Lack of coordination when being touched

[ClumpingBambooIsALie]

I'm not the world's most coordinated person in the first place, but I find when someone else is touching me I lose that sense of where all the various parts of me are, can't properly work out which muscles I should be tensing, and so on.

I've fallen over putting my trousers on because someone started touching me, nearly soiled myself because of somebody reaching out to stroke me while trying to get myself to the loo urgently, completely cocked up something I was trying to put together because someone touched my shoulder, elbowed myself in the tit while turning over in bed because someone thought it would be a great time to reach out for a cuddle (okay, the "someone" in all these cases is DP), and that's just in the last couple of weeks.

I'm not diagnosed with dyspraxia, but have diagnoses of ASD and ADHD (the latter of which I'm a bit about, but never mind).

Does anyone else at all experience this, and if so, do you have any tips for what can be done about it beyond reiterating to DP other people that it's really difficult for me to manage?

I don’t experience this but bumping in case someone does. There are definitely times when I can’t bear to be touched and so it would make me involuntarily squirm but I don’t think that’s what you mean.

Thank you! No, it's a different thing to what you describe, I think, though that's equally annoying. It's like, the part of my brain that does Body Stuff is overwhelmed by the fact that someone else is touching me, and isn't able to simultaneously process both that and the movements I need to make.

I can totally relate. But until I read your post, I had no idea it was a thing. I just thought it was me, who I am and I would not have been able to articulate this in the way you have, so thank you!!!!!

Beyond that, I have no tips. I've been like this my whole life. I just thought I was mega clumsy, hated to be touched and when I am, it makes the clumsiness even worse.

I have a diagnosis of autism and ADHD. I'm still digesting the ADHD diagnosis.

Another person who has this! Hello!

At least we can commiserate

The ADHD is a funny one for me… I have executive functioning difficulties which were identified back during my ASD diagnostic process, and I later read somewhere that some people with ASD-related executive dysfunction respond well to ADHD medication, as there's some overlap there between the ASD and ADHD phenotypes.

But in order to access that medication, I was told I would need an actual ADHD diagnosis, so I went and got one. But I don't really feel ADHD fits me that well; I conceptualise those difficulties I have as being part of my ASD, and feel like it's unnecessary to add a whole extra "disorder" to the way I think about myself. I would go and get assessed for dyspraxia too, if there were some treatment I could only access with that diagnosis, but I feel like it's all accounted for well enough within ASD, if you see what I mean? I don't want to parcel myself out into a load of discrete diagnoses when I could just say "ASD, and these are the things it causes difficulty with".

@ClumpingBambooIsALie

Are you taking medication for ADHD? If so, has it helped you at all? And what are you taking, if anything?

After getting my ADHD diagnosis last summer, I was finally seen some 5-6 months later to get medication. I took Methylphenidate/Concerta XL for a short period, but couldn't cope with the side effects so now I'm waiting for a follow up appointment to be prescribed different medication.

No ADHD meds for me right now — it's all a bit complicated, because I also have bipolar disorder and take medications for that, but I'm hoping to try dexamphetamine again soon (the first time I tried it, I went a bit nuts). Hope your follow-up appointment comes round soon, and good luck with whatever you try this time.