What Aspie traits DON'T you have?

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Is there a Big giant list somewhere? I'd like to see it and bold the ones I have, and leave the ones I don't regular text.

I don't think I move weird..

And I LOVE random surprise stuff. Because I'm usually sort of bored.

Also I hardly ever talk... uuh, is that a steryotype for autism, or just asperger's? (The talking-too-much-when-people-don't-care thing?)

And I get jokes pretty fast.

I, too, have these skills. But they did not come "naturally" to me. I had to learn them laboriously, by the numbers. I have to natural inclination or instinct for "reading" other folks. It took me decades and decades to learn how to pass for human. Before I learned, I suffered some pain, inconvenience and awkwardness and I, no doubt, inflicted a certain amount of annoyance and pain on others as a result of my lack. That is just the way it goes. I nominate my parents for sainthood.

ruveyn

In all honesty I'm not really sure I'm as logical and analyzing (& smart) as others seem to be... In the past I've been more into escaping from reality than analyzing it but I am making some interesting discoveries. Also I do have "interests" but I couldn't tell you that much about them because my knowledge is quite superficial and useless and I don't have a great ability to remember facts.

Oh, I don't think I suck at reading facial expressions but what's behind them, I have no clue.

Most other traits I can see in myself but I recently found out I was oxygen deprived at birth so maybe I'm just mildly brain damaged.

Flat affect. I've always been complimented on my speaking voice.

Angnix,

One of these days someone must give everyone a test to see what people think AS is. The decription will be like:

Has a high composite IQ but has a low composite IQ.
Always talks but never talks.
communicates well and early but communicates poorly and late.

It reall IS astounding that everyone has such opposing ideas! GRANTED, some things are ALLOWED and even the same person may be on two extremes, at DIFFERENT times. I, for example, am sometimes the quietest one in the room, and other times I am the only one that seems to talk. But autism and AS ARE about such extremes.

Anyway, my social skills are merely passible. Not NEARLY as good as I would like, but passible. Of course, they used to be worse. But aren't aspies SUPPOSED to have such problems?

I CAN read major facial expressions, but that is when taken as a whole. Many tests test an aspect, such as the eyes, and I FLUNK!

I don't even know if I really mind staring people in the eyes. I can play that "game" as well as many, so I guess I don't. I tend to look ELSEWHERE though.

I HAVE learned MANY idioms. I learned one statement that made NO real sense, in english, when I was VERY young, and used to use it a lot. Eventually, I heard it said RIGHT, and it made plenty of sense. Most idoms HAVE been destroyed over time in much the same way. The DSM DOES seem to indicate this might not be a problem for some with AS.

I can hold a conversation to a degree. I EVEN have a funny way to end them. OBVIOUSLY, conversations aren't excluded, as the DSM talks about problems with breaking off, and says AS people will talk too much about their interest.

The core areas of AS are:

-A lack of social and emotional reciprocity, that's manifested by a one-sided and verbose social approach to others, that's often insensitive as the recipient is treated as if they're the audience
-A lack of showing and understanding multiple nonverbal cues (this includes odd postures and gait, as well as odd facial expressions and vocal characteristics)
-An all absorbing interest that you devote an inordinate amount of time and thought to, that oftentimes encroaches upon the things you "should" be doing

A preference for routine, a lack of empathy, motor clumsiness and delayed development of the same, difficulties with literal meaning, and many other features are noted, but they aren't the diagnostic areas in many cases (except for Gillberg's, but most don't use that).

You've made me curious~
What is the statement that made no sense, and what is your funny way of ending conversations? :3

I love jeans. Not a new pair mind you, but the great thing about jeans is that you can really wear them in and they become like old friends. By the time I am finished with a pair of jeans its REALLY falling apart.


Me too, more so with light than sound though.



I do have the clumsy thing, but have a decent balance. Then again I started martial arts when I was 6 years old and that would account for the balance. In fact I have wondered how bad my coordination would have been if I had not had this exposure over the years.

My use of language is fairly effective and I do vary tone when speaking. I tend not to be fooled by idioms as they generally do not make sense unless decoded first. Sarcasm and irony are more difficult though as they don't have that "this makes no sense" flag to signal that the meaning is to be decoded.



This pretty much describes me, but I don't think my facial expressions are too odd but sometimes others disagree. Also my voice characteristics seem to be only enough to make people think I have some form of "foreign" accent. Being bilingual means I can always blame any oddities on the OTHER language .

I don't have sensory problems with clothing and care about style.

Don't have a High IQ, in fact, I'm quite the airhead.

I was coordinated enough in General Ed Gym classes.

-A lack of social and emotional reciprocity, that's manifested by a one-sided and verbose social approach to others, that's often insensitive as the recipient is treated as if they're the audience
I used to do that when I was a child, but as I said in first post now I can hold a conversation normally. But sometimes people say I still act like I don't care.

-A lack of showing and understanding multiple nonverbal cues (this includes odd postures and gait, as well as odd facial expressions and vocal characteristics)
I mentioned this in the first post too, but I also have an odd voice and odd gait, and don't swing my arms when I walk.

