Does anybody else get these symptoms/feelings?

[hiddenhome2]

Just out of interest because these things bother me.

Do you feel the need to hide if you hear or sense somebody coming into a room?

Doors needing to be kept open?

Being sensitive to artificial chemicals/smells?

Needing the windows to be kept open and having a need for a lot of fresh air?

Feeling very uneasy in the autumn time?

Feeling frightened because it's wintertime?

Oh, and I absolutely hate having attention from other people and receiving any gifts. The dcs don't even know my birth date. I can just about cope with having a pot of mini daffodils on Mother's Day.

I am having a hard time at the moment. I relate with doors and smells. Job is way too stressful, Husband is away, my routine is totally upside down, DD (index case of ASD) is having a hard time because it is charity week at school and everything is chaotic, I am hardly keeping it together myself and I have to hold the fort for the 3 children. Dd2 will have her ASD assessment next week, I am becoming acutely aware of my own ASD, revisiting the past events with this new lense on, I think dd3 is dyslexic and dyspraxia; I can't face going to the Gp for her now so will end up going private again. Ds1 is frightened by his long commute to school so I was going with him lately but will not be able to do so with husband away and it is annoying me terribly. I woke up at 2am last night and that was it, I just about dozed off before the alarm at 6am this morning. Work wise I am heading for a promotion but I don't know if this it worth it anymore. Job and family is too much but I don't feel I can give up working, I will go even more mad. I don't understand why everything is suddenly so overwhelming :(

Oh, no, it sounds as though you have a lot to deal with

How long is your husband away for?

My bedroom door has to be open at night but curtains must be completely shut with no gaps!

Smells are a big problem for me, perfume, air freshener, shake and vac, fabric conditioners! Loads of things actually! Some make me feel sick, others give me a pounding headache!

I need to be outside as much as possible! I need fresh air everyday, although I dont have the windows open in the house much because I forget to open them and I like the house warm!

I dont mind autumn and winter though so long as I can still get out and walk.

I used to be scared of the dark but wanted to take my girls camping so I forced myself to deal with it!

cooking It sounds like you are overwhelmed! I got like that last yr when we were trying to get decent support in place for Dd3 in school and my job was getting stressful!

I think I came close to a breakdown so make sure you look after yourself!

Thanks both. Husband is coming back Monday evening. When I feel like that I feel the need for an official diagnostic as a get out of jail free card IYSWIM. i just want to get on with my project but with this promotion comes all the crap of meetings, reports, teaching and PEOPLE basically springing on me expecting me to drop everything with a smile to help them and then I should just carry on as if nothing happened. Well I can't

Sounds like you need a less stressful work environment/situation Cooking

Thanks Polter. I have ups and downs and making lists was the way forward today. So much things to do I feel I will be forgetting things all the time! TGI Friday!

I have to stop what I'm doing when I know members of the household are returning so I'm doing something easily interruptible. And if anyone else at all is coming I stress until they are here. In out of the house situations I need to know what's going on around me at all times so can't lose myself in a book or anything. I used to write in a not very busy local cafe and after a year could relax but still feel stressed if I look up and someone has moved and I haven't seen it. And obviously always have to sit in the same place!

I don't have doors open or shut thing unlike obsessive door closer ds2! But if I close a door I have to really feel and see it and if someone else closes a door that should be, like the bedroom door at night, I need to hear it otherwise I can't relax and it scratches at my brain.

Yes to lots of fresh air! This past year I had the best set up with the lower window covered by a blackout blind so no-one could see in ever and the top window wide open. And I love a through breeze, love wind and wind going through the house is wonderful. Though I guess there'll be less of that now ds2 needs all doors closed and is also complaining about sunshine hurting his eyes.

I love autumn, but I could see from a sensory perspective it could be quite scary given it's getting darker, usually rainy and windy and the trees make all those rustling sounds and the smells are different in what could be an unpleasant way, eg rotting leaves, unlike spring smells.

Have issues with smells, yes.

Gifts. I've been learning to be better about this, but it's quite stressful.

Why don't you like receiving gifts? Antiquity

Narrowing it down I would say it's because it comes with an expectation of reaction from the giver and I worry about reacting inappropriately if I've no idea what might be under the wrapper. Then there's the added layer of mistaking what a thing is, like when I was a kid my parents jokingly told me pyjamas were a tracksuit and I believed them because I believed everything I was told! Then they teased me, kindly, but there was an assumption that of course these thin peach coloured things with rainbows weren't a tracksuit! Or when people "humorously" pack gifts in wrong boxes to mislead a person and you're left thanking them for an iron when it's really a handmade pottery cup in an old box (I can't remember the exact things they were!)

I do like presents and I discovered I don't actually like to know what I'm opening. I just want to be surprised with presents I would have picked for myself!

I don't like receiving presents because it means that I have to make a connection with the giver. I would prefer to be invisible and remain ignored really. I can't cope with the attention and it makes me feel unhappy and uncomfortable. It's hard to put into words really

dh got is so right this Christmas, I mean it was easy because it related to an obsession, but he outdid himself! I am never going to get a Christmas this good every again I'm sure!!

hidden I'm the opposite of preferring to be invisible! It does mask the fact I'm very poor at social relationships though and it takes a lot out of me even though I enjoy being funny and loud. But possibly it's just the flip side of the coin, invisible because uncomfortable in social communication situations, or loud and jokey to mask being uncomfortable in the same. Except of course presents are serious and one mustn't ever joke about them even if the giver has made a small joke or you will make your mil cry a lot and ruin Christmas for her

Dh once gave me a Hello Kitty sticker book and soft toy for xmas.

I decapitated the toy and binned the book.

I always accept fossils and artefacts though

That seems like an.... unusual.... present choice if you're apparently not a fan!

Poor dh over the years has had to listen to me critique his present choices! I told him many times not to actually ask my what I think because it's like being a faulty dam attempting to hold back specific analysis!! But he's on the spectrum himself & just as particular!

I'm the opposite about doors - I need them to be shut. Even if I'm in the house all by myself the door to the room I'm in must be shut. I get really anxious otherwise and keep looking at the door.

I got into trouble about that in a job once. I was told that they had an "open door policy" and I was coming across as very unfriendly etc., etc.. I explained that I needed doors to be shut and that I had a metaphorical open door, and was quite happy for people to come in whenever they wished just so long as it wasn't too often but they wouldn't accept that. I had to keep the door open after that and it made me so uncomfortable.

My last job was an open plan environment which was my idea of hell.

Sorry, I know this is an old, old thread but I had to post..... I can identify with all of those on your list, OP. I once had a partner who used to laugh and wonder if he’d wake up to find me gone. Either out the window or out the door!

I was diagnosed with Aspergers 6 weeks ago.