| How to Recognize Anxiety if You're Autistic Posted: 28 Nov 2017 04:00 PM PST Autistic people may experience alexithymia, or an inability to identify and understand one's own emotions. This can make life difficult, especially if you are prone to stress or have an anxiety disorder. Here are ways to tell if you are experiencing anxiety. EditPhysical Symptoms If you suspect stress, stop for a moment. Examine your body and evaluate symptoms. - Check your facial expression. Look in a mirror, or feel your facial muscles and imagine how your face looks. Consider comparing it to drawings of faces with different emotions. Does your expression look tense, scared, or angry?
- Consider your stims. When you are stressed, you may naturally begin using stims to calm you down (such as putting things in your mouth or rocking). Self-calming stims are different for each autistic person, so it's important to learn your individual stims and what they mean. Here are some examples of stims that may feel calming to you:
- Rocking or spinning[1][2]
- Deep pressure stims[3] (squeezing, hugging, placing heavy things on self)
- Repeating words, sounds, phrases (echolalia)[4]
- Using the mouth (gum, candy, mouthing non-food objects)
- Using stims that are less subtle in public situations
- Feel your stomach. Stomachaches can arise from stress. This can be tricky to identify, because you must first rule out other possibilities:
- Did you eat lately? Have you eaten enough within the last 24 hours? Is it possible that you went to bed hungry?
- Are you on your period, or is it due?
- Is there a stomach bug going around? There is a slight chance that it may be a flu.
- Did you eat something different? For example, if you tried spicy bean soup, the beans might have irritated your stomach. This sort of pain can be piercing, but is temporary.
- Look for pain in your head (especially forehead), neck, and back. Headaches are a common stress symptom. Anxiety can form tense, painful knots in the back of your neck. You may also feel a sore back, as if you lifted something too heavy. Sometimes, stress will also make it easier to injure your back when lifting things.
- Think about your appetite. Have you lost your appetite during situations when you are normally eating, or do you find yourself eating a lot? Are you using gum, candies, or vitamin drops as an attempt to prevent overeating?
- Reflect on how well you have been sleeping. Stress may cause you to oversleep, or to experience trouble sleeping. Here are various examples of sleeping trouble that stress causes:
- Trouble falling asleep
- Waking up during the night
- Trouble getting comfortable; rolling around a lot
- Waking up before your alarm clock (Note: sometimes this will happen if your body adjusts to a rigid schedule, so this alone may not be a problem)
- Nightmares
- If you sleep with a partner, they may report something unusual about your sleep
- See if your friends or family members notice anything different. It may be difficult for you to tell, especially if you have trouble figuring out what others are thinking. Here are some signs that they've noticed something is wrong:
- They're helping you more, or being more careful with you.
- They ask you if something is wrong.
- They're offering support: "Is there anything I can do to help?" "Let me know if you need to talk, okay? I'm here for you."
- They look worried about you.
- (Remember, some people will do some or all of these naturally, such as always offering to help. See if this happens more than usual, or feels out of the ordinary to you.)
- Learn how to recognize the signs of a panic attack. Panic attacks are when you have severe anxiety that causes incapacitating physical symptoms, sometimes completely out of the blue. If you get panic attacks, tell a doctor so you can get medical help. Here are a few of the many potential symptoms:[5]
- Sweaty
- Pounding heart (heart palpitations)
- Confusion
- Breathing too hard/rapidly (hyperventilating)
- Dizziness, lightheadedness, or "pins and needles" in extremities (from hyperventilation)
- Fear that you are dying[6]
EditMental Symptoms After considering your body, evaluate your own thoughts. Reflect on what you were just thinking about before you stopped. - Do you feel powerless or small? If you are anxious, you may feel that you have no control over what happens, and that you can't protect yourself or others from bad events.
- Feeling powerless or overwhelmed may also be a sign of an oncoming meltdown or shutdown.
