Duh?? But I thought...
Autistic people take their time. We work alone, and we prefer the world in our head to the real one at large. We like to slowly savor details often deemed unimportant by others. Don't rush us. This usually is not a good idea. We take as much or more joy in thinking and planning the process of accomplishing a task as we do the task itself. Because of the way we process information, it might take us ten steps to do the same thing that someone else does in five. We simply work things out in a "longer" way, and we will go over multiple steps several times in our heads when we feel that things are missing.
This long string of details and observances must be gone through and analyzed. When this can't happen (because we're late, for example), we feel as though something in the universe is out of alignment. We must fix it! Many well meaning friends and family have tried to show me esker ways of doing mundane things, in order to save time and effort. Unfortunately, this will only serve to take away my "reward" for reaching the intended goal, and doing it...MYSELF! :)
Believe it or not, when we are allowed to take our time and figure something out on our own, it creates a sense of power and strength in us that gives us confidence. The difficulties come when those around us, circumvent or take away that process by "showing us an easier way" or needing us to hurry up, or making us feel as though we are doing things "the hard way.". A process that might be "the hard way" to a neuro-typical might be absolutely necessary to an Autistic person's sense of completeness. Sometimes, we need to be allowed to struggle through things so that we can gain the victory when we figure it out. SOMETIMES, though we look like we are struggling, we are not at all...we're just fixated on a thought or process and we like being so. We like to contemplate...and think deeply. Often, when this process is "disturbed"... so are we. We get very upset, and sometimes have meltdowns. Many times,, we feel as though something has been broken because someone else's business seemed to get in the way. We can come across as co sited or uncaring, and those around us often may have no idea why. Try to be patient with us. It can be frustrating making a huge deal out of seemingly minor details but sometimes we just can't help it. :)
