Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello
I'm finding, at 46, that I have significantly less capacity/energy than I used to. I've been self employed for 6 years (which is just a different type of stress but at least I have more control over when & where I work). This is probably a 'how long is a piece of string' question but how can I tell if I'm "trying to do too much", or I'm excessively exhausted trying to do very little. I'm struggling to get a read on it. Chatting with other non-Aspies I trust it doesn't feel like I'm achieving a great deal considering how exhausted I am. I've not been formally diagnosed as Aspergers, but feel it is a dead cert given everything I've read, and I have no other indication or reason to believe I'm not healthy so I'm reluctant to go to the doctors. I have a healthy diet and get decent sleep etc.
Do you find you get more tired than you expect from doing different activities? I know that some things (socialising, noisy environments) wear me out, and seemingly more strenuous activities (hillwalking) energise me so it's hard to get a sense of how to manage my energy levels.
Any thoughts on this are welcome, sorry the question is not very clear.
Daisy
Well I have less energy than I did, but then I am 59. Being self employed there is always that uncertainty of where the next meal is coming from and there are no paid holidays. Not much certainty of what retirement provisions there will be either, which might come down to paying g less tax and maybe enough to pay a couple of bills. I don"t mind working past 60 though, just don't want to have to keep on running g to stand still. So can be the sense of being on the treadmill for life now. What I try to do now is avoid really early shifts, where there is no chance at all of getting enough sleep. And simply doing less, which I can now, having no rent or mortgage to pay right now. A few years ago, there were too many early starts and days lasting until late evenings, then I was getting told off by my language schools for losing it spectcularly with obstructive porters and security.
It is possible the heat levels in my flat are too much in the winter and there is no air conditioning in the summer, which may be a little enervating....on the whole I would much rather be too hot than too cold though. I hate being cold. I can't control the heating as the whole block is heated from an external source.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts Nexus9, I definitely recognise the treadmill element.
I too avoid early mornings - I claim that my alarm clock doesn't work for anything less than a "6" at the front of it :-) sleep has to be sacrosanct for me as life unravels pretty quickly without it.
Good point about temperature, I notice that I get sad if I'm too cold for too long (<15 degrees) and grumpy if I'm too hot for too long (>30 degrees). As I live in the UK, not too much of an issue generally, and I dress accordingly. Working from home or from training rooms I can usually control the temperature so that's a great help. Hmm, tricky if someone else controls the heating, grateful I don't have to contend with that one as I no longer work in open plan offices - yuk!