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.
Sometimes I think it can be hard to gauge why an autistic individual is doing nothing; sometimes we are in shutdown, sometimes we are experiencing poor executive function, and sometimes we are just feeling low energy. I have a history, at times, of only finding the will power to do-a-thing when I am avoiding something worse. There have been times when I have made myself more uncomfortable so that I can do the less uncomfortable thing.