MossyQuartz

MossyQuartz, 7 months ago

@AutisticAdam @actuallyautistic perhaps this explains those lost three months where I tested multiple ways to derive a tofu out of split peas. Ultimately, my conclusions were foiled by inconsistent variables in the age of dried peas from the local market. Results: not the same recipe as for soybeans. Presently, I am awaiting my next hyper fixation.

MossyQuartz, 7 months ago

@theautisticcoach @actuallyautistic Thanks for the reminder to drink more water! I lost track of time while reading, and I forgot to grab my refillable water bottle before sitting down to read!

MossyQuartz, 8 months ago

@AutisticAdam @actuallyautistic
Filling out forms was easier in the pre-digitized days when I could put an asterisk or double-asterisk or triple-asterisk (and so forth) indicator for placing my interpretation of the numbered question with my full answer and background understanding onto pages of end-notes. I either numbered the pages or used one page for each footnoted/endnoted response. Digital now usually ends up with stock-answers gleaned from decades of learning, or more often ends with copious notes in hand and an hour of waiting on hold for a telephone call to get to a human because those chat text bots on those company websites cannot handle the wording of my reasons for calls. My stock-ending for such phone interactions with the human is for me to thank them for their time and patience in listening to and attempting to assist me with this call.

MossyQuartz, 8 months ago

@AutisticAdam @actuallyautistic
My eye contact experience is less painful than yours, but mine also is unhelpful. I learned at a young age that I could "look at the teacher's eyes" while she or he was talking, or I could listen to what the teacher was saying, but not both. Funny, teachers always got upset when I asked which eye or if I was to switch looking at from one eye to the next and if that then how often, each time I blink? Eventually I learned I could gaze at the speaker's left eyebrow and lull into a meditative rest and learn nothing during the lesson. Now, I look at someone's eyes as I begin to speak and just before I blink, then quite often I stare into my empty left palm as though I am remembering a checklist of what needs to be said.

MossyQuartz, 8 months ago

@AutisticAdam @actuallyautistic
I agree there is "trouble for what others are reading in between the lines because they're making assumptions ..." Those people assume that speakers of the same language also are fluent in nonverbal forms of regional communication.

I was lucky in childhood for guidance in using poetry to practice voice inflection, (thanks to my mother). I was lucky another child told me they recognized a liar by looking at the face, (so I learned to compare faces to words AND reactions while I was young). I was lucky to have so many neighbors from a different culture where girls avert their gaze in order to show respect to parents and elders, (so I seemed to look normal to many of my neighbors). I recognize that I was lucky. I wonder if I was a lucky child or if my consciously observed and learned actions and tonal qualities and speech choices might also be learned by others in the same way as others learn languages or folk dances.

I thought other people had problems. My diagnosis as being on the spectrum explained to me why work was so stressful, I was 53 at the time. I feel lucky to now understand and manage stress.

MossyQuartz, 8 months ago

@AutisticAdam @actuallyautistic
Sometimes your insights seem to me as self-insights more applicable to yourself; and, othertimes your insights give me food-for-thought and assist in enhancing my own understanding of my formative years. I suppose you are proving the "rule" that: "if you have met one autistic person then you have met ONE autistic person!" Anyway, sometimes I agree with you and othertimes I think more carefully because of your posts.

MossyQuartz, 10 months ago

@AutisticAdam @actuallyautistic On the topic of being "left to get on with it" my luck was a mixture of good, mediocre, and a good bit of self-made luck. I grew up knowing I thought about things and had the same learning style as my father. He took after his mother. She took after her father. I took family advice to form habits of doing things. The most difficult advice was when I started school as eldest child Dad said, "go out and find how they do things." I found out many are only guessing!

MossyQuartz, 10 months ago

@AutisticAdam @actuallyautistic There exist some experiences which do not accurately translate into words. I have settled on use of the phrase, "I am experiencing stress." That seems understood by most people. I was over fifty when I had my first QEEG results. I was over sixty when I retired from my job. Since retirement, I am experiencing no depression and I find my stress newly manageable. Probably our sources of stress differ from theirs.

MossyQuartz, 10 months ago

@AutisticAdam @actuallyautistic Agreed, it took me years to learn body language and facial movements were components of language, and could affect the meanings of spoken words. When I learned this, I began watching my reflection as I practiced expressions in a mirror until I could match my facial movements to my spoken words. It was extremely difficult to learn.