Trying to understand...myself

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I'm not exactly sure where to start. I'm 43, male, divorced twice (both times, from abusive women), have diabetes, fibromyalgia, arthritis, and probably ME as well. I seem to fit most of the aspie criteria I've seen mentioned in most places, but have never been diagnosed (or even studied, for that matter) with anything on the spectrum, so all I have to go by is what seems right to me.

On the other hand, I have a couple oddball questions:

Is hyper-organization really a defining trait? I have the exact opposite problem. I can't organize my way out of a closet, let alone anywhere else. In fact, my personal space (both physical and electronic) has been described as being more like a nest than anything else, what with the way it's so disorganized, but in such a way that there's just enough room for me to fit in comfortably, and everything I have is piled up around me where it's within easy reach in case I need reassurance that it's there.

Is it common for aspies, when they learn something new, to incorporate the new information so thoroughly that they forget they ever didn't know it? One of my housemates claims (but cannot give me any examples to support her claim) that I do that, especially with stuff that I'm currently fixated on.

Not if I'm anything to go by... I can organise but really it takes a long time because I'm trying to get everything perfect so most often I don't bother or force myself to compromise.

Thanks. For me, besides the whole nesting thing, there's also the detail that when I think about organizing, it just seems so incredibly overwhelming I'm defeated before I even start.

I'm the same way Yine. I want everything to be organized, but I get overwhelmed with even beginning. Right now we are redecorating my library. I had so many books to clean and box up to clean out the room. I became so overwhelmed with even that thought, it took me days to get it all done.

I also liek everything within handy distance. I'm afraid now, when we refill the room, I will not be able to find anything.

I have a strong preference/need for organization but almost no ability to actually organize.



I often forget that I knew things I did know, but that's kind of the opposite (and not universal either).

Hi Yinepuhotep

Funny the paradox between a preference for order and the executive functioning to actually pull it off....

I like things MY way or else, lol. I live surrounded by piles of my stuff (half of which I can't find), but I am a strong systemiser with a drive to create order from chaos. I devised a system for streamlining the accounts payable process in a previous job, which left me more time to work out where I had put my coffee/account printout I had put down five minutes ago/calculator/brain.... go figure

I can spend a good hour every week organizing my eletronic files and be satified with the result, but my bedroom is essentailly knee-deep in clothes, half of the books from my selfs are on the floor (and I have a lot of books, and none of the CD's I have are in my cases. To top it off, I have never balanced my check book since I got my checking acount 3 years ago. . .

yeah, I need to organize, but I can't really do it in the physical world.

Balance a checkbook? You're supposed to balance it? I thought all you needed to do was scan your statement online to make sure that your most recent payments haven't overdrawn the account.

i haven't balanced my checkbook in about 10 yrs..

At home, my room can be horrid mess, yet at work, I've used my powers to streamline many things.

Of course not all have been aprecitive of my efforts. Back in the summer of 2001 I streamline the way I worked in my gorcrey stocking job. I got in trouble for it because I wasn't following established protocol even though my method saved 10 minutes of work per isle.

Yeah, supervisors can be really stupid about things like that sometimes.

I thought that was part of what gave them pointy hair.

I detest mess but I don't seem to be capable of tidying. I don't know where to start and the more I try to decide where to begin, the more thoughts about tidying go round and round in my head, and the more that happens, the less likely I am to do anything besides sit and stare into space worrying about it.

Fortunately I don't lose things often. I have a photographic (or at least near photographic) visual memory, and can remember where I last saw something. My partner finds it infuriating (but at the same time effective) that I 'help' him to find his keys by sitting down and searching the picture in my head, rather than conducting a physical search. I have also developed a strict routine of putting things I need to carry with me in the same pocket every time, and checking each pocket for the right number of items before I leave the house. It becomes disastrous when I have to get a new jacket with different pockets, fortunately that isn't often. I don't carry a handbag because I would leave it somewhere.

A LOT of Aspies have incredible organization problems and dung heaps for houses. You are not alone.



PS- the organization problems would have to do with the Executive Dysfunction of the frontal lobes which is found in Aspergers most often (as well as in quite a few other disorders like ADHD, LDs, Tourettes, etc.).

Sounds interesting. Where can I find out more about this?

http://www.tourettesyndrome.net/ef_overview.htm

The above is a VERY good site which addresses Aspergers amongst other things. It focuses a lot on Tourette's Syndrome of course, being the name of the site. I recommend you check it out. There is a WEALTH of information there, including also on Sensory Processing Disorder which has to do with the hypo/hypersensitivities which often accompany Aspergers and other related disorders as well.

Enjoy!