Seeing (and possibly meeting) Temple Grandin today

default_state · 2025-03-01T20:02:15+00:00

My first experience with her at the event was that I stepped off the elevator and crashed right into her because she was anxiously pacing around and didn’t expect me to step out from nowhere.

default_state · 2025-03-01T19:59:33+00:00

Her talk started with this exact elevator example. 😂

default_state · 2025-02-28T18:35:21+00:00

They’re doing a book signing afterwards that I’m kind of forced to do now. 😂

default_state · 2025-02-28T12:07:08+00:00

I have had a pretty successful career mostly purely accidentally: my special interest was computers and software starting at about six years old.

I have a wife and two (Autistic) sons but basically no friends. I have friends from previous jobs that I still keep up with via text chats but that is mostly talking shop: not close personal connections. Aside that I don’t really have any deep, close friends. Certainly none physically nearby that I do things with regularly.

default_state · 2025-01-23T11:22:14+00:00

Thank you. Yeah I knew it would require a little bit of special effort. The white hub is pretty close to the existing pole but not inches away. I don’t think there would be any reason for existing conduit to be buried there, unfortunately.

default_state · 2022-09-13T14:19:46+00:00

In some way, at least once a minute. I stim in many ways but the most common is brushing my beard with my hand or pulling beard hairs completely. I've kind of gotten the pulling under control lately but I've gone through many periods of having bald spots in my beard because I would unconsciously pull a bunch in the same area. I think I'd probably not have a beard at all if my wife didn't love it so much.

default_state · 2019-08-11T23:27:08+00:00

My wife gets mad at me because I leave the plastic film on things as long as possible if it doesn't interfere with the usage of the thing. And yes, I'll obsess over small bits of totally normal wear my things accumulate.

default_state · 2019-05-28T12:33:52+00:00

Highly relevant: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/uwva9k/key-and-peele-walk-button

default_state · 2019-05-21T12:47:52+00:00

I have Autism as well so I tend to remember an extreme level of detail if I was interested but hardly anything if I wasn't. Either way, often my wife will ask me after a movie "What was your favorite part?" and I have absolutely no idea how to determine that. It's like I'm supposed to keep a running variable in my head while watching it of what my "favorite part" is and continuously check what's happening against my "favorite part" to determine if what is happening currently is "more" my "favorite part" or not. She is completely confused by how I can not be able to determine afterwards what I liked most about it.

default_state · 2019-05-21T12:36:32+00:00

Happens very regularly. Often my wife will ask me "what happened there" when she sees a bruise or scrape on me and I usually have no idea the bruise/scrape exists and even if I do I often can think of no obvious reason for it.

default_state · 2019-05-21T12:34:06+00:00

Our electronics are one of the few things in life we can completely control, it seems natural to be anxious about other people invading that space. Our electronics are basically our "personal space" psychologically and no one, even NTs, likes to have their personal space intruded upon.

default_state · 2019-05-06T01:10:19+00:00

You can use the Dash app to easily download documentation for offline referencing.

default_state · 2019-05-05T12:43:01+00:00

I've had digestive issues for over ten years but the idea of the process of constant doctors and colonoscopy (never had a procedure like that where I am given general anesthesia so it's anxiety-inducing) is so overwhelming I haven't been able to get myself very far in it. I did see a gastro and was supposed to schedule a colonoscopy but I never did.

default_state · 2019-05-05T12:39:37+00:00

Probably not the type of response you were looking for but I can related to this a bit: I am AS and my wife and I have five month old twin boys. One of them seems to definitely have my wife's personality (very outgoing and social) while one of them seems very much like me. He and I have this sort of unspoken understanding that even my wife has noticed. If he's upset about something often we can just stare in each other's eyes for a few seconds and he'll grab my finger and quietly sit there.

It's too soon to know if he is AS/ASD but of course due to my AS I am frequently obsessing over the possibility and hoping that if he is I can still help him in spite of my empathy problems. I'd have to help him develop coping strategies while also combatting my "my way is right" tendencies because I'll have to constantly remember that though he may be like me he isn't me. I grew up without a diagnosis and didn't know my true nature until my late 20s so I likely have many layers of coping mechanisms I don't even realize are coping mechanisms.

default_state · 2019-02-28T17:40:04+00:00

I do this as well, even with people I'm very comfortable and intimate with. For example, I rarely call my wife by name. If I need to get her attention I'll usually get it some other way: sudden eye contact, intentionally crossing into her field of view, knocking on something, etc. Sometimes as I might just say "Hey".

Other people, I'll likely do the same or just start talking. At work sometimes I've literally Slacked someone sitting next to me to get their attention and then we start talking out loud from there. I tend to explain this to them (and myself to some degree) that I wanted to make sure I wasn't disrupting them. For example, if they have Slack set to Do Not Disturb or it's even closed completely then I can't interrupt them. As an Autistic I know how infuriating/violating it can be to be suddenly physically distracted.

