Managing Yourself

Being autistic, it can be hard to manage yourself in a life that just isn’t built for you. You want to do what you want in life, but as you become an adult, there are responsibilities that you must adhere to and just getting out the door to do them can be a challenge sometimes.

There are times that you just want to run away from all the things that you have to do in life. It can be hard to just do what you need to do to even get out the door and just get started with your day. You think that life would just be easier if you just do what you want or the bare minimum without understanding the consequence of not doing what is needed. Sometimes because of being autistic, we are pulled in the direction of what our mind calls it to be dragged in due to the brain overreacting or being overstimulated and as such, it drags us down. 

When autistic people reach points of burnout, the body tells the person that they need to take care of themself, and often they do not have the energy to do much. When they are finally able to get back “in gear”, it can be discouraging that they have to take the time to recover, but that is just what the reality of being autistic is. Whether we like it or not, for some autistic people, we become more strained than your neurotypical peers and as such there are points in our journeys that we have to realize that we need a break or even a day off to recharge. 

This does not mean that there is anything wrong with us, it is just the simple fact that life brings us too much sometimes and causes a great deal of overload and when we crash, we need to crash and recharge. When coming out of the point of recharging, we regret having to take time out of the day to rest, but that is managing ourselves and doing what we need to do in order to recharge ourselves from a logged down period of over stimulating activity. We as autistic people have just ran out of energy and the best thing for us is to recharge. 

This is one thing in the grand scheme of having to manage ourselves as autistic individuals. Sometimes it can be hard to judge when we need to take time for ourselves or to seek assistance in the things that we need help with. Oftentimes, it is the fact that we feel ashamed of having to extend ourselves and that we are going to be in the wrong, even if we are in no way of doing so. It can physically hurt to extend ourselves to others for assistance, especially those that are unknown to us for the fear that they may not know how to best help us. There, however has to be an understanding that sometimes it is best to ask for help before things get too bad,

As one becomes independent, there has to be an understanding of one’s limits as far as daily living goes. This means determining a schedule and knowing how an autistic individual will withstand their “down” or “curious” time and seek ways of entertaining themselves. It is having the understanding that they can be safe and be able to not be an irritant or cause for disruption in others that live with them. These are all things that need to be discovered in the journey in determining if they wish to seek a path of independent living or not and whether or not they can withstand all that it brings, either with or without assistance.

It is all in knowing the best way that you can manage yourself and picking yourself up and moving on from the times when there are setbacks or times you have to divert to take care of yourself.  Because it is always important to take care of yourself before anyone else.