Peopling

 There are many terms I’ve learned that relate to autism in my journey to self awareness as an autistic individual.

Masking, social interaction, stimming etc. I’ve read many things about these terms and think I have a good understanding about their definitions. As with all things , my understanding of the world around me doesn’t always make a connection in my mind as to how it may pertain to me.

The definition of a thing may be easily remembered but recognizing that condition in myself isn’t always as easy.

As an autistic individual I can struggle with social interaction. When I 1st looked at that term I thought about how I might socially interact with someone away from work in a “casual”situation. 

I’ve learned that social interaction is actually every interaction with a person or persons. This definition may seem very clear to others but my autistic mind tried to think of how this term pertains to other people , not myself.

I’ve used a term of my own for many years now I refer to as peopling (dealing with people). I’ve come to recognize that what I call peopling is in fact social interaction. Seems a simple connection but not for an autistic mind. 

I was texting with my wife last night and used that term . I’ve been training a new person at work and helping get work orders caught up in an area other than the one I’ve been assigned. This has caused me to have to do a lot of peopling lately.

Peopling (social interaction) takes a toll on me. I recognize this morning that I am in a place that could lead to an autistic meltdown but that’s not the point of this post.

Terms and definitions are just words to me. Another person’s thoughts about any word can vary vastly .How I interact with the world is based on thought , not language. I very often don’t understand what language is describing in a psychological way.

I have to connect a lot of dots that others don’t.