One of my only complaints about my life, which is otherwise very satisfying, is that interacting with "the world" sucks up so much of my time and energy.
Of course my family takes a lot of my time and energy, but the things that really drain me are external: the grocery store, waiting for my kids in the schoolyard, anyone who comes to the door. I would love to be able to avoid all those kinds of things eternally.
I do also dream of living alone in my own little place, and just visiting my family a few evenings a week and weekends. Then my environment would be restful to me (organized, and much less Stuff to organize in the first place), and I'd have much more control over my time and space.
But that is entirely unrealistic and won't happen. It just doesn't work within the life I've chosen (even if I chose that life before I knew about AS).
chamoisee wrote:
The problem with living in your own little world and withdrawing from the larger one is that you lose all the social skills that are so hard to develop anyway.
This is what I'm afraid of, when I think about withdrawing from the external world (to the extent that's possible, given my current life). I've worked so hard all my life to be good at the social game, and it's paid off; I'm much better than I was as a child and I've really managed to "fit in" to the NT world pretty well. Those skills will always be useful, and sometimes even necessary, so I don't want to lose them.
On the other hand, I don't want to keep interacting with the world in ways that are stressful for me solely to keep my skills from atrophying. It's sort of like someone who dislikes milk drinking it every day anyway, just to keep up his tolerance to lactose in case he ends up eating something with lactose in it someday.
I want to drop all interactions that stress me, even if that seems "weird" to the outside world, so that I can be stress-free within my family, with the people that really matter to me. Mostly I'm so overwhelmed by the rest of my day that I am often snappy at home with my husband and kids, because that's where I feel safe. I'd rather the rest of the world saw me as "weird" or "aloof" or "crazy" even, if it means I'm a nicer person at home.
And I'd like to stop feeling like all the best parts of me are lying unused because all my energy is sucked up just getting through a normal day in normal ways.
I guess I'm moving in this direction, but I've spent a lifetime thinking that getting good at the social thing (and liking it) was the right goal, and it's hard to suddenly not care if I seem weird to others. I spent so long working so hard
not to seem weird to others that it's very hard turn around and sail back in the other direction, so to speak.
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