Autistic Widower

I’m really finding it hard to focus and make decisions Just lately, I seem to be finding it harder than ever to make the right decisions. So I thought it might be worth illustrating what I mean, by describing a small selection of my recent difficulties. I’ve chosen a few different subject areas, which have all caused considerable stress and circular thinking. There may be elements connected with a range of things, such as autism, executive dysfunction, OCD, ADHD, depression and grief.   Image drawn and photographed by the author. The Roof Box My garage is cluttered. One item in there is a roof box which hasn’t been used for two years.  In August, I decided to sell it. Then the key broke in the lock as I was preparing it and taking photos! So I put it away again and left it.  One month later, I was feeling overwhelmed by clutter once again, so I decided to take action: I would sell it on eBay, with the broken lock. Then I realised that part of one of the accessories I w...

One of the reasons why I take too long to make decisions When faced with a big decision, I try to imagine all the possible outcomes, according to every possible choice that I could make. As you can imagine, that quickly becomes overwhelming. Image drawn and photographed by the author. Often, I will end up making no decision at all, almost in the hope that the problem will go away. That rarely works, and I sometimes end up making an impulsive choice, which I will frequently come to regret. Several years ago, before I knew anything about autism, my decision-making difficulties were something that I was only vaguely aware of. I seemed to be quite good at researching all the options, and listing the pros and cons. But all too often, making the final decision would be nearly impossible, when there was no obvious answer. Although I am good at listing pros and cons, I am starting to realise that I’m not so good at recognising how much importance to assign to each of them. Having a discussion ...