Tangled Wires and Tears: How a Heart Monitor Triggered an Autistic Meltdown
I’ve been awake since 4:30am.
Not by choice.
Sensory overwhelm and Autistic meltdown are not a fun way to start the day. To be honest, it’s embarrassing, even when I’m the only when to witness it. How weird is that? To be embarrassed by yourself? But it’s true.
I’m an intelligent, responsible, grown adult, generally quite capable at handling what life throws at me. And yet, I can be brought to my knees by the annoyance of having to wear a Holter heart monitor for 2 weeks. Icky sticky tabs on my skin 24/7. Ridiculously long wires that I get tangled in, disconnect from the monitor way too easily, and get caught on everything. The need to wear different clothing than I normally would to accommodate the device. It sounds a bit annoying, but doesn’t sound like much does it? I agree. Rational me, the me that is embarrassed by the Autistic me says, “Suck it up. It’s important. It’s not a big deal. Just deal with it.” I’m pretty sure most people would feel that way.
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But Autistic me is aware, every second of every day of every foreign feeling of this itchy, irritating device. I made it 3 days before the first…