Me, Asperger's and sensory overload - noise

Today's blog is all about how noise affects me and my Asperger's. It is called Sensory Overload. I am going to give the example of last Thursday, when I had to go to bed with an overload of chatter.

Last Thursday my uncle on my mum's side came over for a couple of hours. He has a loud voice anyway, but that day he forgot his hearing aids, so it was even louder and my mum had to raise her voice so he could hear her. Even with the kitchen door closed to, I could still hear the chatter going on. Now and then I would try concentrating on things I wanted to do such as typing, or walk from room to room, or go upstairs to get away from it. But after two hours of hearing it, my head started to go fuzzy and then finally spinning round inside. I knew then that I couldn't take any more, so I did what I don't like doing; going to bed when we have a visitor. I had no choice. I went to bed and shed a few tears because it upset me, feeling anti-social to my uncle.

My mum later told me that my uncle had asked her if it was in my head. My mum replied that no, it was how my brain is and can't take a lot of noise, esp loud ones.

So, here are my tips to coping with noise overload:

1. Try to concentrate on other things such as reading or writing. Things that take your mind away from the chatter.

2. Go in the garden for some air, if it's not too cold.

3. Go upstairs for a few minutes to get a breather.

4. You could tell your relative that their voice is proving too much for you, please calm it down.

5. Shut a door to the noise, but tell people what you are doing first and why

6. If it all fails, then go up to your room and stay there.

I hope that this gives people some insight to people coping with noise and overload of it, and how others with Asperger's can cope with it.

How I am becoming a better birdwatcher

Ever since I have been at home full-time, I have taken more of an interest in what goes on in our garden, esp the garden birds. Now that I have started writing about them seriously, I have been reading bird magazines and have become a better birdwatcher. The past couple of weeks I have been tweeting what birds I have seen in my garden, when I have been there and through my binoculars, but then I read a piece by Bill Oddie saying that to become a better birdwatcher you need to record in writing what birds they are, what they are like etc. So, this last week I have been scribbling down what birds I've seen, what they eat, their colours, and their calls. This has made me a better birdwatcher. So much so, that I now want to buy better and more professional binoculars, and I bought a book of birds round the world. Writing down all the birds I've seen and what they do, will form an article that I want to write and email to a magazine later this week.

So, that is how I am becoming a better birdwatcher. Do you watch birds in your garden? Do you use binoculars? If you use bin's, what make you do recommend? At the moment I only have cheap ones but need better ones to see more clearly. Let me know.