Boredom and Asperger's

Hi I was wondering what thoughts other people with Asperger's have regarding 'boredom'.

I think the function of boredom is to make you do seomthing else. It is also linked with your reward process.

I am not sure that I easily recognise when I am or should be bored. i can find myself doing the same thing again and again or just not able to do anything - sort of in limbo or adrift. I find that routine and planning ahead really helps with focus and enables me to operate better. I don't often feel a sense of achievement or reward and therfore this may result in my not easily defining bored and not bored. I am making this sound more simple than it maybe really is.

Any thoughts?

  • Silver100 said:

    I am not saying we don't get lonely and have some social needs, but I think we feel more lonely when in a social environment where we don't fit in than on our own, and prefer solitude to that. Some NTs seem to be almost afraid of being just with themselves.

    yep, I think there is a primal human need to be with other humans. Probably for safety or mating.

    ....I am not sure if its lonely that I always feel. Its sometimes that I just would  rather not be there. Its hard to connect - I am not that motivated to just 'chat' for example.

    Its not as straightforward that I want to be alone, I just don't feel ccomfortable with people.

  • Hope said:

    All socialising is hard work, but meeting like minded people , who share my aversion to small talk, is less stressful. I still reward myself for the effort though.

    but do you find it rewarding?

  • May it also be that NTs and aspies have different sources of reward. Although we both need achievements NTs also need social rewards whereas we get more from physical or intellectual activity. I agree that we tend to notice more and examine in greater depth and find that interesting wheras NTs don't, generally, get so much reward from understanding and observing or using. In a way that is an advantage because of Scorpion0x17's point. Due to their greater reliance on the social world they find themselves having to avoid as well as seek.

    I am not saying we don't get lonely and have some social needs, but I think we feel more lonely when in a social environment where we don't fit in than on our own, and prefer solitude to that. Some NTs seem to be almost afraid of being just with themselves.

  • It depends what sort of socialising it is, and the duration. For example, I avoid social occasions, like family gatherings, as far as is possible. If I can't avoid them, the stress is still there, but it is made more bearable if I have something enjoyable to look forward to; after the pain comes a gain, a bit like when I got a sticker after visiting the dentist as a child.

    All socialising is hard work, but meeting like minded people , who share my aversion to small talk, is less stressful. I still reward myself for the effort though.

  • Scorpion0x17 said:

    There are two types of motivation:

    Reward (positive) motivation - "do this and you will get X".

    Punishment (negative) motivation - "do this or you won't get X".

    I like that explanation scorpion. It could be expanded maybe to 'do this/don't

     do this and you will feel good/bad'?

    Scorpion0x17 said:

    It is the gaining of pleasure, and the avoidance of displeasure, that are the universal driving forces, not reward, nor punishment.

    but the reward is the ultimately feeling pleasure? and the punishment is feeling displeasure?

    Hope said:

    I reward myself with tea and nice food after going out and socialising ( a challenge for me). I sit alone and try and relax.

    I wonder Hope, do you feel any sense of reward or pleasure from going out and socialising or is the reward solely the nice food and tea?

  • Jon said:
    people in general may do things for reward. It varies from person to person and there may be differences for NT and AS.

    Reward may include praise, self-satisfaction, fitting in, fullfiling a (biological?) need such as hunger.

    There are two types of motivation:

    Reward (positive) motivation - "do this and you will get X".

    Punishment (negative) motivation - "do this or you won't get X".

    Much of the information I've read, seen, and heard, on Autism talks about people on the spectrum being, in general, strongly reward motivated.

    And, through observation, it would appear, to me, that neurotypicals, in general, are strongly punishment motivated.

    People who are reward motivated derive pleasure, and avoid displeasure, out of acheiving things.

    People who are punishment motivated derive pleasure, and avoid displeasure, out of avoiding things.

    It is the gaining of pleasure, and the avoidance of displeasure, that are the universal driving forces, not reward, nor punishment.

    At least that's my understanding of it.

  • I reward myself with tea and nice food after going out and socialising ( a challenge for me). I sit alone and try and relax.

  • OK

    people in general may do things for reward. It varies from person to person and there may be differences for NT and AS.

    Reward may include praise, self-satisfaction, fitting in, fullfiling a (biological?) need such as hunger.

    Are any actions not related to reward? Or can the reward circuit be distorted in a way that it is no longer helpful? For example obsessions and adictions that reduce quality of life?

    I think depression must affect the reard circuit too in the way that it is hard to sense reward. At the end of the day is does reward manifest itself in humans 'feeling good' about something?

  • ... going to need some time to think and respond to all this....thanks for posting :)

  • The only thing I wouldn't agree with in Longmans post is the stuff about reward.

    In fact I think you have it completely the wrong way round, Longman.

    It's known that, in general, people on the spectrum are reward motivated.

    However, 'reward' can simply be 'what we enjoy doing' (or, in other words, our 'special interest(s)').

    Therefore, I think we don't get bored because we get into a reward-driven motivational spiral - the more we do the thing we enjoy the more rewarded we feel and the more motivated we are to continue doing that thing.

    Whereas, I believe, neurotypicals, in general, seem more motivated by punishment - i.e. they do stuff to prevent bad things from happening, not because they enjoy, or are otherwise rewarded, by the thing they are doing.

    Hence they get bored, because, as long as they're either doing one thing, or not doing anything, there's always something they feel they should be doing instead to stop some bad thing or other from happening.

    Of course, these are generalisations, and so there are bound to be exceptions in both the autistic and neurotypical populations.

  • the autism interests are not narrow, they just appear narrow to the Nt's, they are spiraling engrossing intrinsic wonder Laughing oops, did I give away the aspie secret

  • I think boredom is something experienced more by neurotypicals than people on the spectrum.

    My reasoning? I perceive that neurotypical behaviour (people not on the spectrum in this context) thrives on reward. As I've suggested on other threads, NTs seek feedback or confirmation to boost self-assurance and provide contentment. So they spend their lives searching for such reward. They cannot watch television repeats because they are bored by the same content. They quickly exhaust the originality of computer games.

    I think what happens to people on the spectrum is their need to acquire new information and do things in depth seems to provide reward.  Narrow obsessive interests and contentment with routine and regularity are addressed as defects, but do at least reduce the sense of emptiness NTs complain about. And people on the spectrum can often watch the same film or read the same book over and over again, and explore a computer game to infinity.

    Also not being able to socialise effectively, not being able to make productive eye contact, having sensory problems in noisy social environments, means that people on the spectrum cannot pursue reward from social feedback.

    I've seen pictures of children with autism, in institutions in the fifties and sixties, looking totally out of it on see-saws and rockers. The reason was they had nothing to occupy their minds and their quest for information. So they suffered boredom from lack of opportunity to use their minds, moreso than neurotypicals.

    I did suffer intense boredom at work, because I had to do the task in front of me, and couldn't easily go off and do my own "displacement" activities.

    So yes boredom applies if people on the spectrum cannot get to do their focus interests. But when engaged in those interests we don't experience boredom. 

    Does that make any more sense?

  • Jon said:
    I am making this sound more simple than it maybe really is.

    Or possibly more complicated!

  • motivation is relative, no guilt, plan, shame, reward or reason is needed,, life is life, you are still breathing you pass the test of life Wink