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Autistic Presentation

Raven_Forester

Hi everyone, 

Is there ever a time that anyone ever feels more autistic than normal? I guess a better way to phrase this is, is there ever a time when its harder to hide your autism? Like when you're tired or stressed or experiencing other high emotions. Such as attending a funeral while extremely sleep deprived which was exactly what happened today. Well, I guess all week I've felt that I've been acting "way more autistic" than usual. For instance, more stimming, more sensory sensitivity, social tolerance, worsened executive dysfunction, etc. Does anyone else get that? Just curious. 

Or it could be totally unrelated to autism. 

Parents

  • Yeah, I remember wondering about this exact question a couple of months ago when everything just seemed to be piling up on top of me and I was not managing things that I usually do. I wasn't sure if it was autism-related or as you say something else, but I definitely found that things that seem "classic autism traits" became more pronounced for me during that time. For example, I was very specifically laying out my food on my plate so that it didn't touch, which I did a lot as a child but have learned to not rely on so much as it became something that stopped me enjoying meals with friends.

    I've heard a theory of autism about having enough spoons to do things (it's not specifically about spoons, I think they just use spoons as an analogy for something that you can have a certain number of and when they're gone they're gone). So I wonder if for me, something like eating with my food touching uses up 3 spoons of thinking about what might be in my mouth, what texture it's going to be, etc., whereas eating with my food all separate only uses up 1 spoon. So perhaps when we're tired or stressed or experiencing other high emotions, those things are using up some of our spoons, and so as a defense mechanism we have to resort to the behaviours that prioritise using less spoons (stimming to replace spoons, steering clear of things that might lead to sensory overload and require more spoons to come back from, etc.). I find thinking about it like that kind of helpful. Hope I said it in a way that makes sense to others too.

    Also, I'm sorry for your loss with whatever funeral you were attending. I think while you are more tired, stressed and highly emotional, remember to try to give yourself some kindness and try not to get annoyed if you feel unable to cope in all the same ways that you usually can.

    All the best,

  • in reply to Mearcstapa

    Hi Mearcstapa, you're referring to the spoon theory.  For some reason the main site which describes the theory is not available at the moment but I've found this:

    www.thebraincharity.org.uk/.../

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