-An all absorbing interest that you devote an inordinate amount of time and thought to, that oftentimes encroaches upon the things you "should" be doing
Yes, this is very strong with me. For example as a child, with birds I would carry a field guide everywhere, and in the classroom I would be drawing birds... and I tried to make classroom assignments about birds, same thing when I was obsessed with Pokemon, etc...

Oh, and I don't have alexthymia or however it is spelled, I can describe my feelings.

I do have routines...but only during certain parts of the day...my life isn't ruled by them...

I don't mind if my foods touch.

I don"t really have the one-sided verbose social approach...not intensely anyway...

I might..out of the blue..start talking about my doll collection to people who aren't interested, but I don't pursue it too strongly..
Um....my mom does this....she has pedantic repetitive speeches about raw foods and will carry on endlessly...and it hurts my head, because it is not one of my interests and I am overwhelmed by it...I will only give a lecture on my interests really if asked...

I have fairly good people skills to the point that people can'ti detect anything wrong initially. This makes me successful in job interviews for example. But it's all synthetic and takes a lot of processing power. So I can't keep the act up for extended periods of time. It's exhausting and I have to go home and take the mask off at the end of the day.

I managed to get married at an early age (21) and I'm still married to the same person 16 years later. This has everything to do with how wonderful she is though. I don't deserve to still be married to her.

I'm slightly sensitive to light. Mainly driving into the sun. But when I get migraines, I see flashing lights and have to hide from it in darkness. I have auditory and touch sensitivity problems though. Certain kinds of background noise (shopping malls, etc) turns off my ability to understand speech. My wife's touch used to sometimes startle me like someone throwing a cold bucket of water on you unexpectedly, or maybe a loud noise like a gunshot going off behind you. That seems to be calming down a bit these days though.

I'm great with my hands. I'm into woodworking.

I also have a great mathematical and mechanical aptitude. I do most of my own car repairs when the weather is nice.

I have awesome spacial relations powers. I can look at an object, then close my eyes and see it in my head in 3D, flip it around, examine its design. I design my furniture projects in my head with mostly no plans. Sometimes i sketch a small part so I can erase the blackboard in my head. This also gives me a lot of ability with computers which is what I do for a living.

My memory is practically useless about some things, but almost savant-like about others. For example, I can't remember people's names 10 seconds after they've told me. I can't remember details of conversations I've had recently. I write everything down or send myself emails to compensate for this. I often forget huge swaths of my life that my wife reminds me of from time to time. I'd lose my keys constantly if I didn't force myself into rigid routines that make me always leave them in the same spot.

On the other hand, I can remember obscure technical details from computers I haven't used in 20 years. I remember the license plate of the 1976 Plymouth Volare station wagon (with Corinthian leather!) my parents had I when I was 6. I can play music back in my head like it's my own personal mp3 player. And I have song lyrics memorized for almost every popular song between about 1978 and 1990 as long as I didn't hate the song and I heard it at least a couple times.

Interestingly, two of my kids inherited AS, a boy and a girl. I also have another daughter that's completely NT. They're both carbon copies of me, but at different points in my life. My son is like I was later in life, short temper, very frustrated, bad student. But he seems to know something is wrong and is working on it. I can tell that he'll be able to mostly overcome the problems with time. He has my spacial relations and auditory problems. He also has my problems with executive function making him very disorganized. He sucks at math like I did early on.

My daughter is more affected. She's a little robot and reminds us of Wednesday from the Adams Family. She's a math prodigy and skipped the third grade. She's in the 9th grade now and is about to enter AP calculus. She's an excellent student with a perfect GPA. Socially, she puts on a good act because she's been able to copy her slightly older NT sister. Her emotions are very blunted though. She's rigid when you give her a hug. And she has a hard time coping with any social situation if her sister isn't standing next to her. She has a close love affair with her scientific calculator. She has utter contempt for the students and most of her teachers at school.

I've gotten very good at reading my very NT wife. But it's taken a decade or more. My two AS kids are utterly transparent to me. I can tell exactly what they're thinking and feeling. (But interestingly, I can't read other aspies) But the NT kids remain a mystery to me like complete strangers. For my wife, it's the other way around. She can read the NT kids, but the aspies are opaque.

brian

Pretty much restricted to those core areas as delineated by Danielismyname (great new avatar, by the way).

Otherwise spared...

Didn't know about the jeans thing, never liked them though - bunch up in the soft area opposite the knees or something. Is that something related??

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Thanks for this level of detail Infinite9.

Looking at my own life....it is as though the music is the same.
Only the words differ.

Fascinating to me.

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I don't get shutdowns, and judging by what I've heard about them I'm gald I don't too. And I'm not sure about meltdowns though, I'm still thinking about that one.
I don't have a flat effect.
My decisions are usually based on emotions, I'm not usually that logical
I can tell what people are feeling (mad, upset, excited etc) it's just he subtle hints I miss
I can cope with sensory issues (before I used to jump away if someone touched me, now I like it sometimes)
I'm not that rigid and do like good changes because sameness does get boring after a while
I understand sarcasm and irony and I haven't taken something literally for a looong time, I am also very sarcastic myself
I have a decent amount of friends and I can make them OK it just takes longer
I don't lack empathy usually I actually feel too much empathy at times (I just don't know how to show it good so it gives the impression that I'm cold)