(no subject)
Well, sort of something like one, anyway.
Mom has located a psychologist who apparently has done some work on this kind of thing; we're in the process of trying to get an appointment made for an evaluation.
In the mean time, a local autism-services volunteer group turned out to be doing gift-wrapping fundraising; we ran into them shopping. So now I have more useful information to add to local places I pulled notes on off the web.
Shopping itself this year has been an interesting experience. I panic very easily in crowds; now I have a guess as to why. And once I understand why I do something, I have a much better chance of fighting it off. Twice now I've been able to defuse that panic by catching it starting, going into breathing exercises while I'm walking, and chanting 'They're not looking at you' to myself in my head - doing this means I have to go on autopilot for a minute or two, which means I drop out of conversation and have to be steered by Tree, but both times I've tried it it's actually made the panic go away instead of just getting it under control.
This in itself has gotten my stress levels down to the point where I'm doing gratuitous, unprompted housecleaning again. And baking.
Ad in the paper yesterday for work-from-home data entry. No address, no company name, just a phone number. I am suspicious of scams, but debating whether to follow up anyway.
Happy holiday to the Solstice types. And to everyone else, but in a less timely fashion.