Just back from vacation, and my sleep depravation is over… no, not sleep deprived, sleep depraved…

A fun exchange with a colleague:

Colleague: so how was your vacation?

Me talks a bit about it and mentions sleep.

Colleague: so, how bad is it?

Me: I went to bed at ten and woke up at five.

Colleague looks confused.

Me: ten in the morning and five in the afternoon.

Colleague: shit!

Why sleep depraved/deprived/de-whatever?

No clue. Because sleep hates me? And I hate it right back?

Maybe because I was born four in the afternoon… but it’s more likely that I was born in the afternoon because my sleep cycle has always been in disarrary…

I’ve understood Aspies are good at seeing patterns (from a discussion group on the diagnosis criteria at Asperger center in Stockholm, among other sources).

The thing is I might be too good at it or seeing the wrong patterns.

Continue reading Seeing patterns →

Something very strange is going on when I hear several people talk at the same time.

I think the best way to describe it would be to say that I get a few tenth of a second of one conversation, then a few of the other, and then back to the first. It becomes a completely unintelligible noise. I don’t hear words… I guess doing it with text would be like:

John (whom I am talking to) and Peter (who’s talking to Bob on the other side of the 2×2-table island) at the same time: sdoi dwhyaotu’sk ntohwe tvheerysihoanv?e a new web site?

Me: what did you say?

John, a bit impatient, apparently not having any problem whatsoever that Peter and Bob are talking at the same time we are: what’s the version?

I’ve tested my hearing – it was perfect. Or at least good enough not to warrant any form of action.

My problem isn’t my hearing. I just can’t separate people’s voices.

At a cocktail party, this becomes an explosive and rather fantastic wall of incoherent sounds… almost like music.

That’s all fine, but when someone tries to talk to me… I am not able to say more than, “aha”, “okay” etc – I have no clue what they are talking about… I guess lip reading would be a way to go.

It does take small talk to a completely new level, though.

Before I started medicating my ADHD I was unable to work or concentrate with other people around unless I wore headphones. The problem was two fold. I was unable to filter out sounds in my surrounding, and I kept wanting to answer people’s questions, even if they were having a conversation in the other end of the room.

The first one was a problem for me which I solved with an iPod before I started medicating. After that, I was soon able to get work done even without my iPod.

Continue reading I hear everything the guys in the other end of the room are saying… →

I’m suffering from a mild form of facial blindness. I’ve understood some Aspies does, but I also think some of the cases are linked to my ADHD.

My case is not as bad that I can’t figure out who killed who in a movie, but there are cases where I’m drawing a complete blank on a person’s face.

Continue reading Facial blindness →