Published on 12, July, 2020
I’ve noticed as a single adult (27) in a flat share, I stay in my room all weekend sometimes after working full-time all week. For example this weekend I work up at 9am on Saturday and lay in bed watching Once Upon A Time and cleaning my (very cluttered and messy) room and doing a house cleaning task once an hour, and today I lay I bed all day watching Tik Toks and watching Once Upon A Time. I also ordered take out five times. I do not do this every weekend, but do any autistic adults find they feel so flat sometimes once every fortnight or month that they get really lazy and tired; because it feels like their energy has been drained by the stress of being around strangers? I even avoid my flat mates because if feel like living with strangers drains me almost. I meant to work on projects all weekend, cook my own meals, and get out for a picnic and did not.
Living alone 20 years at age 52 now, even during the 3 years that I was unemployed and during Covid lockdowns, I’ve always been very self-disciplined about sleeping in daytime and going to bed at a proper time (9pm for a 5am wake up, leave at 6am for a 7am start for example) as I find that I can't sleep at night if I sleep in daytime and on following nights - yet, even though I do this, I sometimes still can’t sleep at night so I’m very careful about my sleep patterns - travelling on overnight trains, coaches and ferries from the U.K. home to Ireland can be a nightmare, as I can’t sleep on coaches and there is no chance of getting a cabin for the 3 hour ferry crossing from Holyhead to Dublin - when I arrive where I’m staying in Ireland early morning, especially with family, they now know that the first thing I want to do is sleep ASAP and for a few hours, then I wake up and have a meal before going to bed at the normal time - it’s almost like all-night clubbing or jet-lag but in one way much worse