Do you Dread an Upcoming Event?

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I'm curious to know if this is a universal Aspie thing or not. My son and I are both Aspie and we share this trait.

If I have something coming up, even if it's something fun like meeting a friend for lunch, I find myself stressing over it. If it happens spontaneously, just Hey let's go grab lunch, Okay - then it's not so much of a problem but if they say they can't go today, let's go next Tuesday instead.....

I will find myself thinking about next Tuesday over and over and over, write it down, don't plan anything else that day, sometimes I can't sleep the night before and end up waking late or getting a migraine or other illness that forces me to cancel. I cancel alot if the thing has been planned out more than 3 or 4 days from now.

It doesn't matter if the event is positive or negative, meeting someone I love to see or someone I am dreading seeing, going to a quiet event or to the dentist - no matter which extreme, just having that Thing planned out ahead of time causes me to obsess on it, to the point of getting sick many times.

Just had one today, which is what brings this up.

Anyone else have this?

Definately.
I've taken 20 points from a 100 point project because of anxiety.
I usually think about what I'm going to say, and get really stressed.

YES 100% my anxiety levels shoot up and I become so stressed, obsess and worry about all the details...

Its like my life goes on hold until that event is over

When it has to do with speaking in front of people (even in front of a small class), yes. I can obsess and stress over it for weeks. In the end I usually don't care if I do badly, as long as it's over with.
Public speaking is not my thing.

Every time I go on a night out I will have considered every aspect of it in advance, in mind boggling detail.

The event I'm currently dreading is the last party we're having in my friend's flat - which i am simultaneously looking forward to. I'm down to DJ and I'm getting paranoid that people there will hate what I play

I normally cannot wait and sometimes make a counter on my desktop to count down the minutes (or even seconds) to the event.

YES - that is it. It's like my life goes on hold until the event is over. That sums it up perfectly.

It's not only a public speaking thing. For me it's any appointment. Any expectation that I be somewhere at an exact time and someone will be waiting for me. I need to be dressed, neat, on time, and do what is expected of me.

What do you think is the reason for the stress? I would like very much to fix this aspect of my life and nothing I have tried has helped (other than just don't plan anything until the last minute). Is it the intense focus? That one thing is there and it takes all of our focus and we can't get off of it until it's over?

That's the other aspect of it. IF it's something great that I'm looking forward to, I can't wait. I can't get there fast enough, I can't stand how slow time moves, and I can't sleep. I just want to go now, even if now is 3 am and the event isn't for 4 days.

That usually leads to me not sleeping, and when the day arrives for the event I either oversleep or I show up exhausted (or sick) from not getting sleep.

If I'm dreading it, I don't sleep from anxiety and dread. So either way, I'm usually exhausted and stressed when I arrive for even simple appointments.

uh huh.

i'f i'm going somewhere i'll be packed days before and know exactly what time i plan to leave. count it down and walk in circles until the time comes.

Yes! Every time I have even a doctor's appointment, I can't sleep the night before, because I frequently wake up to obsess over things, worry about being late, etc. And God forbid if it's a bigger event, like a trip that involves extended traveling. I then become a basket case.

No, I usually exhaustingly predetermine exactly what I think will happen in situations, and I almost always expect them to turn out well, but I am oftentimes wrong.

Summer camp

I am rather obese, and although I do not mind most parts of summer camp too much, I HATE the hike! It is a forced march up a mountain and back down, one thing I cannot do is long uphill hikes, and last time the damned counciller managed to bring us down the wrong side of the mountain, and instead of walking 3 miles to the nearest town, we walked over 6 miles, up and down the mountian again to get back.

Totally, I obsess about every detail , try and plan and predict exactly what is going to happen and if I think its going to be really stressful hide away.

I freak out when I don't know what's going to happen next - like, if I'm at home and my friend and I have tentative plans but then I don't like them I can always just back out. But at school, I plan on doing something, and plans get changed to something I feel uncomfortable doing and I feel trapped. Any event where I don't have an 'out' makes me panic in advance - that's why I go home on weekends. The things I worry about are stupid - someone I don't like will be there, a movie I don't like, we'll be out too late, the conversation will be something I don't like, the place we're going will be sketchy - because of it, I've withdrawn from most socializing. Im not rigidly structured in general, but if we're somewhere that I just can't simply leave from if I feel like it where I don't know what and with who we'll be doing, I can't handle it.

No events in my life, so no.

My next Jacksonian America test. This last one even though it was a take home I

received an 90. Their were 7 who got "F". The professor had a field day, and their are about

30 in the class.