Things you are just unable to/just cant do and others think you’re being silly

[Cattery]

For example: I just can’t be a passenger in the back of a car. I wouldn’t even contemplate it if the car had no rear doors. The claustrophobia would send me into sheer panic.

Clear off a surface that is full of clutter. I physically can't do it once there's more than a couple of items on there. It blends into an unmanagable mess and I panic and the only way to clear it is to shove it into a bag. DH finds it infuriating and incomprehensible. Whereas I'm usually very organised and wish he would deal with it! It's mostly kids stuff but also mine and DHs. The worst offenders are the kitchen worktops and the dining table. And also the bookcase. Just anything and everything dumped!

I also can’t ride a bike. My balance is dreadful! Feel better knowing it’s not just me!

I can do it if the space is on my left, but I make a right pig’s ear of it if it’s on my right!

That's a tough one. How shit for you.
One went up my son's nose when he was staying still. I wouldn't be able to keep my shit together.

For me it's enclosed spaces like caving. How does that instance come up I hear you wonder? Trust me it did.

Tie my shoe laces! I just never learned. I follow subway maps, fly, drive, public speak. I even love enclosed water slides! I just cannot tie them and have always had velcro trainers.

@MamasitaGringita have you discovered silicon Silicon laces on Amazon, they are a little tricky to put through the lace eyelet but turn every lace up shoe into a slip-on, they come in different colours and thinner dress shoe ones for smart shoes and thicker ones for trainers.

The link is the ones we've used before but delivery looks expensive now, many other alternatives available.

Another phone phobic here. I think it’s because we never had one at home and the first time I had to answer one was when I started work. The person phoning in would bombard me with questions/info and I’d just totally panic and not take anything in! I hated it.

If I have to ring anyone I have to work out roughly what I’m going to say beforehand, and if I get an answerphone I have to put the phone down, write a script out and phone back, otherwise I end up sounding like a incoherent lunatic rambling on. It caused me so much stress at work. At home I made the kids answer our phone. Since they’ve moved out I have to do it myself, but thank goodness for the caller ID, if I can see who it is I’m not so panicky.

Talk in certain situations
Drive
work
have my photo taken
do a video call

Another person that finds phones very difficult. When I am on the phone I can’t think straight, to the extent that if I am going to have to give my details I have to write them down first because my mind will go blank and I will forget my phone number, address etc.
No autism diagnosis but ds has and I definitely have traits.
When I worked in Waterstones I had to phone people up and tell them the book they had ordered had arrived and I didn’t mind that at all because the details were in front of me and I didn’t have to think on my feet.

Oh I've never been in one with uphill bits!

That seems like asking for trouble tbh.

Bite off sellotape with my teeth. DH can't understand how I can't do it, but I just can't, my teeth aren't aligned properly!

I can imagine they did - one time I was at a toddler group where the resident small dog did a poo on the bark chippings under the slide, then turned around, sniffed it and then...ate it.

The adults were turning green but the toddlers were like "Best! Playgroup! Ever!"

Any kind of sliding in a standing position. Skiing, rollerblading, ice skating. Just... can't fathom how or why? Surely "standing and sliding" is what you do when you step on a patch of ice or oil slick and skid uncontrollably, and it's, you know, a horrible feeling? Do not understand why people do this on purpose and WHY they do it.

Board an escalator just by walking on!! I have to wait for at least 3 stairs to pass by and hold both handrails.

I can get off no prob but am well jel of folks that just stroll on with a full cup of coffee in one hand, an armfull of bags on the other AND a mobile phone wedged on the shoulder!

I am just not well co ordinated at all

Blow up balloons. It hurts!

The commissioning group that runs all the surgeries in the area were the ones that 'investigated' and found no fault so it doesn't matter if I change surgery as the response will be the same. It is literally impossible to complain about a GP.

You would think there would be more understanding these days & certainly things have changed a lot in the world of work & of disability discrimination in shops, transport etc but GP & NHS in general seem very resistant to tolerating anyone neurodiverse.

That's so restrictive for you.
I used to work on the 26th floor of a building in canary wharf! Does that limit your job opportunities?

Sleep against a wall - must have an open side to sleep next to.

Navigate, understand directions.

Yes, it's ironic when you think about it. Wishing you all the best x

@Anisty I can't walk down escalators anymore, when I look down the lines on the step make me feel weird, I don't know whether it's a spatial / depth perception thing but I used to do it no problem. Am in my 30s though so not sure what that's about.

@LikeWhoUsesTypewritersAnyway DD won't use lifts either or holds onto the hand rail with both hands if she has to, but would much rather climb all the stairs than get in.

When we are in London we never get off the tube at Covent Garden!

Oh my god this is me lol!!!

Some people have amazing spacial awareness. An Amazon van seemingly blocked passage through the road with another car parked slightly back from it on the other side. I thought, no way anyone can get through that gap…well a truck drives up and makes it through without even slowing down! Meanwhile on the other side there was a queue of cars forming waiting for the Amazon van to leave so I guess I wasn’t the only one thinking this is impossible.

I can't follow any kind of phone map. Just give me a paper street map any time!

My "can't do it" is to sit in the middle of a row at the theatre or in church etc. No way, I feel trapped and on the rare occasions that I tried it, I got up and left. I sit down the back at weddings and funerals and will cope (reluctantly) with an aisle seat near the back where I can escape if I have to. Awful feeling.

I'm not claustrophic at all, which makes it strange, but I do not like MRI scanners, but I'd say that's not unusual.