One of the features of autism is rigid thinking and I have certainly had issues with this over the course of my life. Recently I have been obsessed with reaching a set target weight in my weight loss endeavours. I was told by a doctor when I was in my teens that this weight was my ‘perfect’ weight. It also had the appeal of knowing that I’d be able to say that I’d lost a total of 10 stone. What I found myself doing was deliberately sabotaging my eating as I sought what I saw as perfection. I have to accept that I’m older now and have a lot of loose skin from being morbidly obese, it’s just not a realistic goal anymore. I have adjusted my target weight and now only have another 6.5lbs to lose to attain it. I may find myself losing a bit more but I’ve taken the pressure off and I no longer feel the need to self sabotage.
My daughter, who also has autism is very set on the age of films she will watch. She thinks that any film made before the year 2000 isn’t worth watching. I keep telling her that she is missing out on some wonderful films but she is adamant that anything before this date is ‘rubbish’.
A couple of months ago I found myself doing something similar. I tended to dismiss animated films/TV shows as not worth watching. I think years of watch Disney/Pixar when the girls were younger had taken it’s toll. My husband has been interested in Japanese anime for a while now and suggested watching a series called Attack on Titan. I really wasn’t keen to try it – after all it was a ‘childish cartoon’ but unusually for me I decided to give a few episodes a go.
After two episodes I was hooked. Attack on Titan was very definitely not for children, in fact some scenes were traumatising for me. What struck me was how deep the story and characterisations were. The writing was phenomenal and completely different from anything I’d seen or heard of before. I hadn’t experienced much of Japanese culture before this and I was fascinated. The storylines were also very different from anything read before. I have often thought that films reuse ideas from previous films far to often. For me anime was a something entirely new and exciting.
Anime has fast become a new special interest for me. I’ve just started watching my fourth new series last night. It’s great to have a new interest that I can share with my husband. This has definitely been a learning experience for me and I intend to try other things that hitherto I’ve dismissed.
Attack on Titan
My Faulty Brain 