- Were you just thinking about something bad? If you were imagining how to respond to a negative situation, or worrying about something that could happen, this could make you stressed.
- Is something bad going on, or did something bad just happen? (See the next section.)
- Were you perseverating on a problem?
- Were you thinking about a difficult situation or relationship in your life?
- Were you thinking about a group of people who upset you, like racists or anti-autism organizations?
- Are you perseverating? Perseverating isn't always a bad thing, but it can be trouble if it hinders forward progress, or if it is making you upset.[7] If you are perseverating on a problem—getting "stuck in a rut" and having trouble snapping out of it—this can be a sign of anxiety.[8]
- See if you keep on focusing on "what if" ideas. A little "what ifs" can lead to creative problem-solving, but if you cannot rein them in, you have a problem.[9] Focusing too much on the future can prevent you from staying calm in the present. Here are some examples of thoughts that can overtake you.
- "What do I do if my social skills prevent me from holding down this job? How will I support a husband and kids someday?" (what ifs)
- "How am I ever going to get my degree in time? I don't have the organization skills for a side job yet!" (hows)
- "I can't believe I forgot the homework for the second time this month! I'm a terrible student! Maybe I'm too disabled for college after all..." (spiral of faulty logic)
- See if you are "clinging" to a person, or staying in a certain area. You may stick to a place or person because they feel safe to you, and feel anxious about leaving them. (If this is a pattern, it may be agoraphobia.[10])
- Following around a person (This includes constantly trailing behind your dad or big sister to avoid your homework. Just because they don't mind doesn't mean it's a good pattern.)
- Avoiding leaving the house
- Feeling/faking sick and wanting to avoid work/school
EditLife Events Due to Alexithymia, you may not realize that you experienced something stressful until later on. Delayed emotional reactions happen—you could be upset by something that happened just now, five minutes ago, half an hour ago, or yesterday. - Reflect on what you were just doing. Did you just witness something you consider bad or wrong? Have you just gone through something difficult? You may not have immediately realized that an experience was hard.
- Were you reading/watching the news and hearing about sad things?
- Did you just witness or fail to stop injustice (however small)?
- Did your schedule abruptly change? Was somebody late when you were expecting them?
- Did you undergo a rocky transition?[11]
- Were you on an anti-autism website?
- Consider your most recent social interactions. Since autistic people can have trouble understanding social boundaries, you might not instinctively realize when someone else crossed them, and was being rude or mean to you.
- Did you seem unable to get through to them?
- Did they cut you off?
- Did you feel at all small or insecure after the conversation, when you weren't before?
- Did they make you feel that your feelings were invalid or unimportant?
- Did they make you look bad in front of other people?
- Think about your current workload. If you have a major project, or exam/evaluation coming up, the approaching date might make you nervous. Anxiety can also happen if you feel that you are falling behind, or that you put off your work too much.
- Is it painful to think about your workload? Would you prefer to skip this step and keep reading?
- Do you feel prepared?
- Do you feel that your boss/professor/supervisor likes you, or at least feels neutral towards you?
- How are your time management skills?
- Are you preparing for or going through a major life transition? This might make you more stressed and anxious than usual.
- Moving house
- Changing jobs or schools
- End of a vacation
- Independence milestones (first sleepover, first sleepaway camp, preparing for college, moving out of parents' house or supported living)
- Consider the relationships in your life. Are any of them particularly strained? This may lead to stress in your life. Run through the major family, school/work, and therapy-related people in your lives.
- Do you feel that they will listen to you if you have a problem?
- Do they listen when you say no?
- Do you feel on edge, worthless, or incompetent when you are around them?
- Do they force compliance or do things that cause you physical pain (including sensory-related pain)?
- Does a specific person come to mind as you read this list? (Someone may jump out right away. Or it may take deep thought to realize that some of these things are true.)
