Being Slow

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Can Aspergers people be slow at things?

Yes we can.

It takes me a long time to finish tasks and process things. Sometimes I feel like my brain runs on an out-of-date computer. lol

Then the woman who I work with must have Asperger's because she is frustratingly slow and doesn't have a physical disability.

It's one of the main reasons why I'm unable to have a real job.

Things often take me a wildly disproportionate amount of time to do, and I can't understand how or why, never mind explain it to anyone. Yesterday I spent the entire day and night doing something that shouldn't have taken me more than an hour or two. It was too close to my regular bedtime when I finished it, so it took me hours to fall asleep. Somehow it takes me an inordinate amount of time to even just wind down from something I was already being painfully slow at.

Today for some reason I couldn't even manage to take a nap to recover some of the lost sleep. I did nothing all day. The day ends and it's like "where did all the time go?" Either way, after an episode of insomnia like this, I know I need to be patient, because it's guaranteed that it will take me at least a week or two to recover from it. It's hard to be patient in this state of simply "waiting until I'm back to the world of the living" though. When I'm here a lot, this is usually the reason why.

"Threetoed" in my username is a reference to (three-toed) sloths. And a snail is snail. So... yep, I don't know about other people, but I can be slow... When it comes to this, I've been having more bad days than good ones this year, not sure why. Not sure either if this proportion of good-to-bad days is typical for me or not, because it all gets lost to the sands of time.

I really relate to this. One of my early childhood memories was being held back at recess to finish an assignment. Not because I didn't understand it, just that it took me a long time to fill it out. I also have a sort of mental inertia where it is hard for me to shift gears. But sometimes I can be very quick witted and my mind generally always feels very active. I think my motor skills aren't great, so I'm physically slow, and often I am so stuck in my head that I can't quickly decide or realize simple things.

Yes, I get things done, but it takes me significantly longer to do most things.

I'm actually quick at things. I'm a fast but thorough worker, and I get frustrated whenever somebody goes slow and holds me up. I have ADHD so my brain is always on fast-forward.

I'm probably in the "too quick" category, too.

This guy at work does overtime (more than 7 hours) at a task in which I would probably take 2 hours at the most----maybe even closer to 1 hour.

Then again, I'm more "classically autistic" than Aspergian.

This guy seems to have some Aspergian traits. He's very thorough, though, and the bosses tolerate his overtime, sometimes hinting that he should go a little faster.

He's still working there after more than a year---so I guess he's doing at least a pretty good job despite his slowness.

And maybe the fact that I've been on my job 40 1/2 years accounts to how quick I do my work.

Sometimes I'm way faster and more efficient at certain things than everyone else. It's not uncommon. Also it's usually when I'm at my slowest that I am the most (mentally) hyperactive (I had thing song in my head when I woke up today... haha). I guess the two sides are both cause and effect of each other. I'm so distracted jumping between fragments of... something in my head that I can't even register what's been occupying my brain. I guess my thoughts don't really get the chance to take shape before they're displaced by something else. It feels like my mind is overcrowded but empty at the same time. It's... weird.

If there's one theme that thoroughly dominates and has always dominated my existence, it's "being out of sync". I'm out of sync with the world, and my brain functions are out of sync with each other (with bodily functions also being out of sync as a consequence).

Slow at some things? YES!!

Second grade, for instance, is when the teacher kept me in the classroom while the other children had recess. I needed the time to catch up. But, I was bright and was ahead of most of the class in things...I could do more difficult things but took longer than them on the easier stuff.

I still am a slower reader than my bride.

And sometimes it takes awhile for me to realize things. My record is a couple of things that I had not thought about for years, and then for no apparent reason, while I was sleeping, a sudden realization popped into my head...like 40 years too late!

I often want time to think about things.

(Though sometimes I'm quick. So I guess I am slow and quick, and sometimes about as expected?)

I’m like you.

I can be soooo slow, I still haven’t opened my box that I got awhile of ago. Years ago, I was cleaning my room or the living room, it took 4 hours to clean half the room.

Hmm, not slow as such but I can be a bit slow at learning new things. I have to completely understand what I'm doing to feel confident with it. I have an issue with taking in a lot of information all at once. I'm a bit embarrassed by it as I think it makes me appear 'slow' when I'm really not. But once I've got it, then I've totally got it and I'm off. I feel I take longer than the average person to get to that stage though.

I do sometimes avoid learning new things because of this, another thing I'm working on to overcome.

I'm slow, and make a lot of mistakes too. My boss tolerates me though, because at least I admit, apologize and fix the errors when pointed out. Even if I wanted to speed up, I can't, so it's best to seek out environments which are not too demanding in this respect.