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Autistic 'lightbulb moments'

Deleted User

Since your diagnosis/self realisation, have you had times in your life when suddenly you realise why you did something in the past ie because of your autism.

There have been many for me, but recently the hair cutting thread made me realise why I hated hairdressers so much even though everyone else I knew seemed to look forward to going.

I was the only person in my 30s I knew to have a mobile hairdresser come to my house - it seemed to be older people or those with mobility problems who went for this service.

Have you had moments when everything clicks into place/another piece of the puzzle of your past?

Parents

  • Many, I suspect, but one that comes to mind is my relationship with noise and anxiety. I’ve always known that noise from neighbours, people eating, kids in the street etc upset me more than seemed reasonable but I just thought I was being over sensitive. Even the sound of electrical appliances, TVs, lights, other peoples’ wrist watches.

    But post-diagnosis, working with a therapist, I discovered that my body is very anxious most of the time but forgets to tell my brain. Fast forward a few weeks and I’m back in the office at work and I wear noise cancelling headphones for the first time.

    And I physically felt a weight drain out of my body. A weight I hadn’t even realised was there.

  • in reply to Deleted User
    Deleted User said:
    Even the sound of electrical appliances, TVs, lights, other peoples’ wrist watches.

    When I was a child we had wind up clocks that all had loud ticks.

    Whichever room I was in, especially my bedroom, I put them under a pillow or cushion.

    I hate the sound of ticking clocks.

  • in reply to Deleted User

    A few years ago I had a new TV set top box installed but the power adapter made a very high pitched noise which I just couldn’t escape. I then had a series of calls with Virgin who sent a number of replacement adapters but they all did the same thing. I was in a state of near panic that I’d never escape the noise unless I gave up television.

    Eventually an engineer came out and said he couldn’t hear anything but that he understood because his son had the same problem. That engineer went away and found a random adapter for some other product that happened to have the same voltage etc and brought it to me and waited while I tested it. I could have hugged him.

    Little incidents like that make so much more sense after you’ve been diagnosed.

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  • in reply to Deleted User

    A few years ago I had a new TV set top box installed but the power adapter made a very high pitched noise which I just couldn’t escape. I then had a series of calls with Virgin who sent a number of replacement adapters but they all did the same thing. I was in a state of near panic that I’d never escape the noise unless I gave up television.

    Eventually an engineer came out and said he couldn’t hear anything but that he understood because his son had the same problem. That engineer went away and found a random adapter for some other product that happened to have the same voltage etc and brought it to me and waited while I tested it. I could have hugged him.

    Little incidents like that make so much more sense after you’ve been diagnosed.

Children
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