Why I Smell Laundry Detergent Before Starting a Task (Autism Stimming Reality)
So I noticed when I get to the mall or the store, despite not enjoying navigating around people in a noisy and sometimes even chaotic environment, I like spending roughly 10-20 minutes at a time enjoying certain smells that are pleasant, not too intense, and even regulating most of the time. Smells like perfume (the one I enjoy the most personally) and smells of certain seafood such as cooked crab or shrimp is really appealing to me.
Majority of the time it's not something I'm actively thinking about, but I noticed a pattern, that I'm willing to navigate through all of the chaos of the mall at least for a while just to smell some perfume bottles, or even go to Pretzilla and enjoy the smell of pretzels, at least for a while even though I don't plan on buying anything while I'm there. The smell itself is very predictable, and not too demanding, like it doesn't feel like a strong burst of whatever I'm sniffing at. I feel that it's regulating specifically for that reason, and why I'm so naturally drawn to doing it. Most of the perfume shops there too even allow you to try on the scent itself by spraying it on you. Which I often do, I'll spray 2-3 variants that I really like and continue smelling others for a couple more minutes before walking out and eventually heading home. Which I then eventually tied to stimming when I got home and did a bit of research on my own.
After doing it so much, along with the small but frequent subconscious reminder of "Hey! I'm autistic, so maybe certain activities like this are really appealing to me or something" I noticed my energy quickly improved! For a short duration of a couple of minutes (since I'm still operating on low energy) I could start writing my blog post (like what I'm doing now!) or pack my stuff in my bag as I get ready to go to work. Still somewhat draining since I'm still exhausted, but a lot easier to get started. My visits every now and then to the mall (once or twice every month or so) are very frequent and I'll stop by there or even a clothing shop in the mall since even though they don't have any perfume bottles there, the smell of clean clothes or new shirts is still appealing too.
Even though I don't have many perfume bottles at all when I'm home, I do my laundry after a couple of days or so, and the smell of detergent is just as regulating, if not even more so since it has a stronger scent to it. I'll do it before I start a task, or going into work. I mostly do it subconsciously and not actively thinking about it, despite consciously knowing it helps me recover energy wise, and it's something I've actively picked up on despite being in burnout for over 5 years, so my brain likely recognized it's something that makes me happy and something to focus on, at least for a while. It also justitied me tracking my energy over time so I can notice patterns like these so I can better take advantage on what helps me regulate myself the most
When I'm not able to access it, it doesn't overwhelm me or cause me meltdowns, it just makes whatever I planned to start at the time (such as patching up a bug on my app, or finding something to play on Roblox) is much harder since I don't have something my brain can basically stim to. Basically struggling to start up my car before I start driving, so to speak.
The detergent one helps a lot but I don't like to waste it so simply taking off the cap, smelling it for a few minutes (around 1-3 minutes from what I've noticed), putting it back on then washing my hands usually helps as a backup.
My family will say "Why don't you just buy it if you like it so much?" or "Why are you doing that." Which I already expected them to judge what I was doing at least a little bit while I'm there. But I know how much it personally helps me and my mood, and is another way of stimming, so I personally don't care at all about it, and it's something that's completely okay for all of us to do. Just because they don't fully understand it, doesn't mean what we're doing is "wrong" or "not normal", because if it makes us happy, there's nothing truly wrong with it.