Hi Everyone,
I, Michael Lettman, would like to explain a little something about my experience with my Touching habit (with a little help I've had with this by Ms. Heather Lifland).
My Touching habit is almost a big topic for me and I suspect other people that have Autism struggle with this topic. Because it is something that I deal with almost every day I think it is important to talk about it openly. I am hoping that if it is discussed more people will understand people with Autism.
As we all know, people with Autism usually have sensitive senses.
I'm going to talk about a few questions that I was asked. I thought a lot about the answers so that I can completely explain.
How you're affected by noise and touch? What do sounds and touch feel like for you?
I have a touching habit that I despise very much. I have a very hard time touching something, anything, only one time. I can imagine that most of you do not have that habit. I wish I could stop. When I touch something I touch it again and again until I eventually stop. When I let go of something in my hands, my insides somehow don't feel comfortable so I touch it again until my insides feel better and then I let it go. I don't like this habit because it makes it hard to touch something once and it is hard letting go of it after I touch it once. I feel it is a waste of time. Interestingly enough, at the same time, somehow it feels comfortable on the inside doing and touching something once. So hopefully I will learn to conquer this habit and focus on touching something once which is the right thing to do.
I also used to touch someone's arm for example, my former teacher Ms. Lifland because I like the texture of it. Texture is very enjoyable with my touching habit (only if it's smooth). I also touched a few arms of others in my program but I managed to stop because it was inappropriate and uncomfortable for them. I'm glad I learned my lesson about that and even though I missed the texture, I know what I did was definitely "UNACCEPTABLE" so I think I can get over it. Unfortunately I still touched a few arms of those in my family but even though nothing much happened I think I still have much to learn about this habit of mine if I'm gonna learn better with this habit & completely learned my lesson.
My goal can be involved for people without Autism to understand how we feel and for people who have Autism to feel like they aren't alone.
This was my video for this topic, Please Enjoy!