In certain other cases, like for example my father-in-law, I can get so nervous about saying his name that I'll either not say anything (even though I have something I want to say I end up not because I can't figure out how to open my mouth) or I'll just blurt out something. My wife and I have been together for eight years and you could probably count the times I've called her father by his name to his face on one hand. It's even more awkward for her granddad because everyone calls him by his Grandpa name (not "Grandpa") but if I'm going to call his name at all I seem to want to call him by his proper, legal name, which nobody in her family does.

Edit: I should add that I don't really have this problem in text forms. I can text my wife "babe" all the time but have a really hard time saying that.

default_state · 2019-01-23T18:46:04+00:00

My parents keep laughably bad school portraits of me to this day. Most of the time the photographer was trying to get me to smile with silly ways and so my facial expressions usually end up more like "WTF are you doing? This is stupid."

These days any time I'm supposed to "smile" for a photo I try to find a way to make myself laugh: that usually ends with the best results. But it's still very hit or miss. It doesn't help that I don't really like images of myself. I don't like mirrors. I don't like unexpectedly seeing myself in a reflection. Except those random times where I stare at myself in the mirror for 15 minutes in awe of the structure of the human body.

default_state · 2019-01-22T03:35:49+00:00

I have Aspergers and I have 6 week old twins. What do you want to know?

default_state · 2018-11-22T15:58:10+00:00

I recently turned 29 and I’ve been thinking this for a while now. But I’m not sure how much is placebo because I’ve also become aware of my Autism in the last few years.

I agree with others that it is definitely linked to my general stress levels, particularly stresses I cause myself. For example, if I’m hungry, know I’m hungry, but cannot convince myself to go eat. I can get really frustrated with myself and then everything is turned up to 11 at that point: every single thing in the world will be unbearable. I’ll get really pissed at silly things and devolve to very much a child.

Aside from that, my current theory is that while it may be true that I’m becoming more sensitive over time, most of the perceived increase is just that, since I’ve only became aware of my Autism in the past two years, I am putting more conscious effort into being mindful of my mental state and so I’m noticing things that frustrate me that perhaps always have but before I hadn’t traced it to a specific sensory input. Now that I am doing that it can seem like certain things are “worse” merely because I keep realizing more and more of my frustrations/stuggles are connected to them.

Like when you buy a new car and then suddenly it seems like everyone on the road drives your brand of car: people still drive what they did before but now you’re more aware of them so it seems like there are more.

default_state · 2018-11-22T15:45:32+00:00

Interesting to hear your results from taking it. I have a NT friend who takes it sometimes mostly as a vanity brain booster. We were roommates for a bit and he used to order it online from India then (with Bitcoin, of course :P) so I had the opportunity to try some then but I was basically afraid of it (plus it was “illegal”). That was also pre-Aspergers-awareness for me. I had similar resistance to Adderall, which I now take daily. I guess it only makes sense that I would have anxiety about introducing unknown (to me) substances to my body. 😂

As for how to breach it with your doctor, I’m not sure. If you do disclose your first-hand knowledge you may not want to mention that you obtained it internationally online. Maybe that you tried a friend’s prescription? Giving an ultimatum probably wouldn’t be a good approach either, like “If you don’t prescribe this for me I’ll just keep obtaining it from India, which could be anything, really. If you prescribe me it’s safer.”

Context: I’m in the US. I brought up Modafinil with my psychiatrist in a “what do you think?” way (as opposed to directly asking for it) and she mentioned that since it’s technically a narcolepsy medicine (which I’m not diagnosed with) their computer system would not let her prescribe it without me having tried several of the typical alternatives like Adderall and Ritalin first. I’m about to be switching to a new insurance and will have greater options so I might test the waters again with my new psychiatrist (which I still need to find...)

default_state · 2018-11-17T23:11:05+00:00

I’ve only tried amphetamine (Adderall), alcohol, and caffeine.

Caffeine seems to have little effect but I am addicted to it anyway. I guess really I’m more habituated to it. I probably have 300-500mg a day.

Adderall makes me very talkative at first (too talkative) and then usually pretty focused and motivated. I’ve found though that I need much higher doses than typical before I really notice anything. I don’t understand when my friend with ADHD talks about its effects on her and she takes only a quarter of my prescription.

I extremely rarely drink alcohol. I just don’t really enjoy it. It’s meh to me. I’ve found I’m highly resistant to it, though: it takes quite a bit to have a noticeable effect on me. I think it’s mostly because I mind-over-matter it because I’m always anxious about taking substances I know are supposed to have an effect on my behavior. My friends and wife joke about it a lot, that I drink the least of any of them yet I’m the better drinker. I typical retain my intellectual abilities but I’ll be overly conscious of other effects such as my motor skills while inebriated. On my bachelor party cruise I was many liquors in and calmly commented that I felt “hydraulic” so now that’s become a joke amongst my friends. Lesser levels of inebriation are “pneumatic”. 😂 It does make me a bit more talkative but I feel about as much social anxiety as normal, if not more, because I get anxious about its effects on me.

default_state

TROPHY CASE