Experience of fogginess

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Whenever I'm in a crowded place with lots of people talking, I start to feel queasy in my stomach and fatigue overspreads my whole body. I can no longer connect to what is going on, and it is as though fogginess fills my consciousness. I then become highly focused on something, in particular, which relieves the negative feelings somewhat, while the fog that forms around me, fog filling both sight and sound, protects me, shields me, encloses me and my activity.

That also reminds me of Momoko Sakura, who wrote a semi-autobiographical manga about her dream of becoming a mangaka called Hitori Zumou (meaning literally "one-man sumo wrestling"). Now Momoko Sakura is famous for her very popular Chibi Maruko Chan series of manga, which has been made into a very popular anime that is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, that airs right before Sazae-san.

Anyway, in the 2nd volume of the manga, she is at her high school bunka-sai, essentially "cultural festival," where students engage in various activities. She goes to an all-girls school because earlier she had problems with boys, but for this event many boys visited, which put pressure on her. By the time she left, it was clear she was becoming confused and dizzy; she went home very early. She came home and watched TV, where her mum got on her for never liking big crowds.

Momoko then does some introspection, noting that ever since she was little any time she would go into a space where lots of different people were talking her head would start to hurt and she would get very tired. Momoko then goes to her room to draw.

That always struck me as a little bit autistic, but of course you need more than that for a diagnosis.

There were some threads on 2ch.net in which commentators have said that Momoko Sakura seemed to be a bit autistic or ADHD in their view.

Another issue with Momoko Sakura came out in the 1990s, around the height of her fame. Momoko Sakura refused to permit any images of her face to be publicized because she was worried that if someone greeted her on the streets, she may fail to respond, lowering their opinion of her (or something like that). I saw a photocopy online of a news article on that, and they had a photograph from behind Momoko, looking on her 2 interviewers, her face not visible. (This seems to be unusual by Japanese standards, where famous mangaka do usually show their faces and you can find photographs on them online, generally.)

I always thought that was interesting.

Anyway, here is a photocopy of one page, so that I can show the apparent sensory overload Momoko Sakura has dealt with. Keep in mind, that in Japanese comics, cells are read right to left, top to bottom; as well, here, the text is vertical, which is read top to bottom, right to left. Here is the link:

http://i61.tinypic.com/2hxbuyu.jpg

We start with the top right cell.