Skip to main content

Dear Unnamed Friend


Dear unnamed friend,
I carefully hoarded enough spoons to do the activity you suggested at the time you suggested. I went to bed super early and planned NOTHING for tomorrow to be able to do it.
I just got discharged from psych this week, and the meds still aren’t all the way in my system, so I’m foggy-minded and emotional.

I also woke up every 90 minutes last night for 30-45 minutes due to nightmares about the hospital that joined my normal nightmares.
I told you I’d let you know around 9am today, when my alarm was set to sound, whether I could come to the 1pm event today, and I texted you that yes, I could come, but I needed to sleep until 10 to regain spoons.

You texted me 4-5 times between 9:15 and 10, effectively cancelling any change I had to sleep, since it takes me at least 2 hours to wake all the way up.

You tried to change the plans to pick me up around 10:15am, and I understand why. You were already in the area for something and didn’t want to drive all the way back out again. You didn’t understand several things, though:
1)      A sudden change in plans will immediately sap all the spoons my autistic, spoonie ass has managed to gather together since leaving the hospital
2)      No sleep will render me hysterical, and you’re waking me up
3)      By the time I adjust to the idea of a change in plans, it will be too late to tell you “yes”
4)      It takes me 2 hours to get ready. Period. A lot of that is just mentally preparing for a transition to avoid a meltdown/shutdown and also trying to have the executive functioning skills to get me and the dog both together without an aide, which is really hard. If you want me to not be freaking out and missing all my stuff, I need 2 hours to get ready.
Now, you’re also inviting me to Skype in, but I don’t think I can think clearly enough to get logged into Skype. This is one of those days where I type the name of the person I want to email into the address bar and can’t process how to actually get to my email and email them.

Comments

  1. So, I actually made it to the event. The friend came back at the scheduled time, which wasn't super convenient for him, and I pulled myself together. We had a lot of fun.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Ordered a Walker

lly have mixe    This is the model. I really have mixed feelings about this decision. I'm choosing to get the walker due to intense pain that's been worsening for about the last year. The cause turns out to be EDS , or at least that's what the doctors are saying. EDS is a connective tissue disorder that I don't yet fully understand, but it was explained to my that my connective tissue at my joints is too stretchy, and it's leading to my pain, fatigue, and susceptibility to joint injury. I was also provisionally diagnosed with POTS , in which blood pools in some areas while I'm seated or laying down, and my heart rate goes up too much trying to get the blood back to my heart and brain when I stand. If this process is inefficient enough, I can faint. Apparently, the doctor didn't do the proper testing for this, so I'm going to take this diagnosis with a grain of salt and just call it unexplained near-fainting episodes for now. Regardless of what causes

Head Hitting and Self-Injurious Behaviors

I see a lot of articles written by neurotypical people trying to explain head banging and other self-injurious behavior in autistic children, and I want to offer my own perspective as an autistic adult who still engages in these behaviors. There are a number of reasons and circumstances that lead to self-harming behaviors for me, despite my efforts to avoid doing them. Sensory input needs not being fulfilled: Sometimes, self-injurious behaviors feel good. I like the pressure of hitting my head or the tingling sensation of scratching my skin, even though I don't like pain. I seem to process these sensations differently than neurotypical people. I've been able to reduce these behaviors by finding similar sensory inputs: body brushes instead of scratching, weighted blankets and lap pads instead of hitting, deep pressure therapy, etc. Too much being demanded : When a task or person places demands that cause distress that exceeds my normal coping skills, these behaviors result.