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OK friends, here is my first short story of one of the issues that accompany autism. Today's topic: Sensory overload. A thread...
When I was in my early elementary school years, I often hung out at a boy named David's house after school. David and I were always in the same class, and we shared a lot of the same interests like the Blackhawks, video games and music.
One night, he and his mom took me out to dinner for my birthday. Unfortunately, I had no idea that his mom had planned a surprise cake for me. When the restaurant staff suddenly came out of nowhere with a cake and candles and started singing to me, I became SO frightened.
I immediately hid underneath the table booth and refused to come up. Now, I wasn't doing it to make a scene or be funny, even if David thought so. It's just that I was legitimately scared and overwhelmed because of the sensory overload that came without warning.
Now, we had no idea at the time that I was on the spectrum, so we didn't know any better than to avoid this incident. (I should note that David later embarrassed me even further in front of the whole class by sharing that story in his journal.)
But this is why I HATE being sang to on my birthday. If we ever go out to dinner for it, I refuse to tell the waiters it's my birthday because I don't want a repeat of the same scenario. --End thread.
