But for Highland woman Kathryn Aspinall (40) it would be a major setback that would send her into a spin and disrupt the rest of her day.
For years she could not understand the reasons for her reactions to what others would see as a minor mishap – or why she couldn’t socialise like others do.
She also struggled to know why she could not settle properly into her job as a scenes of crime photographer for Northern Constabulary or why she sank into the depths of depression to the extent she wanted to end it all.
That was until two years ago, when a new doctor suggested she may have autism – and then everything began falling into place.
Kathryn, who lives by Beauly, said: “Now when I go into the supermarket and it doesn’t have the thing I am looking for, I take a deep breath because I know there is a reason why I feel the way I do. it does help knowing, but it doesn’t make it go away.”
Before medics assessed her for autism, Kathryn, who is a member of Autism Rights Group Highland (ARGH), a group for adults with the condition, was being treated for a host of psychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia and psychosis.
She explained: “I was in and out of the psychiatric service for 10 years. it got to the point where I tried to take my life, where I could not cope and everything in my life fell apart. I felt I couldn’t understand the world.”
Looking back, she thinks there were tell-tale signs from early childhood. She admits that socially she was a “disaster area”.
She said: “I loved school but I hated the playground. Playtime was a nightmare, as was going to the dinner hall, so I would skip lunch – it was the social thing I didn’t like and the kids and the noise. I could not fit in.”
She began skipping lessons, but she believes because she still managed to achieve academically nobody picked up that anything was wrong.
After studying physics at university in Leeds, she moved north in 1995 when she started working for Northern Constabulary as a scenes of crime photographer.
Although she loved the job, she said everything “fell apart” and she ended up going off sick, and suffered stress and depression. After seven years in the job, she was medically retired in 2002.
She said: “Looking back, it ended up in a mess. If I had known at that time I had this condition it might have made a difference.”
It was at that time that Kathryn, who has not worked since, ended up in the mental health services and was admitted to New Craigs Hospital in Inverness on so many occasions she described it as being her “second home”.
However, since she discovered her symptoms were down to autism two years ago, she has not been to hospital since.
She said: “I didn’t know what autism was. it is portrayed in the media as being strange people who don’t communicate and have problems. My initial thought was that I did not have a problem with people.”
She began reading up on the condition and started realising how many symptoms she had, including needing order and routine and taking people literally in what they are saying.
Other symptoms experienced by those on the autistic spectrum include having difficulties with both verbal and non-verbal language, finding it hard to use or understand facial expressions or tones of voice, jokes and sarcasm and common sayings.
Some people with autism may not speak, or have fairly limited speech, and have difficulty recognising or understanding other people’s emotions and feelings, and expressing their own.
Kathryn Aspinall is a member of support group Autism Rights Group Highland, which has made cards for autistic people to hand out to explain their behaviour in difficult situations. Katy Sutherland
Some prefer to spend time alone and find it hard to predict what will happen next in a situation or understand the concept of danger.
As yet, Kathryn has not been formally diagnosed, as there is nobody currently in the Highlands qualified to give an adult diagnosis.
However, because she does not have a learning disability nor a mental health condition, the services have fallen away.
She added: “Now they have changed the label I don’t qualify for services. I have already been told that even when I am diagnosed, there will be no services for me.”
However, now she is part of ARGH, she hopes to play a part in improving the lives of autistic people.
The group was the first of its kind in the UK and is still the only one in Scotland. Set up three years ago, it is run entirely by autistic adults and among its aims is to change people’s preconceptions of them.
Its chairperson is Kerry Brook (38), of Inverness, who, like Kathryn, did not realise she had the condition until later on in life.
She also found it hard to fit in socially at school, felt she did not understand the “social rules” everybody seemed to follow, suffered depression and even went on to work with autistic people. however, it was not until age 30 that she was diagnosed when one of her three children underwent assessment for the condition.
Since becoming involved in ARGH, which was recently Scottish winner of the Kerrygold Community Awards 2010, she said support for their work has been “overwhelming”.
Its task is to inform service providers about what autistic people really experience, campaign for better services for autistic people in the Highlands and challenge stigma, prejudice and discrimination through education.
And the recent ?1,000 cash boost from the Kerrygold award is already enabling them to take a step forward, as they have just produced 100 alert cards costing ?170.
Members can carry the cards, and when they feel they are in a difficult situation, they can show them to people to explain they have autism, they are likely to be extremely anxious in unfamiliar situations, that they may become uncommunicative or non-verbal under stress and their behaviour may appear unpredictable or inappropriate.
Kerry outlined the group’s other roles, including working with the Highland Users Group on a report on mental health and people on the autistic spectrum; being part of a coalition supporting the proposed Autism bill Scotland; and providing training for professionals from an autistic perspective.
One of the group’s 35 members, Elkie Kammer, has also had an autobiography published called Discovering who I am: growing up in the world of Asperger Syndrome.
Kerry said: “It is great to see that people really appreciate and value what we do, that people are interested in supporting the idea that autistic people are valued as part of the community as equals.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to keep fighting for our rights in the face of prejudice and discrimination. To know that there are so many people out there that support us gives us a new vigour to carry on and grow.”
* For more information about the group, email or visit arghighland.co.uk