Relaxation is important to all of us. At the end of a busy day, taking some time out is essential to recharge our batteries so we are fresh for the next day. However, my brain is different. It is on the go all the time.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

1. Relaxation: I cannot relax spending time around people and socialising. For me, relaxation requires me to be alone. It is not that I don’t enjoy spending time with people, because I do. When I am on my own, I don’t have to work hard thinking about what to say in conversations which tires me out. However, it is easier being around family and friends as they don’t have the expectations that people who don’t know me as well would.
2. My Special Interests: I cannot relax in a quiet room either; my brain always wants to be absorbing information. My interests are important to me for relaxation. When I relax doing something I enjoy, my brain can keep going, because I am immersed in my special interests. I can also talk for hours about my interests. When I am in a quiet environment such as a library, I get bored, and it does not help me concentrate. So I love to learn with some background noise such as white noise or nature sounds. I also like the TV or music turned down low; it helps me focus.
3. Scripting: I replay conversations in my head. This is where I think about all the conversations I have had throughout the day. I replay them and analyse whether I think I have understood the situations correctly, and plan what to say in future conversations. I think ahead, working out what I could say and what someone could say back to me so I am prepared. I don’t always get everything to go the way I want, even though I do this, because the other person does not stick to the ‘script’ as I had imagined they would. This is called scripting; there is also something similar called echolalia. Autistic scripting is when autists use pre-learned phrases that we have memorised from previous conversations, movies, TV shows or books and use them in our new conversations. Autistic echolalia is when we repeat these phrases back almost immediately, or after a brief delay, like an echo. My son communicates using echolalia all the time.
4. Goals: I think about my interests when I am moving through my day. What I want to learn next, where I want to be, and what I want to achieve. Sometimes I reach my goals with my interests, but some of my goals can be unachievable. However, it is good to have goals; otherwise, none of us would do anything.
5. Catastrophising: I tend to catastrophize different situations. This is where I think the worst-case scenario will happen. The worst-case scenario never happens, but I waste a lot of brain energy thinking it will. Catastrophising is common in autism and results from being anxious about a situation. I need to be mindful, and change my thoughts so that the outcome I think of is more realistic.