physical deformity in aspergers?

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I don't think there's any particular physical type to having AS. Like a number of people have said, it's more about expressions than actual features.

I don't smile a lot, don't make much eye contact and I'm often deep in thought (which frequently prompts "Cheer up!" or "Don't be miserable"). To avoid contact with people, I'll walk with my head down as well. I'm quite sensitive to light, so I also squint quite a bit and look as if I'm frowning. Stressful situations make me tearful (even if I don't feel upset particularly).

I also have absolutely no fashion sense. I don't know what goes with what or even if colours match properly. So sometimes people think I dress weirdly.

So I reckon a combination of all these factors make me appear "different", though I have zero difference in physical build or looks to a lot of my colleagues of a similar age.

Is there anything what Aspergers DOESN'T affect?

I am always holding a frown because I'm an anxious person, and when I'm not always in the mood I find it difficult to put on a ''happy front''. My face always has to suit the feelings inside me. And I find it comfortable to frown, and when I once slept with a man he said I frowned in my sleep, which certainly explains a lot. So I know when I am relaxed my face muscles relax, as though they are too heavy to keep ''up''.

But I don't think our bodies are any different to anyone else's. It can relate to how we hold ourselves - not how our bodies are naturally built.

As another has mentioned head size and a high palate can be very soft markers, as is a Moebius mouth in infants, which is a flat lower lip and highly arched upper lip when the face is relaxed.

This link is very interesting, and shows quite a few differences in infants who later are dx'd with ASD compared to NT infants. The sample size is pretty small, though, but it's still quite neat to read.

I prefer dysmorphic facial features. Deformity is too strong a word. The dysmorphic features have to do with early brain development in the embryo which could explain some of the AS traits. The brain of someone with AS might be slightly structurally altered which could explain why some of us have difficulties with specific areas, like social interaction. The part of our brain dealing with social interaction could be slightly different than those of people without the dysmorphic features. It explains a lot.

I'm scared now.

Lol, why are you scared?

Because apparently my face is different to everyone else's, according to this. I didn't know AS affected how the face is built, like Down's Syndrome or Fragile X. My friend is Autistic, and he showed me a photo of him with his family and he didn't have no differences in his face to anyone else. He's a handsome lad, and doesn't have different eyebrows or eyes or lips to anyone else. Neither do I.
I read up about AS, and it said it does not affect anywhere on the body physically, only the brain. It's a bit like Dyspraxia.
You probably all think there is a difference in the face because you're too familiar with yourself, and you're noticing tiny details too much, then psycologically turning them into a bigger difference, then interpreting some deformity.

I am not naturally deformed. I have a hunched back because it's just the way I hold myself. Otherwise I'm physically normal.

Well, everyone with Autism might not have faces that are affected but an affected face might mean Autism is there.
Besides, do people with fragile x or down's really look that different? Just slightly different in most cases
It's people in general who tend to exaggerate slight differences out of anxiety.

I am a female NT and dated an Aspie male. The main difference I saw between him and other men was the fact that he had large pupils and intense eye color (blue). His mouth was a lot smaller than NT men and he also said he had to have a lot of expensive work done to it when he was a child. (His young son also has the same mouth problem and will need to have the same kind of dental work done.) His face, to me, had an angelic quality to it too. He also seemed to be a bit younger looking than his actual age. His gait was different as was his chest and back. His chest and back almost seemed to be more rounded. He also told me about an ewe neck type problem with his neck which I never noticed until he mentioned it to me. Obviously, I had no problem with his appearance because we dated for 5 months or so and I was attracted to his intelligence, sweetness and of course our common interests. His anxiety however, was extremely high. I am a pretty down to earth easy going female and had to keep telling him things would be fine and would help him try and relax when dealing with certain situations primarily social situations.

Dysmophism doesn't always mean ugly, deformed or ghastly. Someone can have a subtle dysmorphism that might be attractive to people, so they are thought of as better looking than others. Dysmorphism just means the facial features are slightly altered (not necessarily in a bad way).

i tend to find that females with AS are more androgynous in the face.

I'm not sure if there is actual physical deformity with persons in the autistic spectrum though, I've always had an unorthox form as, being someone whom has Hypotonia is a state of low muscle tone[1] (the amount of tension or resistance to movement in a muscle), often involving reduced muscle strength. I do find that many look at me as being non-normal.Still, I'm not the only person I',m aware of in the spectrum to have such for, there are many.Anyways, getting back to the topic, I feel that there can be many physical phenomenon which can exist in a person with AS maybe some of it sublte while severe in other areas.It really depends on the individual as, not all autistc people have the same qualitites or characteristics.. In closing i don't see my differentness as being something bad rather, I use it in a postive manner s best as I can..

My eyes aren't bright blue. They are greenish-blue, like most NTs I know.

I believe this topic was brought up a few months back, but in physical deformities I have a few. My bones are very brittle, almost like stunted growth. My head is shaped differently, but you would not be able to tell unless cutting my hair. I'm 5'11, 168ish but with such brittle bones I look like I weigh less. I have astigmatism, very poor vision almost blind without glasses. My eyes are hazel but change colors depending on the season or weather. I have some obsessive compulsive behaviors like pulling at my hair. Poor motor and social skills. When I was born I had "lazy eyes" which required surgery to fix, and buck teeth which required braces for later in my teen years. I look normal for the most part but am insecure, even though I'm not particularly ugly now.. Also I'm not completely sure as to associate these things with Autism, however I am different and these are just some things that have went along with me being different too.

It's not associated with being on the Autism spectrum at all. I have none of those yet I am on it. If you were born NT you still might have all those things. My friend's daughter has a heart condition, and has affected her physically - she is 19 but is the height of an average 10 year old, and she didn't develop puberty properly (she started her periods after she left school at 17), and when she was a baby her physical development was very slow (she learnt to crawl at 13 months, and learnt to walk at 22 months - and it had nothing to do with her upbringing. The doctors said it was from poor muscle/physical development, associated with her heart conditions or something like that).
Anyway - my point is none of this has affected her brain (intellectual and social development). She is a typical NT, has lots of friends, ect ect ect. And she didn't lack accedemically.

So I'm just saying here that just because you are on the spectrum doesn't mean it will affect you physically, and vice versa.^
I'm not saying it's a definate fact - I'm just saying it's not always so.

These ''deformities'' are just an illusion.

It'd be like somebody showing me a picture of, for example, their son, and I see just an ordinary boy, then after looking at the picture she might say, ''by the way he's Autistic'', and I would be surprised.
But if someone showed me a picture of their son and I already knew the son was Autistic, I would probably look at it and see the Autism straight away.

You could go on forever, thinking up how different features on your body represent your Autism or AS. I could look at my hands and say, ''oh I have 4 wrinkles in my palm, it means AS,'' or I could look at my ears in a mirror and say, ''my ears are small and pinned to my head, it means AS.'' I could even look at my hair and say, ''oh, my hair is brownish-blonde, it means AS.''