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.

@Cattery I'm a 1970's child too, maybe that's what it is. I also grew up on a farm and we had our own chickens. Sometimes there would be what looked like blood in the eggs.
There's obviously something in my dim and distant past !
It's actually quite surprising how many people can't do egg yolk and ketchup/bean juice once you mention it 😖

Whistle

Although I posted about vertigo on stairs and escalators I actually enjoy feeling slightly giddy with heights when there is no possibility of falling off them.

So glass lifts, tall buildings, going over high bridges = exhilarating.

Narrow ridges, cliff edges, precipitous stairs etc = fuck off.

Anything where there is a danger of death or serious injury = fuck off.

That's fascinating! Do you believe you have aphantasia? A friend recently sent me an article about it and we both suspect we have it:

https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2024/feb/26/what-is-aphantasia-like

I can see pictures in my mind very well and have a very good imagination but I struggle with 2D to 3D visualisation or written to 3D. When I was trying to help DDs with non-verbal reasoning for the 11+, it became apparent that I was hilariously bad at 3D rotation or anything involving spatial awareness. Whereas verbal reasoning - hell yeah, I'm like a walking dictionary.

So I find maps and plans quite tricky, and following sets of written instructions to assemble something. Sewing patterns may as well be hieroglyphics. Anything like that I have to watch someone do it in real life and copy them or watch a video.

Yes, definitely a spatial processing thing i think. And a little bit of anxiety now. Check out escalator phobia - it's a thing!!

My kids have explained i can just walk on and it doesn't matter if my foot covers 2 steps as i can adjust whilst on board, before the steps separate.

But i just can't!

I am worse on down escalators, fast ones especially. I take the stairs if they are next to the escalators.

My dd1 has this - and what's really weird is that she makes her living as an artist!

I believe she is probably high functioning autism though she's never been diagnosed. She is in her 30s now and was really tearful when she talked to me about this as she never realised other people had a mind's eye til she was about 29yrs old!

She so wishes she had one. How she draws without copying a picture though is hard to fathom for me. And i have seen her draw any object/animal really well just freehand with nothing to copy.

Try an automatic. Got in it and thought the go pedal... this a bit like a sewing machine pedal. The only other pedal is the stop one. I finally passed at age 56.

I would agree with that.
I passed with a manual on something like the 8th attempt but I was still terrified. Then I got an automatic and it was completely different. Without having to think about gears I could focus my full attention on the road and suddenly it all became doable.
Obviously it won’t make a difference for everyone but it is so much easier than I thought.

Open letters? Why not?

Yeah, definitely have it. As does my eldest daughter and brother.

My brother found out because I told him about me and he had the same realisation. Knowing though, how to explain it to my then husband, solved so many arguments.

I remember that yellow stuff in the 1980s, although i didn’t mind it. I fell over a lot. They called the yellow stuff “fairy’s magic”.

I can't cope with egg yolk being near anything tomatoey... baked bean juice, ketchup etc

I honestly thought I was the only one. I just can't do egg and beans on the same plate so my cooked breakfast never includes beans or tomatoes. I was staying at a B&B one time where the host served tinned tomatoes with the breakfast, I had to ask her for a new plate with no tomatoes, she replated the rest of the food but the tomato juice has touched the egg and I just couldn't eat it.

I can’t ride a bike, which I think is because we didn’t have the money for me to have one as a child.
I can use a glass sided lift, but not one otherwise. That comes of being stuck in one with a two year old and seven months pregnant.
I used to hop on and off the tube with ease. I can just about do it, if it’s not crowded, but will try to find an alternative.
Can’t do heights.

P

I got seduced by my driving instructor in my early 20s and never learned to drive. It ended very badly and I never sat behind a wheel again. I’m too embarrassed to tell people why I don’t drive.

Whistle
Click my fingers
The monkey thing where you pat your head and rub your belly at the same time
Sew, even threading a needle is too difficult

I can sort of read a map, but my sense of direction is really awful.
It took me till adulthood to be able to manage keys and locks without worry,

I think I'm dyspraxic.

Cannot row a boat, I go in circles.
Cannot pick up a cat. Terrified of picking up cats, not cats, just having to pick up their skinny skeletons.

Omg I didn’t even think of this as being weird but yes I cannot do knickers that aren’t a thong. I cannot for one second tolerate the feel of material shifting around on my butt cheeks. It gives me the rage. I have never liked pants but discovered thongs aged 17 and never looked back. It makes no difference whether I was a tiny size 8 or a bigger size 10-12, it is just unbearable to me. As for wearing knickers in bed, absolutely not!

I can't whistle. I'm 60 and realise now that I have slight tongue tie that was never corrected. Not sure if this is a contributing factor?

I can't read music. It's like looking at hieroglyphics.

Can't dance either. I have no rhythm and hate it when anyone pulls me up on to the dance floor as I just move my arms and legs awkwardly until I can escape again.

Unlock a door

Another one here who can't ride a bike. Many people have tried to teach me and many people have failed. Even my parents gave up eventually when after 2 years I wasn't getting it.

I can balance fine, can easily hold my legs up and go down a big hill, but I can't pedal! As soon as I push a foot down, I fall over sideways.

I'm really embarrassed about it, but I just cannot do it and can't face failing yet again.

@Howdiditgetsobad even better than a thing is commando - safely. PJs, Gym leggings, tracksuit bottoms, maxi dress, long skirts, trousers, I'm free and loving it. Anything else is one size up thing. The older I get, the more I just love a maxi dress or maxi skirt. I rarely if ever wear jeans.

Thing = thong

Reverse park.
Year 11 maths