Whats the one autistic trait you Don't have or can hide?

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So i had to volunteer for house of hope at interfaith for our church, meaning taking care of the homeless. Well i was telling them what i volunteer else for, and i was talking about autism, one lady was like oh my grandson has autism hes 13, hes high functioning, because he can talk, its soo high rise of autism. And my mother just smiled and i was sooo amazed she couldn't tell i had autism! The thing is there are times im so high functioning its great, we were only there one hour, right after I went from so high functioning to completely low functioning, it was horrible, all i did was scream, yell, flap, rock, bite, no communication at all . The lady did point out my occasional mini handflapping, my mini headshakes lol, my being so confused because i cant even wash dishers lol have problems making the table the etc but didnt know i had autism yay me . Anyways My one trait of autism though i can defintely hide is eye contact, I can give amazing eye contact, especially if u have blue eyes lol. Whats everybody elses one autistic trait they Don't have or can hide very easily?

My sensory issues are not really serious and I can usually hide them. The obsessions and social awkwardness are obvious to most people.

I'm absolutely great in conversations with people that i'll never see again, like cashiers or taxi drivers or whatever. Other people, like people i work with, or people on the bus i might see again (not the short bus ), authority figures, or anything else basically, not so much.

1) I am organized.
2) I can improvise.
3) I have an imagination.
4) I don't "flap" my hands.
5) I've never had a "meltdown", unless I did when I was too young to remember.
6) I'm not picky about what foods I'll eat, but I won't eat/drink anything that other people have been eating/drinking. And certain foods I won't eat if someone else has even touched it.
7) I don't have a great memory (I don't remember as much about my childhood as most people do, and I'm only 17).

Last edited by DJRnold on 15 Aug 2008, 8:24 pm, edited 14 times in total.

Eye contact and empathy are the ones I tend to either not have troulbe with or hide.

I can have "empathy" but I call it "selective empathy" meaning, it is easier for me to have empathy and understanding for someone who I share a similar experience with, harder for me to understand the situations and point of views of people who I think have lead a totally different life. I view them as being more fortunate and have this notion they couldn't possibly imagine what life is like for me and could never relate to my turmoil and misery, blah blah blah.

I'm pretty good at understanding figurative, idiomatic, and metaphorical language.

I don't flap my hands in public.

I do not cuss at every little thing (that habit died away a year ago, used to be notorious for it)

I communicate like a normal but very nervous NT. Also, I'm not sure how my empathy works but I either have it or my version involving a lot of thinking is just as good in nearly all situations.

I don't have so much of a problem with eye contact. It's not quite natural and requires my actively paying attention to where I'm looking, but as far as I can tell I pass it off as normal. I am having a bit of trouble showing the obsessive nature of my interests. I'm at a point where unless I'm talking about them I just don't talk.

I can hide my true level of rage. Not many people know about it. What am I saying - no one knows about it...

I just start to breathe slowly and question stuff, why something wasn't done, what happened, why for this, etc. It works and I listen to them.

Not sure about hand flapping - sometimes just happens when I relaxed...

My hand-flapping is strictly reserved for home, and I'm pretty good at hiding my meltdowns from people in school. No-one at school has ever seen me in a rage, I always walk off and disappear. The two things I can't hide are my obsessive interests and my social awkwardness. I aboslutely terrible at small talk.

Oh yeah, I'm very big on this one. After all, if someone doesn't seem to understand what misery feels like, I don't feel obligated to try to understand their feelings. I'm also very rational, almost mathematical, with my feelings. If someone shares an experience with me, I use the following Turing test:
* Could I possibly have this experience in the next few years?
* Would this experience fit into the general context of my life?
* Should I make an effort to have this experience my myself?
If I answer "no" to two or three of these questions, empathy just doesn't happen, no matter how hard I try. In some cases, I'll make an effort to say something empathetic, but it'll be a script I learned earlier, not something coming out naturally.

ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo,

What you describe is sympathy, something people with an ASD don't lack.

E: typical me, I read "can" as "can't".

I have all of the primary symptoms of Autism (so they show), barring the associated features; special skills or mental retardation.

Last edited by Danielismyname on 15 Aug 2008, 12:51 am, edited 2 times in total.

I think the lack of clumsiness. I was told my the psychologist that I am a mild case of Asperger's so I even think that a lot of the symptoms I suffer a mild case of.

I don't do any actual stimming. I'll fiddle with things or keep myself occupied by moving, but not really stimming, I wouldn't say.

One thing that I used to simply not understand conceptually but CAN do now if I want to is eye contact. I won't always do it, especially when I know that I don't have to to make someone know I'm talking to them and they have my attention. But when I'm dealing with a boss or a teacher who I respect, or I'm dealing with someone who I want to show respect or exceptionally good manners toward for their services or help, then I'll make the effort. Apparently I still had the lack of eye contact problem a couple years ago in informal situations, so I think it's only when I'm really trying that I can do it consistently.