Disconnect from reality??

[Bowsy26]

My dxnpdh doesn't seem to be connected to the current reality at times and the result can be (for me anyway) amusing.  We went to our town hall this morning to early vote.  The staff person was explaining the procedure to us when H saw a tube on the counter, picked it up and squirted the stuff on his hands as if it were hand sanitizer - which it wasn't.  It was glue for the envelopes our ballots would be placed in.     This was an understandable situation to me.  It was a clear, hard sided tube that could stand up like a bottle.  I would have said "oh, cr*p" or words to that effect and gone quickly to the rest room to wash my hands.  H sat there rubbing it in.  The staff person said "that's glue, not hand sanitizer".  H said "yeah, I know. It's fine" and still acted as if he were rubbing in hand sanitizer.  I looked at H and repeated a few times "that's glue" and he kept smiling saying "yeah, I know" as if this was all totally normal.     I laughed a bit and one of the other staff members said "good thing its not Gorilla glue" while also laughing (not at H but like this is a funny situation).  The first staff member got a wet wipe for him and H was turning it down when I took it and put it into H's hands so that he would wipe the d*mn glue off his hands.  Otherwise, he would have walked around with the glue stuck on his hands until we got home.     I wanted to roll on the floor laughing at the situation but H was already triggered by his mistake and was using the "if I pretend, it's real" defense.  I didn't want to tip him into an angry response and buttoned my lip. 

I've seen this with H many times over the years and could never understand it. After reading about Cluster B PDs, this disconnect appears to be part and parcel of the disorder.  I'm thinking it is an attempt to stay in control when things have definitely gone out of control for him.  Also, he can never be wrong so to laugh at himself for thinking this was hand sanitizer would have been admitting he wasn't perfect.  Fortunately, he didn't flip into angry mode b/c I suspect with the whole virus thing going on that he could have been arrested since it was in a local government building.  In the past, I've seen some pretty outrageous public tantrums from him though these happen only when there couldn't possibly be anyone who might know him present.  If this happened to me, this would have been a hilarious situation and one of those times where I could laugh at myself.  But H kept on with the blank smile until we left.   

[Starboard Song]

We've seen that sort of thing.

I think that may be more acute awareness of social stress than lack of awareness of physical reality. Like, if nobody were watching he'd have gone and washed his hands.

Dunno, of course. Everyone is different. But the stuff we saw like that in MIL was generally acute awareness of reality twisted by more acute social anxiety.