- If you are a self-advocate, or if you are especially educated on autism, you will be exposed to additional stress. Autistic people are often silenced and spoken over, which makes your job particularly difficult.[12] You must be careful to take care of yourself, because your empathy for other autistic people may make it difficult to handle the things you read. Be especially cautious when learning about the following:
- Anti-autism rhetoric
- ABA and destructive autism therapies, from chelation[13] to the Judge Rotenberg Center[14]
- The exclusion of autistic adults from the autism discourse[15]
- Self-absorbed parents whose attitude is belittling to their children
- Therapies or techniques that personally harmed you
- If you are often stressed, tell a doctor or therapist. You may have an anxiety disorder or severe sensory processing issues, which can be treated with insurance-covered solutions.
- Don't neglect a pattern of anxiety. The sooner you get help, the easier it is to turn it around.
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| How to Open a Beer Bottle Posted: 28 Nov 2017 08:00 AM PST The easiest way to open a beer bottle is with a bottle opener, but there's still hope if you don't have one. You can use a lighter or the edge of a countertop to easily pop the cap off a beer bottle. Just keep in mind they could get damaged in the process. Double check that your beer doesn't have a twist-off cap before you get started! EditUsing a Bottle Opener - Hold the beer bottle and the bottle opener in opposite hands. Grip the beer bottle by the base of the bottle. Hold the bottle opener by the handle so the flat end with the cut-out section in the middle is exposed.[1]
- It may be easiest for you to hold the bottle opener with your dominant hand.
- Wedge the sharp edge of the opener under the side of the bottle cap. Look at the cut-out section on the flat end of the bottle opener. The edge of the cut-out section closest to the handle is the edge you want to wedge under the bottle cap.[2]
- After you wedge the sharp edge of the bottle opener under the bottle cap, the opposite edge of the cutout section should be resting on the top of the bottle cap.
- Lift the handle of the bottle opener up with your dominant hand. As you lift the handle up, the far edge of the cut-out section of the bottle opener will press down on top of the bottle cap. At the same time, the sharp edge of the bottle opener will lift up the side of the cap, causing the cap to bend upward and pop off of the bottle.[3]
- Discard or recycle the bottle cap. Once the bottle cap is off the beer bottle, you can set the bottle opener aside and enjoy your beer![4]
EditOpening a Bottle with a Key - Hold a key in your dominant hand and the bottle in your other hand. Hold the key so the long blade portion of the key is exposed. Grip the beer bottle by the base.[5]
- Don't have a key? Use a metal utensil like a butter knife or spoon instead.
- Wedge the long edge of the key under the side of the bottle cap. Use the smooth, flat side of the key. Firmly press the edge of the key into the cap.[6]
- Twist the outward-facing edge of the key down with your dominant hand. As you twist the outward-facing edge of the key down, the edge that's wedged under the bottle cap will push up on the bottle cap. Keep twisting down until you feel the section of the bottle cap you're working on lift from the bottle.[7]
- Rotate the bottle and repeat on a different section. Continue lifting sections of the bottle cap up with the key until the bottle cap pops off. Discard or recycle the bottle cap once it comes off.[8]
EditUsing a Countertop - Hold the beer bottle so the cap is resting on the edge of a countertop. Grip the beer bottle firmly by the base and hold it steady against the edge of the counter. To see if you're holding the bottle correctly, slightly loosen your grip on the bottle. You should be able to feel the bottle hanging off the edge of the countertop by the cap. Retighten your grip.[9]
- Some countertops may get chipped or scratched if you try to open a beer bottle on them.
- Raise your free hand up above your head. Close your fingers together and angle your hand so it's parallel with the floor. Your palm should be facing down toward the floor.[10]
- Bring your hand down and hit the top of the bottle cap. Hit the top of the cap with the center of your palm. Make sure the cap is still resting on the lip of the countertop when you hit it. If the cap doesn't come off, get the bottle back into the starting position so you can try again.[11]
- Be careful not to slam your hand down so hard that you hurt yourself.
