Autism and hypermobility survey

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Neither as well.

Male, 26, scored 0, professionally diagnosed add as a child, suspect aspergers

Female, 30, diagnosed asperger's/add, scored 0

One thing you could do -- it finally showed me what I couldn't seem to see from my own physical vantage point -- is if you have access to a digital camera, lie flat on your back, lock your knees as far as they will go, and your feet will probably seem to come off the surface a fair bit (if they're anything like mine). Set up the camera so it will take a photo of where you are from the side, or get someone else to take a picture if you can. Then set it to take a photo in a delayed fashion rather than immediately. Press the button to take the photo, go back to where you were, lie down, bend your knees back, and then wait for the camera to take the picture.

Put the picture on the computer and look at it. If you need to figure out how far it bends and can't do it just by thinking, then you can download a protractor online. I found mine bent somewhere between 25 and 35 degrees, certainly more than 10. And the appearance of my legs was actually sort of concave.



See, that's actually what fooled me all this time -- the one part of the Beighton criteria I don't meet, is being able to put my hands flat on the floor. Although a friend said that she thought I ought to qualify just based on the fact that my fingers (which I did get to the floor) were bending back past 90 degrees in my attempt to get flat hands.

My mother on the other hand is great at that one. That's why she said the thing about being 'too flexible' that I echoed in gym class when they told me I was not flexible enough.

Anyway, I did crappy on that test in gym class. Always did. I could get my hands past my feet, but not enough to pass the test.

What nobody told me, is that with an adult armspan of 4'10", and a height of 5'2", my armspan is a couple inches shorter than the minimum it ought to be for my height, and four inches shorter than the average. So the difference between my mother and me might just be that she has a normal armspan and I don't. That particular test is one of hip flexibility, and I did used to be flexible enough there to put one foot behind my head. (Might still technically be, but I'm fatter than I used to be, so in practice I can come close but not quite do it.)

I remember also, speaking of that, that my father always talked about a double-jointed kid on his school bus who could put both feet behind his head. That got me curious enough to try it, and I thought I was not double-jointed because I could only put one foot behind my head.



Yeah. I was at a community college in a world religions course, and my hand just quit working (and if I tried to write, my handwriting was enormous and all over the page), and if I tried to force it, it hurt so bad I started crying.

Prior to that, I'd been able to learn to tough out the pain enough to even finally have neat and somewhat elaborate (modeled on the fairly fancy handwriting my brother used to make album covers) handwriting if I tried hard enough. But for some reason that just didn't work anymore.

the only part of me that is hypermobile is my spine, I can bend in just any way, also hip flexors, I can bend my pinkies back about 90 degrees, but the others only about 60, elbows & knees to only about 180..

Age 24, female, diagnosed ADD, but I think I may be AS
*edit* I got 5

Last edited by msinglynx on 01 Aug 2008, 12:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I get a 6.....

I'm 31, female, diagnosed aspie. Ironically I knew about my hypermobility way before I knew I have Aspergers, I had to have keyhole surgery on my shoulder just under 2 years ago because I tore it apart because of my joints being so supple.

It means you have to be more careful with your joints as they're far more prone to damage due to, in many cases, weakened connective tissues. It also means you're more likely to get arthritis (I have it in my hip, shoulder, and wrists) which can be a downer. It just means high-impact sports and activities are a no-no.

Male, 49 years old...
Scored a 5. My joints are not as flexible as they were when I was in my teens
back then I could have scored a 9.

I tried bending my pinky fingers back with my hand flat on the table, and it actually does go past 90 degrees, though only slightly - it was confusing before because I was bending my finger back in mid-air.

Also, the right thumb that before would only get within about a centimeter, this time touched my arm pretty easily. I was having some pain in my hands and knees and ankles the other day, which is much less by now.

So apparently I score a 4. Now I KNOW that my sister has a high Beighton score.

Four.
Seventeen, female, diagnosed Aspie.

After I posted that, I was sitting down and my mom came in, and I asked her about the angle of my legs/knees (I had them at what I thought was flat out, but she said that it was angled upwards, like in the pictures that they say for hypermobility).

I used my hand to check the angle, and it looks like it's about 10 degrees like she said, so my score might actually be 5 or 6. I really don't think the elbows are like that, but then again I thought when testing myself that my knees weren't at all hyperextensible.

Wow. I knew that there was the possibility that I was missing stuff, but I had no idea it could be that dramatic a difference, between 1 and 5 or 6. I should have suspected that it would be better with someone else interpreting the diagrams and such, as I tend to have difficulty with mimicing pictures of movements, and with confusing the instructions.

I had all but the knees. I also have double joints in my fingers and thumbs, elbows, and shoulders. I can put my hands together and reach over my head and all the way back. I was wondering if anyone knows if theres some chromosome abnormality that connects hypermobility with autism and schizophrenia. Ive read about a few of them but they all have abnormalities that i do not have. Ive been trying to get a karyotype test to find out if theres an explaination to this. My dad has all the same symptoms and so does his brother and my cousins, so its highly genetic. Noone in my family is severly low functioning or has any other major abnormalities though. It appears to be very high functioning autistic and schizo/affective traits with adhd and mild learning disorders, along with severe hypermobility of the arms and fingers, crooked 4th toes, big head and ears, tall height, tics, and acid reflux. Nothing else appears abnormal but all these traits are in several family members on my dads side. Also if it matters everyone with it is norwegian. Does anyone know what could be causing this? Ive been very intrested to find out.

It's really hard to tell on most of them. The knees/elbows/pinkies. Past 90 degree pinky? LOL, what if it's exactly a right angle, but the tip goes further back? Who knows. I can't do the first one, but I can definitely do the thumb one.

23/f/HFA

Nil score. I would consider myself the opposite to hypermobility, not flexible at all. Like this all my life.

Dx AS, Male, 47.

25, DX HFA and scored 7. Have chronic foot/ankle/achilles tendon problems.