compensate. I like to read the labels and see all the neat rows. I like the routine of it, how you enter the same door and checkout in the same area.

the worst part is the parking lot. I can't see in the open sun.

I find stores quite fun, but I'm told I look quite miserable when in one.