Frustrated By My Limits
My parents hosted a family get together tonight. It was a great chance for me to socialize. But when my brother came into town yesterday, I spent that evening with him and his friends. We all had a great time, and that's not what this post is about.
When the party happened today, I was too socially worn out to talk to anyone. I wanted to discuss business with my uncle, play with my niece and nephew, catch up with my cousins, but it was all I could do to just be in the room with everyone.
Normally I can hold a conversation with people I know just fine, but today I felt like I couldn't keep up and I know it was because I was socially worn out. I even went to my old room and took a nap, but even when that was over whenever I tried to talk I would just end up standing there, or started to anxiously rock in place and bite my hands.
Whenever anyone touched me I freaked. Normally if its my family it's ok, but I couldn't even process touch tonight.
On a good day I love parties, yet I decided to leave it early. I love my family, but I was so close to meltdown that when I got home I just sat down and cried.
I was looking forward to this party all month, and I'm so disappointed that I couldn't enjoy it. I know that I've made alot of improvement with my stamina, but I'm not where I want to be.
Can anyone offer me some advice? Please.
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Autism Peer Support is a growing peer-led Michigan based social group for Autistic adults.
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Sorry, I haven't got a way to make it not be that way.
Could potentially be other factors in the mix too; some known possibilities are health, food, sleep, stress, trouble with any of those is known to lead to becoming drained sooner.
Several years ago there was a gal in the chronic illness community, the people who have things like MS, Lupus, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue/myalgic encephalomyelitis, who while they were out having lunch came up with a way to describe the energy situation to a friend and she called the idea "Spoon theory".
You have a fixed number of spoons for the day and everything you do has a cost in spoons.
And some days you get more spoons than on other days, because that's the way life goes: sometimes you know why it happens, sometimes you don't.
All I can offer is that perhaps this was a time where the energy cost was higher but the initial energy supply lower.
Those happenings will always be disappointing and frustrating.
Even though the post is not about the night out with your brother, the energy used there could well be the root of the next day's being socially worn out. To put it in Christine's Spoon Theory terms, for going out last night you borrowed spoons from today's supply.
That too is known to use up energy, yes, just the anticipation is a kind of stress and uses energy.
I hadn't ever thought that would be the case until a couple times someone showed its effects in my life.
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"There are a thousand things that can happen when you go light a rocket engine, and only one of them is good."
Tom Mueller of SpaceX, in Air and Space, Jan. 2011
I know about the spoons theory, and while I'm was going home I even thought to myself, "I used up my spoons with my brother."
I hate that I have to use "social interaction" spoons even when I'm with people I love. I wish I had a larger "base" number of spoons than I have now.
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Autism Peer Support is a growing peer-led Michigan based social group for Autistic adults.
Check us out on Facebook or donate to our GoFundMe.