Board index › General Discussion › General Autism Discussion

Feeling "not used" to the world every day

Page 1 of 1 [ 11 posts ] 

Previous topic | Next topic

Sora
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 4,906
Location: Europe

04 Sep 2011, 2:25 pm

Does anyone else feel they don't get used to the world?

I'm familiar with it, of course. I live in this world all my life after all! My experiences so far and my super-sized curiosity enable me to make a lot of predictions about people even. Since my ASD diagnosis I can predict more about people by now, I'm not really thrown off when they I think they behave stupidly. I know that when I turn on the tap, there'll be water or I know the sun just went down and it's getting dark and stuff.

But I feel really unused to the world.

"Is this the first time you see this?"

People ask that sometimes when they catch me showing I'm not used to something I should be used to. It's not my first time but it's like the first time - minus the confusion from being unfamiliar with something new you don't know, don't know how it works, so on.

It's like wonder? If I take my time and stop ignoring it, I feel something akin to wonder. Nothing like surprise though, I am perfectly familiar with it.

Something can be disgusting, pleasant, useless, important, "never been different", boring - it doesn't matter, I am still able to take my time to simply "experience" it.


_________________
Autism + ADHD
______
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. Terry Pratchett


animalcrackers
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Feb 2011
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,207
Location: Somewhere

04 Sep 2011, 2:48 pm

Sora wrote:
Does anyone else feel they don't get used to the world?


I think I feel the same way.

I've described the feeling like this:

If the world=a sea, then I can never "get my sea legs."

Every situation is a new situation, even if it's very similar to others I've been in before. Bad situations are always as bad as they would be the first time I experience them--the impact never wear off. Ditto for good situations.

I can be delighted by simple things (e.g. ladybugs, the way water moves) that I've seen--or heard (like the explanation of how something works)--many, many times, and my delight doesn't fade over time.



Mindslave
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 14 Nov 2010
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,034
Location: Where the wild things wish they were

04 Sep 2011, 2:48 pm

I was like this a few years ago. I could predict people's behavior the same way you describe: turn on the tap, and water flows out. I am used to the world now. And I'm no longer happy. It doesn't have the same luster it once did. It doesn't excite me anymore. That's because I don't experience things, just as you describe. As much as I always wanted to be a part of things, I knew that the day I became a part of everything would be the day I lost what made me special. I'm part of things now, and it's just like I described, because I can predict my own life the same way i can predict everything else. After that, I predict that things won't get better for a while, and when you get invested in predicting things...well, it's a conflict of interest. You know where I'm going with this. The cycle needs to be broken, and the only way to do that is to begin to experience things again, which is tough to reacquire. Don't get used to the world. It's a bad idea.



AtticusKane
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 22 Aug 2011
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 271
Location: The American Empire

04 Sep 2011, 4:38 pm

Mindslave wrote:
As much as I always wanted to be a part of things, I knew that the day I became a part of everything would be the day I lost what made me special. I'm part of things now, and it's just like I described, because I can predict my own life the same way i can predict everything else. After that, I predict that things won't get better for a while, and when you get invested in predicting things...well, it's a conflict of interest. You know where I'm going with this. The cycle needs to be broken, and the only way to do that is to begin to experience things again, which is tough to reacquire. Don't get used to the world. It's a bad idea.


Word



LostUndergrad9090
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 29 Jun 2011
Age: 184
Gender: Female
Posts: 892

04 Sep 2011, 5:10 pm

awesomely put.



SammichEater
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Mar 2011
Age: 30
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,903

04 Sep 2011, 5:17 pm

I've read this four times and I still don't understand what you're getting at. This whole concept is completely foreign to me.


_________________
Remember, all atrocities begin in a sensible place.


PeaceFrog
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

User avatar

Joined: 2 Sep 2011
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Posts: 34
Location: Portland, Oregon

04 Sep 2011, 8:15 pm

Sora wrote:
Does anyone else feel they don't get used to the world?


I get exactly what you mean! I often find myself having to pretend that I'm doing something for the first time just so I don't look like I'm completely out of my mind. I'm glad at least that it's double sided. . . you have to experience the bad situations over and over but the good experiences somehow seem more refreshing and exhilarating.


_________________
"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out."
? Ray Bradbury

Your Aspie score: 161 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 45


SuperTrouper
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Jun 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,117

05 Sep 2011, 11:36 am

I know this feeling. Sometimes, when I'm riding in the car, I get totally overwhelmed by the sheer size, color, motion, everything... of everything around me.



jackbus01
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 5 Feb 2011
Age: 52
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,197

05 Sep 2011, 9:38 pm

SammichEater wrote:
I've read this four times and I still don't understand what you're getting at. This whole concept is completely foreign to me.


I'm with you. I don't understand this either, but obviously others do. I wonder what I am missing.



Mdyar
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 28 May 2009
Age: 59
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,516

05 Sep 2011, 11:05 pm

Mindslave wrote:
I was like this a few years ago. I could predict people's behavior the same way you describe: turn on the tap, and water flows out. I am used to the world now. And I'm no longer happy. It doesn't have the same luster it once did. It doesn't excite me anymore. That's because I don't experience things, just as you describe. As much as I always wanted to be a part of things, I knew that the day I became a part of everything would be the day I lost what made me special. I'm part of things now, and it's just like I described, because I can predict my own life the same way i can predict everything else. After that, I predict that things won't get better for a while, and when you get invested in predicting things...well, it's a conflict of interest. You know where I'm going with this. The cycle needs to be broken, and the only way to do that is to begin to experience things again, which is tough to reacquire. Don't get used to the world. It's a bad idea.


This "trajectory" sense is sometimes mitigated by living life through others' eyes. You watch parents do this with their children.
The "excitement" they catch from the actions of others -- this is a "family." Or sometimes they just live their lives in reference to celebrities.....

Sooner or later one is going to rise to a leading edge of understanding.

The decades roll.



pensieve
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 8,204
Location: Sydney, Australia

05 Sep 2011, 11:07 pm

When I go to places I don't actually feel like I'm there. Like I'll go to Sydney and it won't feel like Sydney, like it used to.

I'm in my house a lot so when I do go outside and venture the town it always feels new to me. Like I have to get used to it again.


_________________
My band photography blog - http://lostthroughthelens.wordpress.com/
My personal blog - http://helptheywantmetosocialise.wordpress.com/