- Keep trying until the cap comes off the beer bottle. You may need to hit the cap several times for it to pop off. If the cap doesn't come off after several attempts, double check that you're holding the bottle correctly. Make sure the cap is resting on the lip of the countertop before you hit it with your hand.[12]
EditOpening a Bottle with a Lighter - Use a cheap lighter. The lighter you use to open the beer bottle may get scratched and chipped. Use a lighter you won't mind getting damaged.
- Grip the beer bottle by the neck. Hold the bottle so your thumb and index fingers come right up to the top of the bottle cap. Squeeze your fingers around the bottle so you have a firm grip.[13]
- Wedge the bottom corner of the lighter under the side of the bottle cap. Move your index finger and thumb to make room for the lighter, without loosening your grip. The body of the lighter should be pointing upward at about a 120-degree angle from the top of the bottle cap.[14]
- Press the top end of the lighter down with your hand. Maintain a firm grip on the neck of the beer bottle with your other hand. As you're pressing down on the top end of the lighter, the bottom end will start to lift up, bringing the side of the bottle cap up with it.[15]
- Keep pressing down on the top end of the lighter until the cap pops off. If you've lifted the side of the bottle cap but the cap doesn't pop off, use your fingers to gently help the cap off the bottle. Discard or recycle the cap.[16]
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| How to Make Dalia Posted: 28 Nov 2017 12:00 AM PST Dalia is a tasty cereal dish that's made from cracked wheat, which is high in protein, fiber, and iron. Cracked wheat dishes are popular in India, where they're eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There are many ways you can prepare this dish, and vegetable dalia and sweet dalia are among the most popular. Preparing dalia is quite simple and very similar to making rice, and you can customize the dish with all your favorite spices, fruits, and vegetables. EditIngredients EditVegetable Dalia - ½ cup (60 g) cracked wheat
- 1 tablespoon (14 g) ghee
- ½ teaspoon (4.5 g) cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon (1.5 g) grated ginger
- 1 green chilly, finely chopped
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 small tomato, diced
- ¼ teaspoon (0.75 g) turmeric powder
- 1 carrot, diced
- 1 small potato, diced
- ¼ cup (38 g) green peas
- 2 cups (470 ml) water
- Salt, to taste
Makes 2 servings EditSweet Dalia - 1 teaspoon (4.5 g) ghee
- ¼ cup (30 g) cracked wheat
- 1 cup (235 ml) water
- 1 cup (235 ml) milk
- 1 green cardamom, crushed
- 1 tablespoon (14 g) sugar
- 1 tablespoon (9 g) raisins
- 1 tablespoon (8 g) sliced almonds
- 1 tablespoon (8 g) walnuts, chopped
Makes 2 servings EditMaking Vegetable Dalia - Soak the cracked wheat. Measure the cracked wheat into a small bowl and cover it with water. Set the wheat aside to soak for about 30 minutes.[1] After soaking, transfer the cracked wheat to a fine-mesh sieve and rinse it with fresh water. Set the wheat aside to continue draining.
- Soaking the wheat will help to soften it, and reduce the cooking time.
- Fry the cumin. Transfer the ghee to a pressure cooker and heat it over medium heat. When the ghee is liquid and hot, add the cumin seeds. Cook the cumin in the ghee for one to two minutes, until it's fragrant and crackling.
- Other aromatics you can toast with the cumin include chili powder, mustard, and curry leaves.[2]
- Ghee is clarified butter. You can use regular butter or your favorite cooking oil in place of the ghee.
- Add the ginger, onion, and chili. Continue cooking the mixture over medium heat until the onions are slightly soft and the ginger is fragrant. Stir regularly to prevent the ingredients from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- For a less spicy dish, omit the chili, or replace it with a milder pepper.
