Hi there, TMOS speaking again. Today, I would like to speak with you about things in life we may not choose to encounter but in some day, have to. All of the things in the title today, I am experiencing/have experienced mildly in the past. It has been a little upsetting to not only experience but have these feelings; however it doesn’t have to be this way. I have managed to try and do something about my own feelings. It does not cost anything but your determination and motivation. If you believe you are experiencing any of these three things or know you are then I hope by the end of this thread, you will realise how much potential you have. As many of you may know, it is my goal to inspire anybody regardless of who they are.
Please Note: Information disclosed beyond this point is just a general guide based on my experiences and how I have managed to solve my own problem(s). This not professional advice nor written for any individual in particular, everybody is different! Although, with regard to professional advice – I should inform you that my GP has advised me that all of these things are parts of Autism.
The first thing I would like to discuss with you in this thread is how these things may affect somebody such as myself with anything on the autistic spectrum.
Anxiety/OCD:
If you are at my age, first and foremost – I’m sure you may remember how much you panicked if you forgot something whether it was for you or somebody else. You did not worry because you thought you would get into trouble but perhaps felt it that something bad would happen as you didn’t remember whatever it was you forgot (for argument’s sake). If you in any time of your life have felt any of these feelings, then already it is quite likely you have faced anxiety and/or OCD, both of which are key parts of autism.
By my experiences the OCD takes place before the Anxiety. To me, this is the norm. The reason I am going through all of these is to make anybody aware with such conditions whether they are Autistic on top as well or not that it does not make you any lesser than others. In other words, these are perfectly normal feelings I have discovered with a condition such as my own.
Let me give you one of my examples:
Pressing a different coloured bell on a bus to get off it as I wanted to be different to everybody else. Even if I spotted it right the way at the very back, I would go to press that button amongst any of the others that were around.: This has happened quite a few times in my past. The reason I did this was because I suddenly felt if I did not push this particular button something terrible would happen or instead I would feel bad about myself. On the worst case scenario, any of these cases could lead to depression which is why I chose to do something about it.
Solution: In life we all have to do a lot of thinking. So, this greatly comes into it. I said that I wanted to be different by pressing a bell that I thought nobody else would press. Ask yourself this question. A bus coming from my local train station. Would I have been the only person on that bus and ever have been? I would be very surprised if the answer to that question is yes. So by pressing this particular bell in this instance would not make me any different at all as others would have done anyway. In fact, without even noticing while your back has been turned, depending on the length of your journey and also the amount of people there were on the bus, it has probably been pressed at least twice and many of times in its life time – this is a great way of avoiding such an issue with OCD and furthermore preventing issues such as Anxiety.
Depression:
This is a different matter. In the event of depression you need to keep yourself occupied and try to keep yourself moving or in my case, running! Running or any form of exercise is in my view the best way to keep you distracted, you won’t only keep yourself distracted what’s more you’ll feel good about yourself from what you have achieved. First and foremost, if you are in the Petts Wood or Orpington area – there is a very friendly running club – Petts Wood Runners. I have found that this is a great way to not only keep me running but at the same time it has made me more sociable because I have met lots of nice people. I’m not going to go through any of my experiences with depression as the idea of this thread is to help you and I do not feel I would succeed in doing that if I told you everything from my past. Going back to the running, running has made me far more alive. I have spoken to various people from my club and we have all come to the great conclusion that the fact you are out socialising and running at the same time is an achievement alone.
Also, we all have good days and bad days. But that is part of life. Life would not be healthy if everything was good or we wouldn’t be prepared for the not so good things that may just be around the corner from us. Look at it as experience. I.E.: I had a job interview the other day and it went horrible. The employer I found was rude, condescending until I felt forced to tell him about my condition. This has only made me a stronger person as with people like that; they’re just not worth it – end of. Am I going to waste any more time with him by letting him drag me down… NO. With people like that, you are better off without them. Experience is experience. Don’t let it drag you down. When you get in from a hard day at work, do something you enjoy doing whether that is watching television, but try to make yourself as active as possible. Travelling is a good option. People with Moderate Learning Difficulties are eligible for the Freedom Pass, I can tell you that as I have both of these things myself.
Also, when you come in from work or college/school in the evenings – you want to relax. This is where you switch off from work mode. You should be out of your suit and at the very most if you have anything to do for your next day be in a pair of jeans perhaps with a nice warm cup of coffee or whatever you fancy. My lecturer from my college said this to me too. When I nearly gave in my course because I found it too much. I found it too much, because I was often up until the best part of 3 or 4 o Clock in the morning sorting things out, which is great for the determination part but in terms of motivation it shall soon slip due to tiredness. This will not put you anywhere but in an early bedtime for you daily as you cannot be bothered to do anything due to how tired and worn out you are daily. A bad body clock is a huge effect on depression. You need to get yourself into and out of bed at sensible time.
Anyway, enclosing I hope this has helped you realise how much potential you have regardless of who you are and how you are feeling. I still experience these three things today and found myself able to broadcast it along with solutions that I feel anyone can achieve. It’s not a question of how good you are at anything. As long as you like what you do, keep that smile on ;-)
I’m always just around the corner. I do have a website for The TMOS Campaign, run by myself. This can be accessed here.