habit, ocd or aspergers trait?

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As I understand Aspergers, traits may also be part of the person's personality and everyone is different as is a persons fingerprint.

I am trying to figure out if my daughters forever persistent and continuous same question everyday is aspergers or her touch of ocd.

I just look at her now when she asks questions she has asked for the last 7 or so years. "Did you wash my apple? "Did you wash my spoon for my yogurt"? She knows I have , I'm sure, as she just laughs and carries on as though she knows I have.

I have always previously given her the answer every day for years, but think if she is ever going to be somewhat independent some day I won't be there to tell her the apple is clean and so is her spoon.

Am I wrong in not telling her, if its a touch of habit or ocd I feel fine not telling her, but if it is in fact aspergers, I'm doing the wrong thing.

The apple and spoon are only two of many other examples.

I put her meal in front of her and my plate has food things she thinks are disgusting and she will still ask is that my dinner, about her plate that is in front of her, when its just the two of us..

I'm bit frustrated at having to say yes, as I have for years and years. She is 17 mid May this year.

My hope that someday she will not need that constant reassurance about basic stuff. We drew up a routine about showering.

She only showers 4 times out of 7 days and 2 of the 4 times is shampoo and conditioner, she will still ask about it, and the routine has not changed in 5 years and it is up on a board in pen and paper. I have stopped saying what goes about this when she asks. Is this a memory thing or a habit?

Thankyou for reading

Have you told her how annoying her questions are? Asked her why she is asking them? Asked her to please stop?
If you don't discuss the issue with her, she probably doesn't even know it's an issue.




edited for apostrophe

I am wondering if it is a version of scripting. My son is 8, and frequently asks me questions he knows the answer to, so he can hear me say the predictable response. It is comforting to him to hear predictable answers, and they used to have to be exactly scripted like he was a director.

There is so much overlap with other diagnoses that I wouldn't say it is not related to OCD. but to me the scripting issue is very AS if that is what it is. I don't know that this means you have to indulge it every time. Even people with AS have to get used to the fact that most people are not going to play the scripting game and be more comfortable with the real world of improv.

I indulge it less now that my son is older and can understand things better. At 17, you could probably ask her why she asks you these questions (give her options if she has issues with giving answers to open-ended questions.) and she might have insight as to why she asks.

Sounds like OCD, I'm the same way as her. I ask questions that seem stupid but it makes me feel better to ask and hear the answer or else I have anxiety.

My daughter has aspergers and she is 13. She has OCD like symptoms too and will constantly ask me if the door is locked. She will ask me to check with her to ensure it is locked, but if I am busy or she has asked me too often, I tell her to check it herself if it is bothering her. She has even taken pictures of the locked door, so she can be in her room and know that the door is safely locked.

She also needs to know where all 4 of her cats are and is usually looking for our cat Panther because he is so good at hiding. It really freaks her out if she can't find him. She also has to fill their water bowls constantly throughout the day.

From when she was tested for ASD and from what I have read, it is just another symptom of aspergers - trying to control her environment. I go along with it because if I don't she would just get really upset and have a meltdown.

Seconding YippySkippy and ASDmommyASDkid, can you ask?

Do you not ask because your experience tells you that won't work?

I wasn't even allowed to ask the same questions and my mom would tell me "What have I told you before?" "What did I say last time?" and I always listened because she refused to talk about the same thing again like road signs and what they are used for and why we have them or when she first saw a Toys R Us and she asked me at 13 "I won't hear that question from you again will I?" when I asked her if they were around when she was a kid and she said "I have already told you about it and I said the first time I saw one was when I was about your age. Now I won;t ever hear you ask me that again will I?" and I said no and never asked that again.

Sometimes asking the same questions is an OCD trait because of their unwanted thoughts and keep wanting reassurance and it can be an aspie trait because they like talking about it so they may ask the same questions again to hear the same answer, another thing it can be part of is memory loss. Someone with Alzhiemer's or someone who has a condition where they can't remember will ask the same things over and over because they are not able to remember.

Have you tried asking her why she does it? Depending on how self-aware she is, she may know and be willing to talk about it.

This sort of repetitive question asking seems to be something my son once did but either outgrew or adapted beyond. But there are also ASD behaviors he no longer needs to do, but continues out of habit, simply because habits are comfortable things for him. If I ask him why he still does them when I know he doesn't need them, he will say honestly, "it is just a habit and I don't feel like working on changing it."