Difficulty doing certain tasks - is it part of autism?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm an adult and was diagnosed on Tuesday with Aspergers. I also have ADHD.

I have a hard time doing certain tasks that require mental effort. The best example of this is in emptying the dishwasher. Especially sorting through silverware. In my house we have way too much silverware--two separate drawers full. The mental effort it takes me to sort through them. It really really aggravates me and just pisses me off when I'm doing it. Doing specific chores (like emptying the dishwasher) are so painful just being asked randomly to empty it sets me off. There is something I feel in my brain when I sort through silverware that is painful.

Ironically loading the dishwasher is easy.

This probably has nothing to do with autism but I just figured I'd ask in here. Does anyone have any idea what this could be related to?

It could be either from the autism or the ADHD. That can be a symptom of both. I believe it has to do with executive functioning problems.

I have trouble attending to my personal hygiene, as well as doing housework. Truth be told, the number of things "normal" people do to take care of themselves and their homes is dizzying to me. O_O

Sounds like executive dysfunction. It's pretty common with autism.

Executive functions are a set of skills controlled by the frontal lobes (though researchers now think the cerebellum plays a part in them as well). Essentially, they refer to the ability to plan, organize, inhibit impulses, force yourself to do something you don't want to do, etc.

I can't

1) Drive a car
2) Write with a pen and a paper
3) Make change quickly

But I can

1) Fly a Quadcopter
2) Type a decent story
3) Write a computer algorithm

Indeed autism is strange, I for one believe their could be a correlation.

Definitely sounds like an executive function thing. I have the ability to play complicated piano pieces and write computer programs to solve complex engineering tasks, but I have been staring at the same paragraph of the report that I am writing for the last two hours and have had the same laundry basket of clean clothes that has been sitting on my couch for a month that I have just been adding/removing clothes from as appropriate.