Chance event stopping plans

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Does anyone get bothered by this? Is it an AS thing? Is it to do with routines? I dont really have that thing with routines, I tend to plan my days when they arrive and they can be different.

However, if I decide to do something I cant stand it if something gets in the way. For example i want to use the computer for 10 minutes, but then someone comes along and starts spraying window cleaner everywhere next to the computer and I have to leave after 5 minutes, unable to complete the ten minutes planned I walk angrily around, and I for some reason cant start anything else until the room is ventilated out and I can complete the 10 minutes.

Or, I start making breakfast. I try to go to the cupboard. Someone is there. I get to go to the fridge. Someone is there. I end up leaving the kitchen and pacing up in down in the hallway waiting for them to leave the kitchen so I can have it to myself.

Or being at work trying to type up a report. Someone comes with some urgent work for me. I have to stop the report (which I hate doing anyway) to do their work. I feel frustrated as I wanted to finish the report, even though I hate office work and typing.

Or, I am asleep and for some reason only get half a nights sleep. I feel angry and frustrated because I didnt get all the sleeping I wanted.

Waiting for a train which doesnt arrive, for ages and ages. I feel frustrated and cant stand waiting for it.

Do you have anything similar? What is this?

I have this to the point of distress, but only mildly over late trains or waiting in line behind someone who doesn't have it together.

I'm so afraid of being interrupted with phone calls that I cannot start projects I know I need to do. I've developed quite a phobia of being derailed and it makes me horribly unproductive because I can barely bring myself to try most of the time. I'm working on this, but it is a huge source of stress. it's probably more related to PTSD than AS though.

This is very typical of Aspergers. Obviously it causes you allot of stress.

"I usually wait patiently, knowing that some adults with Asperger's syndrome prefer not to be interrupted as an interruption can cause the person to start the whole thinking process again." - Tony Attwood

We Aspies have mono-channel minds. We do things linearly, one at a time, so if there is an interruption to a task, it derails us. We can't flexibly change from one task to another when something unexpected happens. We have to reset and start from the beginning / or pause and start from the middle. Either way it causes us allot of stress.

One of the tests that measures a person's ability to shift tasks (set shifting) is called the Wisconsin Card Sorting test. People with Asperger's are poor at set shifting. It also called an Executive Function deficit, a deficit in the kind of skills needed to be an business executive (or sectary!).

Here is an on-line Demo of such a test: http://www.cogstate.com/go/clinicaltria ... fting-task

Oh, also. Inflexible thinking nearly always leads to Obsessions and/or Routines. You need not have both.

Last edited by Diamonddavej on 20 Nov 2009, 10:28 am, edited 2 times in total.

How long does it take people to get back on task?

We found about 82 percent of all interrupted work is resumed on the same day. But here's the bad news -- it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.

Great article. It's about NTs but still. . .

http://www.fastcompany.com/node/944128/print

Thanks guys, Bhetti that is why I often ignore the phone

Dave, I definitely have executive dysfunctions, I do find it hard again to start something "from the middle".

Sinsboldly, interesting article and thought provoking.

I dont find it hard to start again, its just the intense feeling of anger when I am interrupted and the feeling of frustration when I cannot go back to what I had focused so intensely on.

I think thats it, when the brain is not so intensely focused it is probably less stressful to have its attention diverted.

Thanks for posting this question - while I knew it was an issue for many short-term tasks, I am beginning to see it as also a problem for some long-term projects I have involved myself in.

That major changes in my lifestyle and living arrangements have also made it difficult for me to reestablish a connection with other personal objectives. It all makes sense now, in terms of AS, makes me feel somewhat less anxious about my ability to reconnect as overall situations begin to level out.

::Whew!::

I plan my days very carefully, and I hate it when some random event ruins it.

Agreed, I feel that if my circumstances became more peaceful and under my control I would feel a lot less stressed, and I would do some far more useful things.