- Add the turmeric, tomatoes, and the remaining vegetables. Add the turmeric and tomatoes first, and cook them together with the aromatics for a minute. Then add the carrot, potato, and peas and cook the dish for an additional minute.[3]
- You can add any vegetables you like to this dish, including chopped cauliflower, peppers, beans, and broccoli.[4]
- Toast the wheat. Add the drained cracked wheat to the pressure cooker. Stir constantly and sauté the wheat with the aromatics and vegetables for three to four minutes, until it's warm and fragrant.[5]
- Toasting the wheat will help to bring out more of its aroma, and infuse it with flavors from the other ingredients.
- Cook the dalia in the water. Add the salt and water to the pressure cooker and stir the mixture. Secure the pressure cooker lid. Bring the pot to pressure over medium heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook the dalia until soft, about 12 minutes, or 7 to 9 whistles on the pressure cooker.[6]
- If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can use a regular saucepan and cook the dalia on the stove. Cook the dalia for about 25 minutes, covered, until the water is absorbed and the wheat is soft.[7]
- Let the pressure cooker rest. When the dalia is ready, remove the pressure cooker from the heat and let the pressure drop to zero. When the pressure drops, open the pressure cooker, stir the mixture, and serve the dalia immediately.[8] Garnish with freshly ground pepper and additional salt, to taste.
EditMaking Sweet Dalia - Roast the cracked wheat in the ghee. Combine the wheat and ghee in a medium saucepan. Cook the mixture over medium-low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly. Roast the wheat until it's toasted, slightly browned, and aromatic.
- You can also dry roast the wheat in the saucepan, but make sure you stir constantly to avoid burning.[9]
- You can also cook sweet dalia in a pressure cooker.
- Add the water. Stir the wheat and water together and cover the pan. Stay close to the pan, because the mixture could froth up and boil over very quickly. Cook the wheat for 10 to 12 minutes, until it's absorbed the water and taken on a soft and tender consistency.[10]
- If the pan does boil over, remove the lid and stir the mixture. Place the lid on halfway to prevent it from boiling over again.
- Add the milk and cardamom. Stir to incorporate the milk and spice into the wheat mixture. Leave the saucepan uncovered and continue cooking the dalia over medium-low heat. Stir regularly until the dalia reaches the consistency you like.[11]
- For runnier dalia, cook the mixture just long enough to heat the milk, about 1 to 2 minutes. For a thicker and more porridge-like consistency, cook the mixture for about 5 minutes so the wheat absorbs more of the milk.
- Add the sugar, nuts, and raisins. Stir to mix all the ingredients evenly throughout the dalia. Leave the dalia on the heat for another 1 to 2 minutes to dissolve the sugar and heat the nuts and raisins. Taste the dalia before serving and add more sugar or milk, to taste.
- You can add a variety of extra ingredients to the sweet dalia, including dried fruit chunks, chopped figs, pieces of dates, and spices like cinnamon and saffron.[12]
EditServing Dalia - Eat it hot. Dalia is best eaten hot, regardless of whether you're enjoying the plain, vegetable, or sweet variety. Even if you're eating leftovers, be sure to reheat them in a saucepan before serving.
- When making sweet dalia, it's important to heat the dalia through after adding milk, because the milk will lower the temperature of the dish.[13]
- Garnish it with fresh herbs. You can garnish dalia with any spices or aromatics you like, and chopped fresh herbs are one of the most popular ways to finish a dish before serving. Wash, dry, and chop the herbs finely before sprinkling them on top of each individual dish of dalia.
- Good herbs for garnishing vegetable dalia include parsley and coriander.
- Popular herbs for pairing with sweet or dessert dishes include mint, cilantro, and basil.[14]
- Serve it with yogurt. Both sweet and vegetable dalia can be served with yogurt, either on the side or mixed right into the dish before serving. For sweet dalia, consider vanilla or fruit flavored yogurts. Serve vegetable dalia with plain yogurt or raita.[15]
- Raita is a yogurt-based condiment made with herbs, spices, and often cucumber and onion.
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