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MarchViolets
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16 Feb 2008, 5:33 am

I read a lot of posts here about AS people with jobs and a social life, people that go outside a lot. I’ve become housebound over the last two or so years due to severe sensory problems, and wonder if I’m alone in this respect.

I’m 18, and it’s been well over a year since I last saw any friends. I spend my time in my room by myself, is there anyone else out there living in a similar situation?



KristaMeth
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16 Feb 2008, 5:45 am

MarchViolets wrote:
I read a lot of posts here about AS people with jobs and a social life, people that go outside a lot. I’ve become housebound over the last two or so years due to severe sensory problems, and wonder if I’m alone in this respect.

I’m 18, and it’s been well over a year since I last saw any friends. I spend my time in my room by myself, is there anyone else out there living in a similar situation?


It might be likely that I'd be where you are if it weren't for my son. I've been thrust into a "normal" life and I don't have a choice if I want my son to see that mom is responsible and ABLE.

Before my son though, I was living with my dad (a depressed hoarder with aspie tendencies [unless drinking]) who had a hard time not enabling me to be a bum. I slept 12-17 hours a day and when I was awake I was glued to the computer chair. That's it. That's all I did. I don't have severe sensory problems, rather mine had more to do with social aspects and even what some people call inertia. Once I'd gotten into the habit of "relaxing at home, alone" it became this vicious cycle that I just couldn't break without something big to help me. The more I stayed home and denied friends requests to go out, the harder it was to face anyone when I actually left the house. I felt really, really out of place in public and like everyone knew I didn't belong there.

My life is completely different now, but yes, there was definitely a time in my life where I could be described as homebound.

Do you want to go out or are you content where you are? Just curious. Can I ask what your sensory issues are?


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MarchViolets
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16 Feb 2008, 6:23 am

Thank you for replying. It's lovely that your son has helped you so much! :D

KristaMeth wrote:
Do you want to go out or are you content where you are? Just curious. Can I ask what your sensory issues are?


I've been assessed as having severe vestibular/proprioception problems (fall over, bump into things, don't know where my body is in space, avoid basic things like using the bathroom because of the movement involved), I have auditory processing problems (often have to tell people to stop talking so I can register what they said sentences ago, am easily overloaded) and visual processing problems (find it difficult to register what I'm looking at, the air "fizzes" with light, etc.) I'm completely disorientated outside of the home environment, have also been seen walking into busy roads "blind" - so overloaded can't process the cars/road - now receiving help from guide dogs for the blind because of these issues. Can't sense temperature, pain, taste, etc. properly, so might eat rotten food by accident, etc. Have difficulty with "sensing" internal feelings, such as when I'm hungry or when I need to go to the toilet and I get muddled between "me" and my environment - for example earlier today I had my foot underneath something, and my hand on top of the object, and thought my hand was touching my foot until I looked and saw the object.

Day to day living is chaotic and stressful, also have OCD and ADD, which doesn’t help. Anyway, sorry for writing so much, tried to give a general sense of things.

To answer your other question, I don’t often have time to think about whether or not I’m content like this, I’m too busy trying to grapple with the above, but I do get depressed. I don’t miss going outside at all, but I do miss feeling like I have a place in the world, and academic potential. Still, life is a gift to be valued no matter the challenges.



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16 Feb 2008, 7:42 am

Five years (throughout my early twenties, 19 to 24, 26 now)....

I thought it was due to OCD/agoraphobia (I had/have OCD, but that's just an aside), nope, sensory devastation was the cause (the world hurt me, the people, the sights, the sounds, it all just hurt); this was brought on by stressful life events, which made my autism a billion times worst than what I was if everything was ordered, structured, and I had my routine. My routine kinda got killed, then killed again, and just for irony to laugh at me, killed again.

Fun times.



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16 Feb 2008, 7:53 am

I am housebound too and have been for about 6+ years. But my main reasons I think are anxiety/agoraphobia. I dont want to be around people anymore I have given up on others and I am happy alone.



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16 Feb 2008, 8:15 am

If it wasn't for work, I'd be completely housebound. I want to go outside and meet people, and don't at the same time. I find it pretty much impossible to go outside and do "something." So very uncomfortable around people, especially crowds.

Horrible suggestion, but alcohol? It's the only thing that can make me social. To alcohol!! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems. *Sips his Rum and...Pepsi.*


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16 Feb 2008, 8:17 am

HECK, I DO work and STILL might as well be housebound. I will spend most of this weekend like most weekends AT HOME. I spent most of last week, like most weeks AT HOME, though I DID go to work. I have a 2500sf home, and generally stay within the same 200sf of it!



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16 Feb 2008, 8:19 am

Bluesummers wrote:
If it wasn't for work, I'd be completely housebound. I want to go outside and meet people, and don't at the same time. I find it pretty much impossible to go outside and do "something." So very uncomfortable around people, especially crowds.

Horrible suggestion, but alcohol? It's the only thing that can make me social. To alcohol!! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems. *Sips his Rum and...Pepsi.*


same, but with both work and school (though, i have been racking up the absences lately with school). a group of friends meet every other month, and if it weren't for my boyfriend i'd probably never make it there, either.


