do you feel unusually traumatized by things?

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I dont agree with the use of the word 'excessively' traumatized. Alot of the things you described probably should traumatize someone, who knows. As a species are we supposed to be traveling along at high speeds in large dense metalic objects that could and do have unecpected breakdowns, blowouts, a drunk driver, who knows what. Maybe the weird thing is that we are conditioned to think that we shouldnt be traumatized by the experience, that we should see it as a natural thing to do that one should take for granted. It isnt.

And even if someone isnt being harsh, so much damage can be done on an emotional level by a weird look or someother way people can convey disdain or dislike.

No. When one considers the state of the world and its inhabitants, I think the fact that the human race is not in a completed freaked out state of trauma is a very bad sign.

I got real freaked out today..over something really trivial..we were out on our bikes looing for a place that served mimosas and we went to this dumb "yuppie" taqueria type place...(Berryhill) and they have a system where you stand in line, but we were just standing at the entrance looking at the menu...probably deciding not to eat there because mimosas were $5.50...annnd..as were browsing the menu this manager guy comes up to us and starts rattling off all these different suggestions to us..and I felt really and unneccisarilly threatened by the transaction.
I can get a little hostile at times like that. Flakey said the guy was trying to be funny..but I didn't get it..I felt panicked by it...it took me about an hour to feel back to normal.

Tis interesting, when I was younger I had a thin skin...unusual for an NT, but I guess I was sheltered. (I also seem to have displayed some very faint AS tendencies as a child... oO...) Easily flustered or upset or hurt.

Nowadays I'm actually commended for my ability to handle stupid amounts of stress and stay cool under fire. Diplomatic and calm even though I hate doing so.

Just to show that one does have the ability to change, learn to phase things out that normally get to you.

My AS b/f is getting a lot better, learning to take things calmly and just chill...not get worked up...the only thing that really trips him off nowadays is his maniac mother, but as diplomatic and calm as I can be, she has ME of all people ready to fly off the handle Poor boy has no chance.

Some things traumatize me – the number one thing that comes to mind is change at my work. I don’t like my job as it is, so I’m probably more sensitive to change here than anywhere else.

A few months ago my boss and one of my co-workers started talking about shuffling some of my duties around. I panicked. And I mean panicked. I couldn’t even talk about it – my throat seized up, my mouth went dry, I started to feel my heart thumping in my chest. I felt like a five-year-old kid who’d been accused of doing something horrible, though I didn’t know what. It was ridiculous! I almost felt like crying. I stuttered and stammered and said I felt that things were working fine the way they were, why did they have to change? They said some BS about how they felt that things could be done more efficiently if my experience could be used for more challenging tasks, and if some of the more menial things I did could be passed off to other people. <choke, gasp, wheeze>….. holy crap….. the rut I’d spent the last 4 years wearing down was about to run off the edge of a cliff! They told me to start thinking about what could be re-organized and left me having a coronary at my desk.

I told my husband about it that evening and all he could say was, “what’s the big deal?”. I couldn’t understand why he didn’t understand. This was before I knew about AS and I just couldn’t figure out why stuff like this always bothered me so much. It made me feel even worse. I was scared to death to go back to work the next day – I almost considered calling in sick. But it was weeks before anything about it was brought up again. I started to relax when, about a month ago, it was mentioned again. This time I felt even worse about it – and I had no idea how to tell these people that I didn’t want my job to change – why couldn’t it be okay to just let my brain cells rot?

Anyway, we DID go ahead with the shuffling, but it didn’t really work out with the other person, so for the moment, things are back to normal, but I’m still trying to relax.

At least now I know why the thought of change bothers me so much.

I put unknown because I find this difficult to define.I ruminate and feel enraged by some things that others dont appear bothered by, but feel nothing about what others seem to be traumatised by.

I was adopted and seperated from my bio family and finid this less traumatic then having my adopted family kick me out.Not that I think about it much anymore but it is always there.I was homeless for 6 months and found it interesting,the worst part being ,little access to a shower and clean clothes.That sucked.I worked in a car park without breaks for 6-8 hours and had to "sneak" into a near by alley to pee(thank goodness for those long johns with the drop flap.)I worked for a crack addict doing sheet rock tapeing.I would often spend the weekend with my hands so swollen that I could barely use them...I loved that job.

