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.

Driving here too. I can drive in that I have a license and I have done it in the past but it causes me so much fear, panic and anxiety that in the end I just stopped and haven’t driven for 7 years. I also suffer from brain fog and fatigue that just makes me feel too dangerous behind the wheel. I really wish it was different. I’m considering hypnotherapy and also buying an automatic to see if that helps me at least do the small journeys around town.

Work. I’m late diagnosed autistic and always thought my severe anxiety when working was something I could get over if I found the right technique. After over twenty years of trying I’ve accepted that there is no technique 😞

Give blood. I know it's an important thing to do, but I just can't bear the thought of it. I guess I try to fulfil my civic duty I in other ways.

I managed to train myself out of this. I told myself very firmly that there is nothing down there, and it's all fine. Imagine my surprise when I took up snorkeling to discover that there is, in fact, a LOT down there! 😆 (But it's still fine, it's mostly just alarmed looking fish).

It’s the same for me when I did work it made me so physically ill I wasn’t able to function and it even affected my digestive system and I lost so much weight I was nearly hospitalised

The only thing I have managed is self-employed WFH where I don’t need to talk with anyone, or exceptionally rarely…(also late diagnosed ASD). I’m not sure how people with ASD manage careers but I wish I could. Like you it’s never worked out.

Wear knickers. Stopped in 2020 during pandemic and now much happier without. I wear a thong that's sized up only if wearing a knee length dress.

Yes I struggled with being around other people at school and at work. Horrible

Yeah, I was going to say "work full time". And I mostly only manage part time because I'm S/E. I've had a big job on the last couple of weeks where I have been working full time hours, plus stuff in the evenings, and I feel that life is just falling apart. Also autistic.

Play video games, especially driving ones.

Sleep of the wardrobe door is open.

I can however drive a real car (and parallel park ), ride a bike and speak in public to 100s of people.

I'm alright at sliding sports, but can not for the life of me hit any kind of ball with any kind of bar/racket/stick.

Oh yes that’s a good point, my hours are not full time. Just piecemeal. Still totally overwhelmed with how much needs doing outside of that.

I'm very nervous around things that can bang, such as balloons, crackers, party poppers, champagne corks; I avoid parties for this reason, and the theatre, which can be quite limiting. I'm a keen netballer, and in the last few years I've discovered an even worse banger: stitched netballs (and it's the more expensive ones that are stitched). When a stitch breaks, the inflatable bladder inside starts to bulge through, which can lead to a chain reaction of more stitches breaking, the ball "gives birth" as the bladder comes out, and bursts like a balloon. When I've seen this starting to happen, I've moved as far from it as I can, as if it's a hand grenade.

I had the phone phobia as a teenager, it was crippling, I used to write scripts. I got over it as a young adult, though. I couldn't swim as a child, but I cracked that in my twenties.

I can blow them up but cannot tie a knot in them!

Walk down stairs at a normal speed, or not without holding on to a bannister rail or a wall. It doesn't happen with all stairs, just certain configurations, or with certain footwear/weather conditions/stair material making them a bit slippery and it causes vertigo.

The worst ones recently were the leaning tower of Pisa. Fortunately we were there early and I started the descent before anyone else so I wasn't holding people up. Stairs worn down and pointing downwards due to age and wear, and slightly shiny and slippery. Went down some sections on my bottom.

Another time there was a new M&S and new escalator going down through the middle, really open on both sides. My legs went to jelly and I got in the lift.

I am otherwise a fit and well middle aged person and people don't really get it.

I have had so many driving lessons and I DON'T GET IT. I don't know left from right, I don't think quickly enough to know what to do when other cars do stuff, roundabouts I'm like WTAF, I honestly have cried more in driving lessons than in the rest of my entire life. I feel sick just at the thought of being in that seat with the wheel in front of me.
No one can say I haven't tried, but people just won't accept that I Can Not Drive. Every other skill in the world people will accept that some just can't do it (can't sing? Fine. Not good at football? Oh well. Can't get past the couch to 5k? It's not for everyone. Can't drive? JUST FUCKING LEARN! 😩🙄)

I cannot join in with one of the dances that has set moves, like Jerusalema for example. I can't do it. I get every move wrong. And I can't follow the person in front of me either.

Actually it's not limited to Jerusalema. I can't do a gym class where the instructor is facing us. As I go the wrong way. Every time. It's so embarrassing that now I just won't even try it.

I'd have been booted out of the army that is for sure.

@isthismylifenow did you do anything dance related as a child?

I think it's a learnt skill that gets embedded and hard to learn when older. Naturally breaking down those dance moves into 8 beats is far easier than trying to learn the whole thing. You naturally feel the rhythm too. I wasn't a particular talented dancer but things like aerobics / Zumba is easy to learn as an adult.

So I was a call centre manager in my previous role and had worked my way up to that level since I left that company I HATE talking on the phone do anything to get out of it and get full of anxiety about picking the phone up I'm oddly worse with people I know I struggle with the small talk it involves.

I can't cope with egg yolk being near anything tomatoey... baked bean juice, ketchup etc
If we go out for breakfast I have to arrange my plate so the egg is on one side perched on a half slice of toast, build a wall of sausage/bacon whatever in between and push baked beans as far away as possible.
I eat everything other than the egg first so no risk of contamination.
I will then completely clean the plate with a corner of the remaining piece of toast, cut the white away from the yolk (love a boiled or hard boiled egg and poached eggs but don't like the white on a fried egg) and eat the yolk with the remaining toast. Every. Single. Time
Usually try and stick to cafes that put beans in a ramekin, and if they dump my fried egg on top of my beans before I can say anything, I can't eat it.

Been with DP for 25 years and he still shakes his head and laughs as he watches me do it.

Yes I went to dance classes as a child. Ballet and, in those days I think it was called, Modern. I wasn't very good in those classes either.

I have absolutely no rhythm at all.

I would never attempt a Zumba class. There is no way I could do that in front of others. I find it far from easy to pick up.

I couldn’t cross footbridges over busy roads stand on high balconies ,Iwould actually go dizzy and legs like jelly!
Interestingly I have got better in the last 10 years so I wonder if it was just life being stressful then

I've got better at that as I've got older. I don't think my life is any less stressful now. Maybe it's one of those things that just gets easier with age?

I can't ride a bike. I never learned as a child. I've tried as an adult - I absolutely cannot do it. It mystifies me how almost everyone has such good balance.

Ooo yes. Runny, tomatoey things on a plate with a fried egg. The red and the yellow combo. I think it reminds me of when we cut ourselves at primary school and the nurse lady/first aid woman used to put some yellow stuff on the cut (1970s).

Drive for me too.

I also can’t pee in public toilets if it’s quiet in there. I trained my friend to put the dryer on so I’d be able to go…

I can't talk into those intercom things at the McDonald's drive through. I either go in and order or go home and have it delivered. I just get so confused and flustered for some reason. I hate all intercoms, but at least with most of them you're only trying to get buzzed in somewhere. I also hate talking on the phone.