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Bluesummers
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16 Feb 2008, 8:19 am

2ukenkerl wrote:
HECK, I DO work and STILL might as well be housebound. I will spend most of this weekend like most weekends AT HOME. I spent most of last week, like most weeks AT HOME, though I DID go to work. I have a 2500sf home, and generally stay within the same 200sf of it!


I do the same, sometimes when I'm high/paranoid I'll get the feeling that I've been in the same place so much that I'm boring a hole through the floor. Familiarity = Comfort. Unknown = Scary.


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16 Feb 2008, 9:21 pm

MarchViolets wrote:
I read a lot of posts here about AS people with jobs and a social life, people that go outside a lot. I’ve become housebound over the last two or so years due to severe sensory problems, and wonder if I’m alone in this respect.

I’m 18, and it’s been well over a year since I last saw any friends. I spend my time in my room by myself, is there anyone else out there living in a similar situation?

When I was in school (through age 18) I had to leave house 5 days a week (and I hated it!) but felt I had no choice about it. In college (3 years) I'd stay in my dorm room more than other students did (meals in cafeteria were harrowing), though I'd go to classes. I don't miss those circumstances. Have never had a job. Unsure how to attribute my aversion to being in public/going outside/leaving my home-how much of it is agoraphobia, social anxiety, sensory thresholds/intolerances, etc.

Am not totally housebound (but not too far from it), my boyfriend takes me out to do errands once a week & I have a counseling appt. once or twice a week, too. At different points in my life I've been more or less able to behave this way (living as a 'shut-in'). Occasional crises have pushed me by necessity into dealing with life "out there" (amongst people places and things)-then once I've acquired some good things from the outside world (such as a few friends) I revert to my "normal/default" mode of staying inside.


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oscuria
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16 Feb 2008, 10:12 pm

hikikomori ??



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16 Feb 2008, 11:17 pm

2ukenkerl wrote:
HECK, I DO work and STILL might as well be housebound. I will spend most of this weekend like most weekends AT HOME. I spent most of last week, like most weeks AT HOME, though I DID go to work. I have a 2500sf home, and generally stay within the same 200sf of it!


You sound like my dad. :lol:

I'm pretty sure he has AS, but he displays it quite differently than I do.


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17 Feb 2008, 12:19 am

Aoife wrote:
2ukenkerl wrote:
HECK, I DO work and STILL might as well be housebound. I will spend most of this weekend like most weekends AT HOME. I spent most of last week, like most weeks AT HOME, though I DID go to work. I have a 2500sf home, and generally stay within the same 200sf of it!


You sound like my dad. :lol:

I'm pretty sure he has AS, but he displays it quite differently than I do.


Your signature turns me on. I could write a speech further justifying it's meaning <3


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17 Feb 2008, 12:30 am

I never leave the house, unless I come to nanna's house.



KristaMeth
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17 Feb 2008, 10:42 am

MarchViolets wrote:
Thank you for replying. It's lovely that your son has helped you so much! :D

KristaMeth wrote:
Do you want to go out or are you content where you are? Just curious. Can I ask what your sensory issues are?


I've been assessed as having severe vestibular/proprioception problems (fall over, bump into things, don't know where my body is in space, avoid basic things like using the bathroom because of the movement involved), I have auditory processing problems (often have to tell people to stop talking so I can register what they said sentences ago, am easily overloaded) and visual processing problems (find it difficult to register what I'm looking at, the air "fizzes" with light, etc.) I'm completely disorientated outside of the home environment, have also been seen walking into busy roads "blind" - so overloaded can't process the cars/road - now receiving help from guide dogs for the blind because of these issues. Can't sense temperature, pain, taste, etc. properly, so might eat rotten food by accident, etc. Have difficulty with "sensing" internal feelings, such as when I'm hungry or when I need to go to the toilet and I get muddled between "me" and my environment - for example earlier today I had my foot underneath something, and my hand on top of the object, and thought my hand was touching my foot until I looked and saw the object.

Day to day living is chaotic and stressful, also have OCD and ADD, which doesn’t help. Anyway, sorry for writing so much, tried to give a general sense of things.

To answer your other question, I don’t often have time to think about whether or not I’m content like this, I’m too busy trying to grapple with the above, but I do get depressed. I don’t miss going outside at all, but I do miss feeling like I have a place in the world, and academic potential. Still, life is a gift to be valued no matter the challenges.


Wow, makes me feel a little stupid for staying in the house when I could be out (even without being around people) enjoying the scenery.

I appreciate you letting it out a bit, I've never had sensory problems that crippling and was curious about how you deal.

As for academic potential... online schooling for the win, maybe? Even I've been considering that.


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17 Feb 2008, 11:00 am

Hello MarchViolets, I can't quite relate since I manage to hold down a job, albeit one in which I spend most of my time alone, locked inside a room with no windows. But I also felt for a long time that I couldn't fulfil my academic potential since I found school and college far too stressful. I now do an Open University degree. Almost everyone who uses them has had some sort of a problem with other educational institutions so they are very understanding. They send all the books to you in the post, (marked IMPORTANT EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL!! !!), and you can submit the essays by post or online. There are tutorials if you wish to attend them, but you could easily pass the course without ever going to one. You can also substitute one essay per course if you are under too much pressure to be able to study - I had to do that around the time I got diagnosed. It is also a lot cheaper than real university.