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How do you guys explain yourself to other people?

Einfallspinsel

I just recently realized that what I think of as buffer overflow is officially called sensory overload. I mean noisy busy babbly situations that "drain my batteries", so I leave. If I stay, my perceptions sort of... stop adding up to a meaningful whole, and eventually I "forget" what talking and moving is. (Luckily it only rarely gets to that point because I stay away from these situations.)

But for example last week I made the mistake of trying to go to a concert (being over 30 I thought I could handle it by now!), and I just barely escaped. ;-) I paid, unsuccessfully tried to be invisible for half an hour, and fled before the band arrived. I didn't sleep that night and my knees were still trembling the day after (no drugs!). I couldn't explain to my friend why I walked out on her ("because everything was wrong"?).

And now I heard my company is planning another "team building" day. I don't want to go, or at least I want to be left alone, but how do I explain that to them? (I'm glad as heck I have this job, I don't want to jeopardize it.) What if I go braindead there too, or stop talking or look away? It just makes my colleagues try harder to "cheer me up" (Like last year, where I eventually left the campfire and stayed away from the madness in a sleeping bag at just above freezing)

Do you have some advice how I can get the message across, do you ever have this problem? 

It's not against my colleagues and (potential) friends that I prefer to be alone. From my point of view, it's rather a compliment that I invest the bit of energy I have in them sometimes. Guess that's not much of a compliment. 


I have no excuse not to go, other than that I hate pretending to be fine while I'm not. I am not even officially diagnosed with anything -- I just see quite some overlap with your list of ASD symptoms, and was hoping for some advice from people who might at least understand what I'm talking about.
Parents

  • Thanks for all your answers!

    @longman: I looked up dyspraxia, don't think I have it, although a few symptoms (and your description) sound familiar. At that concert was no quiet corner to go to, that was the problem, I usually do that.

    @Hope: I was at the same very small school for 9 years, a quiet girl with mostly good grades would not be conspicuous there. I didn't even notice I had no friends, because there was this other girl (I never learned what disability she had: she was not the smartest, and had zero muscle tension, which gave her the slouch and facial expression of a bag of water) who had been following me around in silence for years. I didn't occur to me to send her away. She distracted attention away from me, and adults simply assumed we were friends.

    @Scorpion0x17: Is it possible that an Asperger's diagnosis was not known to paediatricians 25-30 years ago? Or if it was, then not for girls? In the last 10 years, four unrelated people have asked me things like, did you try this Asperger online test, did you like that Asperger documentary, here read this book about autistic adults, etc…

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  • Thanks for all your answers!

    @longman: I looked up dyspraxia, don't think I have it, although a few symptoms (and your description) sound familiar. At that concert was no quiet corner to go to, that was the problem, I usually do that.

    @Hope: I was at the same very small school for 9 years, a quiet girl with mostly good grades would not be conspicuous there. I didn't even notice I had no friends, because there was this other girl (I never learned what disability she had: she was not the smartest, and had zero muscle tension, which gave her the slouch and facial expression of a bag of water) who had been following me around in silence for years. I didn't occur to me to send her away. She distracted attention away from me, and adults simply assumed we were friends.

    @Scorpion0x17: Is it possible that an Asperger's diagnosis was not known to paediatricians 25-30 years ago? Or if it was, then not for girls? In the last 10 years, four unrelated people have asked me things like, did you try this Asperger online test, did you like that Asperger documentary, here read this book about autistic adults, etc…

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