Why things are overwhelming

What appears to be missing in my brain, when I compare my life to that of other people, is that few things are intuitive to me. The advantage to this is that I tend to think things through from first principles, as the famous Aspie (not that the designation existed in his lifetime, but it's fairly obvious from reading his autobiographies) Richard Feynman. What seems obvious and a given to other people is not obvious to me.

This means that simple tasks (to other people) become overwhelming because I am not sure how they are done. Recently I had to apply for some credentials for my job, and I had put this off for a long time because I was not sure how things got done--how information from one part of this process got to another place that handled the credentials. Finally, I told a colleague of mine that my Aspie brain was having a hard time and could he explain in words of one syllable how this process worked. He did, and I made my application.

I like to know not just what a procedure is, but why it is. In fact, if I don't understand why, the procedure seems arbitrary and pointless to me and there is a good chance I won't do it. I need to understand what is going to happen and how the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of life fit together. So, I need a lot more information than the average joe.

What happens is when I am lacking the information I need, I feel overwhelmed by a task and then it doesn't get done--I procrastinate because the task seems too difficult or that it will take a long time.

Over time, I have learned that my first impression of a task might not be the right one--that I can ask for help and that I can do things that seem hard to me.