I was diagnosed at a young age and went through the special education system in public schools. Family is incredibly important to me as I grew up in a large supportive family. I enjoy being outside in nature and arts and crafts.
View all postsMissing Context and misunderstanding
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I really struggle to understand other people’s feelings and expectations. Part of the reason is because I sometimes miss a lot of context, for instance, reading body language and facial expressions. Understanding both of those isn’t easy since it happens so fast and I miss a lot of it. The best explanation I can give is trying to understand what someone is saying on a bad cellphone signal when they’re trying to give directions. This situation oftentimes causes frustration on both sides and can cause misunderstandings to happen.
Because of this, I often find that I try to fill in the parts I miss with knowledge from past experiences. This can lead to problems since it’s easy to misunderstand what’s going on or get confused regarding the situation. This causes me to be slower in reacting to conversations or directions. I think this is why my reactions are slower than most of my peers.
For example, in school I often got confused regarding what was expected for homework. My mom would help me by explaining what I needed to do. Occasionally she would need to get a hold of my teacher for important project criteria. I still struggle sometimes when I don’t understand what a person is talking about and I have to admit that I don’t understand them. If the person has trouble explaining it another way, it can be uncomfortable for both of us and sometimes lead to further misunderstanding.
Why does this happen? People express their feelings and expectations in many ways. They usually want to be understood without explanation; this expectation can lead to misunderstandings and miscommunication. What can I do about it? I try my best to avoid distractions by paying attention and if I don’t understand, I ask for clarification. Sometimes when I ask for an explanation of the situation, someone might not be able to help at that time. Sometimes they don’t know what’s going on either and can’t explain the situation. Oftentimes this occurs because they are reacting without a lot of thought or understanding.
It’s good to be aware that I can easily misunderstand what is going on. This means I need to pay attention to my reactions and thoughts too. This is very important because it’s easy to jump to faulty conclusions. I can easily get upset or angry when no offense was intended.
On the other hand, I often miss things when people are being passive aggressive or subtlely mean to me. It takes me a while to catch on to them. I get angry later wishing I would have responded in the moment which leaves me unsure of what to do and feeling upset. I really struggle with how to react to those instances. I would love to have some easy go-to answers but I don’t since there are so many unknowns to every experience. I’m hopeful that you can understand and relate to what I write; I thank my readers for taking the time to read my blogs. As always, wishing you the best in all of your endeavors.
Out-of-Sync Woman
