Any hermits?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm defining hermit as someone who literally doesn't leave their house/place of residency for more than 5-10 hours a week if that. Someone who the vast majority of their time is spent in their house.

By that definition, I have weeks like that periodically. If not for my friends and my gym membership, I'd definitely be a hermit.

Im kind of a hermit, for many reasons. One of the reasons is that I work from home. I am hoping to change that though, I dont like being at home all the time.

When I was working I would have to be gone for 9-10 hrs. a day, but evenings and weekends I tried to avoid going out if at all possible. The alone down time was a necessity for me to keep some semblance of sanity. Now that I am retired I routinely go several weeks at a time without leaving the house. I have always admired and envied those monks and nuns who spend most of their lives living as hermits in a cave up in the mountains. Let's face it, the overwhelming mass of humanity is composed of stupid, ignorant fools and the less I have to do with them the better I like it.

Pretty much. I try to get out sometimes even if it's just to see a movie and browse magazines at the book store, as being in the same room all the time gets to be like "sensory deprivation," sort of.

I'll be getting out a bit more as I need to lose some weight, but that will just be walking along some back country roads (and trying to avoid getting trapped into any small talk sessions with the neighbors).

[edited due to missing word due to lack of proofreading]

Yes, I am a hermit, by choice. I rarely go out, and then it is just for errands, mostly groceries, occasional family visits, and occasional doctor visits. I prefer it that way. I lived with relatives for most of my life, but have been on my own for about 6 years now. Home alone is definitely better than home with the family. We drove each other crazy. NTs try to make you conform to normal, which we on the spectrum can't do, so they get upset that they can't get you to be normal, and you get upset at not being able to fit in, at their unpleasant and uncomfortable efforts to make you fit in, and at their negative reaction to you, when the normalization process fails. My life is much less stressful now. I never want to live with others again! I need a home place where I can usually live with low stress, and peacefully. I am better able to handle stresses away from home, now that I have a hermitage to retreat to.

Remember, we on the spectrum are all:

A Different Drummer

If a man does not keep pace with his companions,
Perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears,
However measured or far away.

--Henry David Thoreau

Does it make us arrogant to shut ourselves off from the world and not want to deal with humanity, or just misanthropic? I don't think I'm better than anyone (maybe I feel I have higher morals than most NTs...greater sense of loyalty to close ones...don't look for trouble...am not two-faced...don't treat others bad for no reason...mind my own business...etc.) but I feel that most people are idiots and would sell even their friends out in a heartbeat for the latest thing.

Im a hermit when I can be one. I work 10 hours a day but when I get back home I don't go out if I can help it, and on the weekends I only go out to eat at the dining facility. (Im in the air force)

I don't think it's arrogant at all. Most people get to have "energy exchange" with others. So, they don't get depleted or might even get charged up from their interactions with others.

In my case, 90% of the time it is a drain and reduces my resources, and I need time away to build my energy/good-will/spirit back up. IMO, a person could only see self-isolation as arrogant if they don't appreciate that difference. (And yeah, a lot of people don't get that.)

Misanthropic? I don't think so. Interaction is just difficult, and the fact that most other people aren't willing to try to spend an equivalent amount of energy on their side trying to understand doesn't make me the bad guy.

I guess I have become arrogant in one way, though. The kind of criticisms you're describing are they type I utterly disregard nowadays. (My situation may be lucky in that I don't hear much of it nowadays, though.) I guess I finally went through enough crap (the usual ASD stuff, I suspect, plus health and cognitive losses due to stress) that I now conclude that if someone is telling me about my own myself and it's totally foreign, then I toss it out without further analysis.

I.e. if my ability to exert effort is questioned -- hey, I worked, walked around, and did 10 miles a day on my bike for 10 years with an undiagnosed heart condition. All those comments from all those people for all those years about the fatigue & dizzy spells being bullsh*t? -- totally wrong. People talk out their asses all the time, and they often best ignored. They are the ones who are truly arrogant.

I want to be one!

I am. The last time I went out was on Friday to go to a local convenience store to get bread for the squirrels. Before that I stayed in the house 10 days.

ME ME ME!! !

I am definitely a hermit by nature. For years after I graduated from college and before I started working I would spent nearly all my time at home. I doubt I ever spent more than 5-6 hours per week away from home. I now have a full time job and other responsibilities that require I get out of the house but if it weren't for them I know I'd stay at home.

I am a hermit, only time I leave the house is to go to the grocery store. I get out maybe once a week maybe... And I am fine with it.