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I'm late discovering this explanation of how it can feel for #actuallyautistic people to switch tasks. It's definitely accurate for me, so if you haven't seen it before it's worth taking a look. Ironically, I was in the middle of thinking about this when my mum sent me a message https://twitter.com/theeisforerin/status/630030116094148608
saying that my brother is leaving to come and collect his birthday present right now. I did know that was happening this morning but didn't have an exact time. I was in the middle of a long chain of thoughts started by seeing this cartoon, mainly thinking about how this relates
to difficulties changing plans in the future. I'm also still in bed, and have planned what I need to do in what order when I get up this morning. Telling me something's going to happen without a time is helpful in that I'm now only mildly panicking about this happening, but not
having a time in advance means I didn't factor in my brother coming when I thought about what I was doing this morning, so I'm still in bed and have a lot more than 20 minutes worth of things I need to do before I'm ready. And the stress of having no warning means I've wasted
10 of them trying to work out how to change what I'm doing while trying to finish my train of thought about the cartoon.
Luckily my family are understanding so they won't mind if I'm still in my pyjamas and haven't wrapped the present. But imagine this is your boss/teacher and
Luckily my family are understanding so they won't mind if I'm still in my pyjamas and haven't wrapped the present. But imagine this is your boss/teacher and
you have a fear of getting into trouble. Or a colleague who you're concerned will think you're rude. Them suddenly telling you something you haven't already predicted* causes massive anxiety.
*Sometimes I might seem fine with a sudden change, because I've already worked out it's
*Sometimes I might seem fine with a sudden change, because I've already worked out it's
going to happen and prepared myself for it.
Not sure whether this rambling thread is useful to anyone, but it felt important to me. Now I need to get up and feed the cat before my brother gets here because I must be down to about 5 minutes!
Not sure whether this rambling thread is useful to anyone, but it felt important to me. Now I need to get up and feed the cat before my brother gets here because I must be down to about 5 minutes!