Yet,the job I last had drove me insane because people would not put things back where they belonged,would dump garbage into the can without checking to see that there wass no bag,would leave empty boxes of gloves aroundinstead of throwing them away and refilling needed suplies,would ignore the disabled clients while they talked on there cell phones,the manager would never buy enough or healthy food for the clients and I would have to "make do"........this stuff made me so angry I couldnt stop thinking or complaining about it(to my boyfriend).My current job is much better but there are still things that are starting to bother me.....my manager refuses to give me information in advance(so I can prepare supplies)and waits until the last minute when I am already doing several different things.(very busy in the morning)Why cant she just let me know the information so I can orginize it in advance...I have all night to get things prepared so that the morning so that things are less stressful and run more effeciently.All it would take is for them t leave me a one sentence note...please set up playrooms 1,3,4.Because they wont do this.....I have to rush around in the mornings and then they get mad that I am not getting other things done in a timely manor.Makes me steam.

I also get very upset when people drive below the speed limit when in the fast lane(passing lane).If you dont want to drive the limit,move the hell over.(this is less stressful if I am not late for work.....lol)

I dont know if I am "taumatised" as long as I can extricate myself from the offending environment,I seem to recover.I was thinking I might need PTSD therepy afer my last job but I think I will recover if I can avoid similiar work environment.This one doesnt seem as filled with lazy,illogical,incompitent workers.I guess a job working with animals attracts a more stable work force then the one working with DD clients.....sad.

Yes minor things can leave more of a mark than fairly major catastrophes where I tend to get a weird euphoria and rise to the situation more than an NT. I can for example receive a cross word on the bus and I'm petrified for days!!

Yes. I can think of two examples. Once, I was riding on the bus. Two very loud, aggressive woman were making rude comments about a handicapped guy in a wheelchair, because he smelled. Then one of them whipped out a can of air freshener and started spraying it. I got up and moved to another seat, while yanking open a window before it could hit me full force. Then one of the women said, Why did she open the window just because I sprayed air freshener? What's wrong with that?Blah, blah blah, on and on. I wanted to just get off the bus. I wasn't about to answer them. Obviously they were on this superior kick. But I was traumatized for days, re-living the incident, thinking of all the things I wished I had said, etc.

The other one was one night my neighbor started playing loud music at 2:00 am. I had to go over and ask him to turn it down. But when I returned to my house, it was still loud. I began to swear and throw things at the wall, (I either cry or get furious). THEN the music stopped. They must have thought that I was crazy. But so are they, for being so rude. I couldn't fall asleep for three hours, because I was so jumpy and scared that they would turn it up again.

How am I to know what constitutes an "unusual" emotional reaction?

My reaction to "traumatic" events is atypical. I'm usually pretty calm in truly deadly situations; and things that scare others often don't scare me. But "trauma" comes in different forms; for me, today, it came in the form of being overwhelmed at an intersection and accidentally pulling my bike out in front of a truck (who thankfully stopped). The stupid thing, when I evaluated my thought processes later, was that I had made this bad decision not because I didn't see the truck, but because I couldn't think straight and just decided to go--which was stupid. What traumatized me wasn't the fact that I could've been hit, but the fact that I'd been completely overwhelmed.

I know how it happened, too: A high level of stress on the entire trip into town made me pretty vulnerable to begin with. On the way there, I'd stopped at a McDonald's, and the cashier used some sarcasm/practical-joke type of thing on me, claiming they didn't serve cheeseburgers anymore; and I completely froze because that is what I always eat at McDonald's. I finally got it straightened out; but by then I was confused. Also, I had been late leaving, and had to get to the bank before it closed; so I was tired from biking very hard to get there: Physical stress. And I'd had another near-death incident already, when I didn't realize how narrow a road was, and how much traffic there was, and so didn't get up on the sidewalk and nearly got sideswiped by a pickup which had little more than six inches clearance between its mirror and my handlebars.

So I got stressed, and I made an even worse mistake.

I proceeded home and curled into my futon for a while. After that I was OK.

If I ever learn to drive, I will be a hellish, horrible driver... I will probably kill people if I ever have to drive home from a bad day at work. At least with a bike, I can only kill myself.

^^^ What Callista says. (Good to see you posting, by the way. Long time no see)

I function really well in true emergencies, and I know that for a fact because I spent three years working full-time as an emergency room nurse. But little things make me go postal. Like right now I'm appalled and angered and offended by a thread started by a so-called aspie named statschica. Argh.