"All by myself"

What is going on and who do I talk to?

I don’t mean to brag, but I have been socially isolating since before it went viral. (I am very sorry). These days can feel like they weren’t made for anyone – where the basic promises of acquiring bog roll are now a sought after good.

The response isn’t chaotic, a rioting parade bombarding voices like bullets in a gun. Our usual, primordial attack of harrowing as a collective is the very thing we have to avoid for the sake of species safety. Our plan of attack isn’t dopamine fulled or rewarding by any means, where it seems that the valor of life can no longer be expressed via playing team sports, group dinners, hugging a person tightly, or gnawing at dairymilk’s jumbo bar (actually, I take that one back).

Its silence is painful, stoic, controlled, where we always seem to be one swipe away from shouting into a cushion, to then return to social media for a subsequent dose of connection.

It is weird, and you will feel futile, out of place, and out of sync. Disorientated. As if google maps dropped you in the middle of the M4 motorway. You will be upset and will quite often feel disheartened. Believe me, the amount of energy I have had to spend on not taking it personally could probably support the national grid.

It is times like these that we need to be as equipped as possible, physically and mentally. Having made a manual of how to live as an autistic human in a neurotypical world, I have noticed that I can now use it in it’s entirety to help us get through any situation – pandemic and all. Loosing heart just isn’t an option in my books (literally).

Ladies and gentleman – In this blog I will use the book ‘Explaining humans’ as my guide, because let’s face it…….these are the times it was made for.

To help make sense of our environment.

I shall baptize this blog as ‘ The Corona Diaries’, because “Stayin’ alive” still feels a little bit too tender. I will assess the things I personally found/find hard, such as routine, life on halt, anxiety, cabin fever, focus, and feeling in a constant state of limbo and futility and social isolation to name a few. You will be surprised to hear that neurodiverse individuals feel this level of anxiety pretty much everyday. It can raise many questions living like this, but it can also give you the power to answer them.

THE MANUAL – https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/314264/explaining-humans/9780241409602.html

I will quote bits and the main principles from the book so you can use it to help you from this blog alone ❤

PLEASE feel free to update me on what you find hard. This is new data, which I will try and make sense of that too – and if I can’t then ……..that makes two of us!

Trust me, we need this hyper-logical yet emotionally considered benchmark to ground us in the working from home limbo. It will provide the compass that you need, to make the most of your days, and most importantly will help you feel free.