• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Anxiety Awareness?

Skylark

Skylark

Active Member
Do you find that you are worrying without realising it? Do others point it out or say 'try not to worry' when you hadn't realised that you were? Perhaps you weren't worried but just curious about something or stating facts and others misinterpreted that as worrying?

I'm going through some challenging health stuff but facing quite square on. People often seem to think I'm worrying (e.g. about test results) when in actuality I am just curious as to the outcome. How about you?
 
I believe worrying can be good at times, especially if it has to do with yourself. I tend to worry some, but mostly about myself, not others. Although I do care about other people, I just don't worry about them. Life has a little bit of worrying and that is fine.
 
I always worry when I'm out and about in the world.

Although I am no longer as self conscious as I was when I was much younger, I worry about encountering problems that lie outside the capacity of my coping mechanisms because this could create conflict resolution problems.

I'm reasonably comfortable at work because my Culinary Arts classroom is highly structured and I can work within the stricture of district and school policy, school law, and the state's instructional standards. Outside school when I'm running errands ... that's another matter entirely.

For example I was grocery shopping yesterday and was in line at the check out counter. The guy in front of me turned around, looked me in the eye, grinned, and asked me what I was going to do with the big bag of frozen shrimp that I had.

I was taken aback because I don't usually talk to people in a grocery line. I was momentarily startled and it didn't help that I was tired. I had put in a 13 and a half hour day, arriving at work at 6 AM and leaving at 7:30 PM. I arrived early and stayed late to get caught up on lesson plans and grading so that I wouldn't have to bring work home for the weekend.

Realizing that my mouth was probably hanging open like a gaping fish, I accessed my scripts. I could almost feel mental fingers flipping through various files ... belligerent attitude ... colleague from work ... parent of one of my students ... member of my Church (delete that file since I haven't attended church in 3 years) ... fellow volunteer (delete that file since I am not currently active in any volunteer service) ... neighbor ... terrorist attack (yes, I actually have contingencies for terrorist attacks because I lived in Saudi Arabia for 7 years and was part of the American civilian community to be trained in a workshop called, "how to survive in a terrorist environment". This workshop was conducted by counter-terrorism specialists from the U.S. State Department after terrorists attacked our military base at Khobar Towers.

I couldn't find a script for talk to stranger in the checkout line so my mental flowchart scrolled back to his question. "What are you doing with the shrimp?"

I mumbled something about shrimp scampi and he smiled, nodded, and thankfully turned around and left me alone.
 
Well, if others think you sound worried, then you probably are worrying - it doesn't matter whether you are facing the issues 'square on' or not. In fact worriers tend to plan for every contingency, because they wouldn't be worriers if they didn't think about the future.

As for test results, that's something I'm very familiar with. The more numbers and fancier jargon there are, the better - so I can relate to the curiosity aspect. I am genuinely curious. But I'm also genuinely worried, well at least right now I am.
 
Thanks Skylark - the same back to you.

I don't want to derail your thread, but yesterday my worrying turned into crashing depression, as I was fobbed off once again. The stupid thing is, my most recent blood/stool tests are positive for inflammation. But nobody wants to follow it up further, apart from me. Utterly frustrating, and I'm not letting it go: I'm suffering too much for that.

Meanwhile, I'm off to get a nice cup of tea... :-/
 
You can contact PALS if need be. Surely positive tests require action?! Best wishes (and wishing you good quality tea!)
 
Yes, this happens to me. I have a worried expression, but I'm not aware of it, then someone asks me what the matter is. Or I travel or go on holiday, I'm going to a new place, I have to catch the plane/ferry/bus/train and I'm really tense but not aware of it because I'm too busy focussing on the task at hand, and then after a few hours I get a headache and then start feeling sick and throwing up without warning, and can no longer function.
 
Skylark - You must be British if you know about PALS? Luckily it needn't come to that, 'cos the IBD nurse got back to say my consultant was booking an MRI scan. Not been given a date, but if it's anything like previous waiting times for tests it'll be about a month. Certainly hope it's no longer. Anyway, thanks for your best wishes!

I think I'm gonna have a cup of coffee now - need the extra caffeine hit. Just braindead from continual disrupted sleep (partly because of my bowels getting me up. It's better than going in the bed, but still...)
 
Skylark said:
Do you find that you are worrying without realising it? Do others point it out or say 'try not to worry' when you hadn't realised that you were? Perhaps you weren't worried but just curious about something or stating facts and others misinterpreted that as worrying?

I'm going through some challenging health stuff but facing quite square on. People often seem to think I'm worrying (e.g. about test results) when in actuality I am just curious as to the outcome. How about you?
Click to expand...
Yes I can appreciate what you are saying. It must be a trait of aspergers, although I find it useful. If I have a problem it tends to go around and around in my mind and I tend to eventually see the problem from a number of different perspectives. It does take a while though!
 
Miker - I'm not formally diagnosed but am certainly finding so much in common with other Aspies that I conclude that I am too! Quite happy to be different :)
 
Skylark said:
But my question is, do you worry without realising that you are doing it?
Click to expand...

Then I don't understand the question. If you don't realize you are worrying, then how would you know if you're worrying ... unless NiceCupOfTea has the right of it and you only learned you were worrying because others asked if you were worrying.

This question seems Zen like to me and I've never understood those types of questions.
  • What is the sound of one hand clapping?
  • If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, did it make a sound?
  • Two Taoist novices were on a road. Looking ahead, they saw two monks. "Look!" cried one, "There are the Masters!"
"Those aren't Masters," scoffed the other novice.

The first novice waved and yelled, "HELLO MASTERS!"

The monks stopped and turned around.

"See ... I told you they weren't Masters," insisted the 2nd novice.

And so the question for this story was, were the monks Masters or not? I don't have a clue.
 
Haha...yes, I mean that someone pointed out that I was worrying and I hadn't realised until they said it and I had a chance to contemplate what they'd said.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom