Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Autism And Changing Plans (Store Changing Shelves😓)

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Autism And Changing Plans (Store Changing Shelves😓) · Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD

• 0:00
  So autism and changing plans. Hey, guys, welcome back to the
• 0:09
  aspy world. My name is Dan.
• 0:11
  I have autism, ADHDOCD and dyslexia, and I make weekly
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  videos on this type of stuff. Guys, what's going on?
• 0:17
  Welcome back. Different thinkers to the place
• 0:18
  where we think differently daily.
• 0:19
  What is going on? I'm your host, Dan, from the
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  aspy world. Yeah, Weird, isn't it?
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  Be back now. Christmas is all done.
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  Everything's over and done with now.
• 0:27
  Oh gosh, that was crazy 2021. So moving past the fact that,
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  you know, 2020 was crazy and 2021 shaping up to be quite an
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  interesting challenge. I had an interesting experience
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  and I wanted to share that experience with you guys due to
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  the fact that, you know, it's it was caused directly because I'm
• 0:46
  on the autism spectrum and how does this impact me and all this
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  kind of stuff. So if you are new to me and you
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  haven't already downloaded my free Autism Life Hacks PDF book,
• 0:54
  you can do right now at autismhacks.net.
• 0:57
  Go ahead and dealt right now. Super dope.
• 0:59
  OK, so guys, autism and changing plans.
• 1:01
  Now let's let's just break it down really quickly.
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  Autistic people do not cope well with changing routines, changing
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  plans. Things change.
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  Change is a scary thing for anybody, but especially people
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  on the autism spectrum. Why, you may ask?
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  Because people on the autism spectrum like to have things in
• 1:18
  a certain order, in a certain way.
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  That they can routinely do those things over and over again.
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  Because routine gives people stability and security and that
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  comfortable feeling where they know that nothing crazy is going
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  to happen because the world is chaotic.
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  A person with an autism spectrum disorder sees the world as a
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  chaotic kind of bright and brilliant mess sometimes, and
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  that is overwhelming. Overloading.
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  Cause meltdowns, shutdowns, overloads, burn, you name it.
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  So when you have a set of things that you like to do repetitively
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  in a routine, and you know what to expect, you know everything's
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  going to be fine and you enjoy those things, then why wouldn't
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  you feel comfortable around those things?
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  It's a no brainer. But if those plans suddenly
• 2:01
  change, it changes the whole stratosphere of existence.
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  It's kind of like having, you know, having dominoes all laid
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  out perfectly. And then somebody, like, kicks
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  them and they just start going off and like, Oh my goodness,
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  you know, nothing's going to happen.
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  Now you've changed it, you've clicked the domino, and
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  something crazy catastrophic is going to happen.
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  That is kind of like the experience of changing plans
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  now. I wanted specifically to talk
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  today about stores like I went to the store the other day.
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  I was confronted with a problem which I have been faced with a
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  couple of times before, but I've never experienced it in this
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  certain store. The issues the issue I have is
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  this. When I go to the store, I know
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  where things are. I've been to the store a few
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  times and because of the Coronavirus pandemic, I'm being
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  the only person who was kind of like nominated to go outside of
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  my house because my girlfriend was shielding and we had a
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  little child. He's only two.
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  So they were in the house and I was nominated to go to the store
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  with the mask on and do that kind of thing because I was the
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  healthiest kind of, you know, candidate to go out.
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  So normally we go shopping together because when I do my
• 3:01
  grocery store shopping, we go as a family and Naomi helps me do
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  the things that, you know, navigate around the store and
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  not get too worked up. But going out my own has been
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  quite a challenge and a difficult thing.
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  So I'm going out to the store with a difficult kind of like,
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  you know, straight from the get go, I'm like, OK, I'm going to
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  go and do this. I get my trolley and I go into
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  the store now for a while. It's been kind of interesting,
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  right? I've been kind of getting to
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  know where the things are in the store because I've been walking
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  around the store, you know, first time took me a couple of
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  hours and now it takes me about an hour.
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  So I went to the store that I normally go to called little
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  where I get a lot of fruit and veg from.
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  So I go to little and they have a nice organic section.
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  So it's kind of cool. So I go in there and as soon as
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  I go in the front door, everything's changed.
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  They've changed the, they changed the the layout of the
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  sorry guys, they changed the layout of when you first go in,
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  all the shelves were changed over, you know?
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  Sorry guys, what happened? Then there was a that was a tick
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  happening because I was nervous about talking about this, So
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  please bear with me. And they changed all the, they
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  changed all of the the shelves on the, the left hand side and
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  the right hand side. And the shop was basically
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  upside down. And I was like, oh, no, where do
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  I go? Do I go, Do I go?
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  And it took me a while to find my bearings.
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  But what happened is when I went in there, I was like instantly
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  shocked, like, oh, my goodness, you know, where's things?
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  I started to kind of think, oh, OK, well.
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  And then I tried to think logically about it.
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  And as I went deeper into the store, it kind of just got to me
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  and I started panicking and I started worrying and I wasn't
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  really dealing with it very well.
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  Well, and I missed out a bunch of things off my list.
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  And if it wasn't for the fact that I knew somebody who was
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  working on the tills, I think it would have ended pretty badly.
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  Now what did happen is I started, you know, panicking
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  really, really bad. Panicking.
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  Started having anxiety then because I was thinking like, oh,
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  my goodness, I can't find all these things where they've gone.
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  They've changed the shop around everything.
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  So we ruined. I can't do this.
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  And then I and then my stomach started hurting.
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  And I don't know if you guys have GI issues because of
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  anxiety and stress and things like that.
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  So my stomach was like just crippling.
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  I was like, oh, you know, I could, I was just like, Oh my
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  goodness, I'm going to die. And so then I had to buy some
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  nuts and a bottle of water to then eat and drink because I
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  needed to kind of calm myself down and calm my stomach down.
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  That feeling left me feeling hungover for the rest of the
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  day. I felt kind of like I was on a
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  an emotional hangover because it was such a roller coaster, you
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  know going to the shop expecting one thing and then the whole
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  thing has changed and you've you've finished a different
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  thing. And I was just like Oh my
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  goodness, like what the heck has just happened, you know And that
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  is is scary, you know, like it's it's scary because I was on my
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  own and and I didn't I didn't know what to do and I was just
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  lucky that my friend worked on the till really.
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  But in terms of like autism and changing plans, it's so
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  difficult to deal with, especially when stores change
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  stuff around, you know, like I I have the biggest issue with
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  that. And I wish they didn't change
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  things around or I wish they would just like alert people who
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  are on the spectrum, like, you know, maybe work with the
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  National Autistic Society or somebody where they put an alert
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  out saying, hey, your local store has changed its layout
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  before you go there. So you can see the layout change
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  something that would just help, you know?
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  And it just really did throw me. And and I don't like that that
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  wasn't, you know, it didn't take kindly to it.
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  And I'm kind of like nervous now to go to that store in case they
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  change it around again and hopefully they won't because
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  they've never changed it. And then all of a sudden they
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  changed it. You know, I would have even
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  preferred a new store, like just build a new store because I
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  didn't know. OK, well, it's a new store.
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  I know that I'm going to expect not to have the same things that
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  I've always thought about this store.
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  So that was kind of like my, my biggest issue with that.
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  But it is what it is. I'd love to know what your
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  opinions are and do you get those issues?
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  And I just, I just found it. Yeah.
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  It's just, it just fascinates me that this people can just do
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  that and then just think, oh, yeah, that's fine.
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  Just going to change everything around.
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  Everything will be fine. Also the parents, you know what
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  I'm talking about autistic people.
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  You feel my pain? Guys, I'm gonna go.