21 February 2026

I want to write, but I don't know what to write

I finally have a moment, where I feel I have time to myself, time to actually do something, but my brain cannot do anything. I had an overwhelming moment, earlier today, and now my brain is going to struggle until I go back to sleep. To cut a long story short, I began noticing that my medication for my B12 deficiency wasn’t working. I spent the first few weeks of the year so drained and with such a heavy head that I was worried that I might end up permanently bed bound. I changed the medication and my head has been feeling a thousand times better. I had no idea that I had been dealing with such intense brain fog for, probably, my entire life. I have never experienced my head feeling so clear and free. However, it has come with its negative parts. I think the intense, heavy brain fog was partially protecting my autism from getting so overwhelmed with things, because now sounds are a lot worse than they used to be. A lot worse. And just for clarification, sound is the sense that I struggle with the most. I always have, ever since I was little. When sounds are too loud, I get routed to the spot, unable to move, or open my eyes. The residual sound and effect is very intense and leaves me shaken up for a long time. As someone who is the production coordinator for the UK’s biggest siren factory, I have been having to wear noise can celling headphones just to get through the day. Noise cancelling headphones do not do an awful lot, but they help me from being completely rooted to the spot and almost unable to move.
          Part of me wants to work on one of my many stories, but I know that if I try to, it won’t be as good as it should be.
          Another reason why I have been struggling so much this year, is that work has become so incredibly toxic. It is as though everyone decided, over the nine day Christmas break, that they were going to become selfish, spiteful, gossiping toads. I think I have figured out that people who like to watch soaps, like drama. The people whose lives are perfect, need drama, to make their lives entertaining. So, rather than cause drama in their perfect life, they cause drama in the workplace. I really, really, really cannot tolerate it. So many colleagues (despite there only being 28 people, including me) have really wore out my patience. Someone who I trusted so much, they were my emotional support person, has completely stabbed me in the back, and is trying to get me sacked. He cannot admit that he has ever made a mistake and done something wrong, so instead he has filed a complaint against me and wants the company to chose between us both. He knows that I financially struggle to make ends meet. He is close to being a millionaire. He used to be the vacuum guy, Mr Dyson’s, right hand man. He owns three homes in the UK and one in Australia. Oh and he drives a Range Rover. He doesn’t need the job. He can retire in Australia any time he wants to. But for some reason, I am his next target. I was supposed to discover my fate yesterday, but my useless excuse of a manager didn’t discuss anything with the production director until six minutes before I finished work. I wish he had spoken to the sale director, because one, he likes me more than the production director does (as the production director is just as two faced), and two, my step-nan worked for the sales director’s dad, so we kind of have a trusted bond. The sales director knows that I would never sabotage the company. He, also, wouldn’t get rid of me because of some stupid petty squabble on the manufacturing shopfloor. The sales director invited me to a ball. The production director didn’t invite me.
          To add to all of that stress, my partner has decided that he wants to purchase a property almost fifteen miles away. He cannot drive. I cannot drive. I know why he wants to buy his own property and why he wants to live in the specific area. I fully understand and support him. But it doesn’t make it hurt any less. Yes, he says that he will still want to see me and nothing will change, but he is thinking with his heart, not his head. Of course it will change. Right now, we see each other two to three times a week. If either of us are having a bad day, I can just go and see him. He only lives 2.5 miles away. I am struggling, with it being dark, so we don’t get to see each other, in the weekday evenings, for as long as we both would like, but we still get to see each other. Then he stays over at mine on most weekends. My home already feels empty without him here this weekend – he is at a gig with his dad today. He just doesn’t seem to see that things will be very different once he moves away. It is going to be so much harder once he moves away. Usually, the closer couples get, the closer they live together, not the other way around. There will be no seeing each other after a long, hard day. There will be no coffee shop meet ups. There won’t even be him staying over at mine almost every weekend. We will be going from seeing each other two to three times a week, to once every four to six weeks. He keeps saying that nothing will change, because he loves me so much and he will miss me, but that is him thinking with his heart. We won’t physically be able to see each other and spend the time together, like we do now. When close relationships essentially become long distance (whether there really is distance or not) you have to think with your head. I don’t want a long distance relationship. That’s the whole point of telling Bumble what distance to look for a match. Robert lived 33 miles away, and he drove, and that was still hard. I know this isn’t as far away, but when neither of you drive, it might as well be. I will have to walk three miles to the train station, get a twenty minute train, then walk a further one to three miles, depending on the location of the house that he purchases. And for someone who really struggles with public transport and had a horrifying incident one morning on the way to work that mentally scarred me to the point that a colleague now has to drive me to work, I am going to struggle. It is going to be hard for me. I am not going to be able to be the same person that he is used to being around on the weekends, when I see him. I am going to be more like the person that he sees after work, who is stressed and emotionally drained, who struggles to place an order at the cafĂ© that we go to all the time. I don’t like that version of me and I don’t want that me to be the only me that I can be around the person who makes me feel so calm and happy. I don’t need him to cope. I do need a clear and safe connection to cope. That isn’t being needy or clingy or codependent, that is just the basic human needs for a relationship to work, especially when one has sensory autism.
          I have been working hard to try to help myself. I have recently reached out to several old managers, so I now have my backup career options. My partner did explain to me that you always have to have a backup job at the ready, even when you are successful in your job. He is incredible and I really admire him, and am proud of him. I wish that I could be more like him. But, yes, I have found three managers, who I have previously worked with, on LinkedIn and I have reconnected with them, just in case. If worst comes to worst, my mum can get me 20 hours, where she works, but that won’t be enough to pay my mortgage, council tax and bills. I do hope that I can remain in a proper job, and not have to go back to a retail job. There is something very demeaning about not having a proper job.
          Okay, I have had a bit of a break, watched a few videos, spoke to my mum for almost an hour and now it is bedtime. At least I am being good and sticking to my bedtime. With any luck, I can get between nine and ten hours sleep again tonight, so that my heavy fuzzy head will recover. I guess at least, if my partner isn’t staying over tonight, I can have the duvet (he is a duvet stealer) and he won’t wake me up snoring. It does mean that I don’t get cuddles every time he rolls over in his sleep though, or if I am having a bad dream, he won’t hold me until I calm down. Goodnight blog. Hopefully I will be able to finish tidying tomorrow, do some more beginners yoga, cook lots of meals for the week and maybe have a bath. That sounds nice.

- Josie -

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