Why can't I do the "simplest" things?

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Yesterday was a long and tiring day for me. I was at university from 8am to 5pm and I had a "silent episode" during my biology class (which means I got so anxious about the group discussion that I refused/couldn't talk). When I was done at uni I met up with an acquaintance of mine and together we went to a sort of lecture about Asperger's Syndrome (the acquaintance has HFA and she was the one who suggested I come along to the lecture). It was a really good lecture by the way and I could relate to a whole lot of what the lecturer talk about (I'm still not sure I have AS so I'm still trying to figure it out).

Anyway, we arrived at the lecture and found a place to sit. By that time I was completely exhausted since I'd been at uni, been around people, had a "silent episode" etc. Sometimes (and not only when I'm tired) I find it difficult to do things. Things like knowing what to do with all my stuff when supposed to sit down. Let me explain. Yesterday I was wearing a coat/jacket and a scarf, a bag and I had an apple and a small plastic bag in my hand. When I was supposed to sit down it was like my brain froze and I didn't really know in what order to do things. Where was I going to put the apple while taking off my coat? Where was I going to put my bag? There was a paper on my chair and I wanted to get that off of there which meant there was yet another thing I had to take care of. Etc. So I just froze. Stood there and stared, quite overwhelmed. The person I was with noticed and she sort of guided me through it which was nice because I didn't really know how to solve that situation even though the situation shouldn't have been a problem. I should've been easy but it wasn't. I'm not sure I've been able to adequately describe what happened but I hope you understand anyway.

Same thing happens sometimes when I'm on the bus and I've been to the supermarket so I've got a plastic bag with food with me. I then have to consciously figure out how to bring both my bag (with text books and stuff) and the bag with food when getting off the bus. Because of that I can't listen to music those times. If I was to listen to music I would get completely overwhelmed. That's quite common for me. When I already feel a bit overwhelmed music just adds to that. It's unfortunate because I sort of need music when on the bus to not get overwhelmed by other things (noise etc).

Now it's the morning after and I've got a massive headache. That's common for me as well. Headaches when I've been around noise, people etc for longer than I a few hours.

Can anyone relate to this? Is this an "aspie" thing? What causes it?

I can relate to some extent. I can imagine myself standing in the room with my hands full of stuff, looking around and saying, "I don't know where to put..."

Do you find that you get flustered easily? Is that what you mean when you describe feeling overwhelmed?

We are lousy at multitasking.

There are two things that I do.

1) If I have plenty of time, is to plan everything out in advance.

2) Start doing stuff and push through it. Gets easier with practice...

Yeah, that might be what I mean. It's similar to what happens when I have too much to do (at university for example). Instead of doing things I get so overwhelmed I end up doing nothing (unless I have a detailed and specific plan).

Sounds like me sometimes too. What others might see as a simple task appears to me as a large semi-complicated set of interdependent problems which quickly build up in terms of stress time and overall complexity. I think, in my case at least, it is a mixture of problems with multitasking, rigidity of thought, a purely systemising mindset, perfectionism etc. I always feel I need to come up with either a 100% perfect and complete solution to a problem and all of it's sub-problems or else not attempt it at all.

Last edited by Si_82 on 24 Jan 2013, 12:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yep, I know exactly what you mean. That happens to me at work when I have too much to do and don't know where to start first, and instead up getting nothing done.