Well I am writing this rant as maybe a way to understand am I really a HOARDER; and is it to do with my having Asperger's. I was told yet again, by my female friend, that I have Asperger's.
Her 23yo son whom has temporarily come back to live with us, says I am a Hoarder, and ALL the stuff I have is junk, and should go to the tip. I could make excuses to deflect his comment, but he is partly correct; only in so far as, I have a collected items that have/had value; or are needed or could successfully be used for the ongoing house renovation and 'rebuilding' the hot house and garden make over.
A huge issue is I don't actually have any reasonable undercover area or shed to put the items, and much is stacked up along the driveway, or by the side of house in plain view. Sadly he is NOT practical in any physical way, so I just cannot get him to appreciate what different items are going to be used for.
VERY interested in getting a lot of feedback and comments, from all here please. I would really appreciate this not just being a 'read' post !!
So I though I look up the current definitions on both 'labels' I had been given, and came up with the following.
Symptoms of Asperger syndrome
More males than females are diagnosed with Asperger syndrome or ASD. While every person who has the condition will experience different symptoms and severity of symptoms, some of the more common characteristics include:
average or above-average intelligence
difficulties with high-level language skills such as verbal reasoning, problem solving, making inferences and predictions
difficulties in empathising with others
problems with understanding another person’s point of view
difficulties engaging in social routines such as conversations and ‘small talk’
problems with controlling feelings such as anger, depression and anxiety
a preference for routines and schedules which can result in stress or anxiety if a routine is disrupted
specialised fields of interest or hobbies.
The following career suggestions are adapted from material written by Temple Grandin, who has high-functioning autism and is a professor at Colorado University, USA. Suggestions include:
computer programming
drafting
commercial art
photography
equipment design
mechanic
appliance repair
handcraft artisan
webpage designer
video game designer
building maintenance
building trades.
I found it interesting that Computer Programming was top of list of suggested jobs; and that having 'specialised fields of interest or hobbies" as a symptom sign.
And I do wonder are those people that take the countless selfie pics and spend most of their spare time and part of their work time on likes of Facebook and like social media sites considered "Normal", by the professionals that diagnose that create these 'labels' ?.
As to me, well I do see some similarities in the above Symptoms list, but I certainly don't have difficulty problem solving in technical fields.
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As to the Hoarding I found the following:-
Hoarding disorder is a persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions because of a perceived need to save them. A person with hoarding disorder experiences distress at the thought of getting rid of the items. Excessive accumulation of items, regardless of actual value, occurs.
Ok so the perceived need seems to be the key point.
So that fact that I have 45,000 IEC power cords, because I hope to get that many vintage computers is that excessive ? No. ((I actually have about 80 cables, and by end of Jan 2017, I will have cabled up all of computers, test instruments and like, and will then only keep 5 or 6 spares.
Same goes for all the other cable styles.
I DO have TOO many cables and am currently putting them and a lot of items, containing Copper, Brass, Aluminium, batteries etc into a trailer, to take to convert to cash at the metal scrap yard. However it not a 10min down road journey, its 45 mins each way, plus fuel cost, and price of scrap has been very low in recent months, so I have been yes Hoarding sellable scrap I have.
I know I am active in downsizing, but one quandary I have is, I am on a limited income, so do I try and spend time and effort to get items operational to sell or just scrap the parts today, for maybe what would turn out in end a similar price that I may take a year to realize.
Well that a start for this post.
So over to you all for comments, good and bad.
Her 23yo son whom has temporarily come back to live with us, says I am a Hoarder, and ALL the stuff I have is junk, and should go to the tip. I could make excuses to deflect his comment, but he is partly correct; only in so far as, I have a collected items that have/had value; or are needed or could successfully be used for the ongoing house renovation and 'rebuilding' the hot house and garden make over.
A huge issue is I don't actually have any reasonable undercover area or shed to put the items, and much is stacked up along the driveway, or by the side of house in plain view. Sadly he is NOT practical in any physical way, so I just cannot get him to appreciate what different items are going to be used for.
VERY interested in getting a lot of feedback and comments, from all here please. I would really appreciate this not just being a 'read' post !!
So I though I look up the current definitions on both 'labels' I had been given, and came up with the following.
Symptoms of Asperger syndrome
More males than females are diagnosed with Asperger syndrome or ASD. While every person who has the condition will experience different symptoms and severity of symptoms, some of the more common characteristics include:
average or above-average intelligence
difficulties with high-level language skills such as verbal reasoning, problem solving, making inferences and predictions
difficulties in empathising with others
problems with understanding another person’s point of view
difficulties engaging in social routines such as conversations and ‘small talk’
problems with controlling feelings such as anger, depression and anxiety
a preference for routines and schedules which can result in stress or anxiety if a routine is disrupted
specialised fields of interest or hobbies.
The following career suggestions are adapted from material written by Temple Grandin, who has high-functioning autism and is a professor at Colorado University, USA. Suggestions include:
computer programming
drafting
commercial art
photography
equipment design
mechanic
appliance repair
handcraft artisan
webpage designer
video game designer
building maintenance
building trades.
I found it interesting that Computer Programming was top of list of suggested jobs; and that having 'specialised fields of interest or hobbies" as a symptom sign.
And I do wonder are those people that take the countless selfie pics and spend most of their spare time and part of their work time on likes of Facebook and like social media sites considered "Normal", by the professionals that diagnose that create these 'labels' ?.
As to me, well I do see some similarities in the above Symptoms list, but I certainly don't have difficulty problem solving in technical fields.
=======
As to the Hoarding I found the following:-
Hoarding disorder is a persistent difficulty discarding or parting with possessions because of a perceived need to save them. A person with hoarding disorder experiences distress at the thought of getting rid of the items. Excessive accumulation of items, regardless of actual value, occurs.
Ok so the perceived need seems to be the key point.
So that fact that I have 45,000 IEC power cords, because I hope to get that many vintage computers is that excessive ? No. ((I actually have about 80 cables, and by end of Jan 2017, I will have cabled up all of computers, test instruments and like, and will then only keep 5 or 6 spares.
Same goes for all the other cable styles.
I DO have TOO many cables and am currently putting them and a lot of items, containing Copper, Brass, Aluminium, batteries etc into a trailer, to take to convert to cash at the metal scrap yard. However it not a 10min down road journey, its 45 mins each way, plus fuel cost, and price of scrap has been very low in recent months, so I have been yes Hoarding sellable scrap I have.
I know I am active in downsizing, but one quandary I have is, I am on a limited income, so do I try and spend time and effort to get items operational to sell or just scrap the parts today, for maybe what would turn out in end a similar price that I may take a year to realize.
Well that a start for this post.
So over to you all for comments, good and bad.