Rebecca's Blogs

In previous blogs I have spoken a lot about how I use Minecraft, gaming and mindfulness colouring to wind down. All of those things offer me a chance to mentally escape my worries for a brief while. However it’s not solely what would be referred to as “recreational activities” that enable one to become relaxed and calm. Depending upon our own passions and interests, certain activities that involve work and learning are very effective with allowing us to unwind as well.

As I have previously mentioned, I had no idea that I had HSAM (Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory) until I was diagnosed with it at 23 years old; nor did I know that the condition even existed until I was 21 years old. It was my firm belief that every person thought, felt and remembered in exactly the same way as I do.

Yet regardless of whether I knew about my style of memory being somewhat rare or not, there was always an activity (which I now know to be related to my HSAM) that I enjoyed doing since I was a preteen.

When I was a child in primary school teachers and staff members would say countless times “there’s no such word as can’t”. It’s perfectly true that those words can give a child (or adult) hope that something could indeed be achievable, and that extra motivation can enable us to put in more effort. However, there are also many times when an action or goal purely and simply isn’t achievable.

Over the past couple of years Rebecca has been working on a new activity or hobby which is to learn languages that are different from her first (which in her case is English).

There’s a  lot of talk and occasional criticism about how much we’re intensely relying on our computer tablets and smartphones and the negative impact it's having on social skills. However, as someone with Autism my iPad is a very important device in regards to controlling my anxiety and enabling me to get more of my career work done.

Due to my autism I naturally find change very difficult. Unexpected changes can leave me anxious so routine has always been a comfort to me, however despite feeling content with repetition, I do still become bored with it.