Anything time-based. Fuck voicemail, I don’t have time to listen to the slow voice read everything out, give me a ui and words and let me read at 700wpm. Even shit like power buttons make me mad. I’m always doing stuff, I can’t dedicate 2 seconds to turning on my headphones because I’m using that hand for something else, like carrying food or opening something. The only bottleneck for how fast I can do something should be me. Bring back switches!

Plans changing or being shown something I forgot/didn’t realize I was supposed to do can make me just not want to do anything for the rest of the day. Even stuff that makes me happy like watching movies or going for a walk in the park just seems like these monsterous tasks I can’t handle afterwards.

Just experienced sensory overload again because I had some important tests at school and the most minor sensory annoyances (eating with my parents and grandma and having to tolerate fridge, cutlery noises and some light conversation) sent me into a painful shutdown (which caused my mom and grandma to speak with (EDIT: well to, I couldn’t really speak with them) me, which didn’t make it better).

In the end, I just forced myself to eat the food and ran(well stumbled) off to my dad (who left early to watch sports) and was alone with him and just sat with him for some time. Not long after, I just left to lay in bed in a fetal position fully covered by a blanket for ~1-3 hours and occasionally listened to some random music in my downloads (with minimum brightness since everything else was too painful).

I’m still in an emotionally vulnerable condition and wouldn’t feel safe going out alone(or doing anything else alone for that matter). I did drive a car and did some risky stuff, I shouldn’t do (don’t drive in a psychological condition like this, you could kill someone). (EDIT: also, my motor abilities are really limited in sensory overload(how did I even survive the drive))

So sensory overload is in my opinion the most painful thing about autism. Or vulnerability when in distress. Other than that, I like my autistic traits.

There’s something about waking up that just ruins everything.

That one little reminder that you are different than everybody else, and no matter how hard you try, no matter what medicines you take, you will always be alone in that way.

Bold of the the mulleted human View-Master to assume there’s only one thing.

• Any minor inconvenience or disruption of my plans.

• Someone wanting something but instead of asking for it directly, they drop hints. Even if I pick up the hint, I refuse to acknowledge them if you’re not going to just say what you mean.

• Persiatent and/or loud noises. Macherinery going, big fans, large groups of people all talking at once, the chirp of a smoke alarm needing a new battery, etc.

• Bright white lights give me headaches. Bright neon lights are cool and fun tho. I don’t really understand this one myself; a light blue light is almost white but it’s okay. 🤷‍♂️

People being rude. In particular, people eating or making sporadic noises near me at work. And people who talk on speakerphone on quiet trains. I just… can’t handle it.

Sock getting bunched up near a toe when I’m in a public place and can’t remove the shoe.

I’m in Autistic burnout… the slightest stress - just about any official letter, appointment with benefit agency or sometimes just something nasty on the news - can lead me straight into dissociation or shutdown. Occasionally, just having to concentrate hard can also wipe me out in a similar way. It usually takes at least a few days for me to recover.

I’m nearly 60, and this is new to me - I mean, I’ve had bouts before, but never as debilitating as this. I used to be able to cope with these things, even if they darkened my day.

Getting interrupted “real quick” while I’m in the zone.

To not understate, everyone hates that, yes, but I am actively done for the day. I don’t want to talk to anyone anymore, I lose my appetite, I don’t want to play my games, I don’t want to finish work.

I’m done, and the task that I was doing is at an extreme risk of never being completed ever again.

I make my space to be “in the zone” with so much effort, don’t break it, it’s sacred to me.

Imagine watching a magical 3 hour movie and 2 hours in somebody cuts the power, and if you want to watch it again you have to start from the beginning

Something scheduled. I am useless in the lead up because “I have to be ready”

When someone interrupts you in the middle of doing something to talk about something and they keep talking on and on just repeating themselves bringing no new information.

When my workflow is repeatedly interrupted by a stupid notification, request to “log in your Microslop account” or the OS hanging a few seconds after every use input on the Windows computer that I am forced to use for work. All unnecessary hurdles that interrupt my ideal workflow are the worst.

When you’re working in something that requires you to concentrate and you are being repeatedly pulled out of this state of concentration by people who bug you about things. If it happens too many times in a row you end up with a huge headache and need a few hours of rest before you can concentrate again.

Doing or saying something that you later realise afterwards was not “normal” behavior and that people saw past the crack in your mask.

Guaranteed to give you an instant impostor syndrome attack that will last for the rest of the day, leaving you obsessively overthinking about how your messed up that basic social interaction, which leads you to make even more mistakes like that which compounds the problem.

When the elevator takes too long.

Edit: Also, this might be work specific, I do maintenance, when someone keeps talking with superfluous language and I already know everything they are going to say. Situations are formulaic, tell me where and what, everything else is erroneous, stop wasting both of our time. You’re at work, not on stage. Fuck!