Skip to main content

Scripting

I have heard that autistic people do something called "scripting". It is a coping strategy that one can use in the proper context in response to something someone says.
I had never thought about this, but I've done it over the course of my life. I've used mainly lines from movies such as.Forrest Gump, which still remains my favorite movie 24 years on.
Recently, I've added vocabulary from one of my favorite TV shows, The Goldbergs. If my sibling tries to trick  me into believing something is true (in a good way), my response might be "Yeah, that's not a thing." I pull from movies like Office Space as well. I am told I do a good impression of Milton Wadams demanding his stapler.
Knowing the proper time in which to script is something I've learned to refine over time. I learn by repetition, so binge watching a TV show or watching a movie several times in a row helps me to learn the situations and conversations and how to contextualize.
 Sometimes, I want to joke. Imagine paddle boating with your sibling on a tranquil day at the lake. A pontoon comes near and I pull this: "I don't want your giant box of porn, Andy!" (From The 40 Year Old Virgin) Autistic people are capable of being deliberately inappropriate for laughs. In retrospect, I should have made sure there weren't any kids on board!
I'm still trying to come up with something when I am beginning to experience sensory overload, but my mind gets so tense that there is little space in which to think at all.
When this happens, the best thing I can do is repeat the name of my special interest over and over, stim and/or focus on escaping.
If you are reading this today, I hope you will go and vote. What happens to all minority groups depends on who we put in office.


Popular posts from this blog

My autistic brain

Profile of a face with a rainbow colored brain. Personal autism attributes in various colors font. Since I am a visually oriented thinker, pictures come before words. Words flow easier if I can create an image or images first. Here is one case in point. I am very grateful for PixTeller.com for providing the royalty free images and designing capability.

I wasn’t meant to be a primary caregiver

As I have mentioned in posts over the last 2 years, my mom passed away 2.5 years ago. Caring for her in her final months was difficult, but doing it as an autistic person 5 days in a row the first couple weeks was impossible. She was in the end stages of pulmonary fibrosis. She weighed 70 pounds and was gradually withdrawing from eating and drinking. She had reached the point where she was scared to be alone. For. A. Single. Instant. I tried to tell my family that this much intensive care for 5 days straight was too much. I couldn't process it. There was no fresh supply of spoons and I was on auxiliary power. I have recently become acquainted with the Spoon Theory. Here is Wikipedia's definition: of the s poon theory: "The   spoon theory   is a disability metaphor used to explain the   reduced amount of energy   available for activities of daily living and productive tasks that may result from disability or chronic illness." Maybe they thought because

Questioning the current autism spectrum model

Color wheel. Concept: autism spectrum redefined. Can an autistic person be both high and low functioning? Is this even the right question to ask? I've heard the term "high-functioning" and "low-functioning" used for autism for nearly two decades, when I was first diagnosed. I am not offended by the terms, but  confused  by them. What is in question? IQ? EQ? verbal and social skills? How about coping with co-morbids and sensory processing disorder? The autism spectrum is often seen as linear, with "low functioning" being at one end and "high functioning" being at the other. This is one dimensional and I think, misleading. My IQ has been tested in adulthood twice. Each time, I scored 110, considered a B+ grade. Intellectually, I could say I'm high-functioning. I can speak, though I sometimes have to stop and think about what I have to say or wind up repeating words while I try and think about what ones I want to use. I do well with wr