What Aspie traits DON'T you have?

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Arm flappin'

I fapp to compensate

I've been told that I'm very charming in 1-on-1 conversation (Generally someone else has to start it, I still have trouble knowing how to do that).

I can maintain comfortable eye contact pretty well.


I do have a special interest, but it's less intense than many people's. Although my life does kind of center around it so maybe not.

I'm like that too. I let my obsessions take over my life. I'm obsessed with buses and the bus-drivers, and I'm doing anything find a job where I have to get there by this one particular bus what I get to my volunteer job and the job centre. (I just hope the government doesn't axe that service!! !!) But it's not as intense as some people's are on the spectrum. I can't really be bothered to find out more about the bus company, and I don't talk about it excessively to other people (maybe at home I sometimes do more).
I've also got a bit of an obsession with the weather, but I don't go far with it. I'm only obsessed with it because snow makes me anxious (I hate snow) so I am always looking on the BBC website for the outlook forecast, and now it's developed into a bit of an obsession. In the summer I don't get so obsessed, but I still like to look on the BBC website to see how hot it's going to stay or be!

I don't speak entirely in monotone, just low notes of limited range.

I don't hand flap. My stim (if it is that) is pacing, rocking my chair back, finger/thumb rubbing, and the occasional toe walk (much less frequent today).

I can only think of a couple right now.

- I do not have problem with fine motor skills. I write nicely and paint good pictures. I'm also good at detailed works and can repair lots of stuff.

- I don't really have meltdowns. I control my emotions well and hardly even get angry.

- I don't have any strong special interest, I do have several non-strong special interests that most people would find boring.

I think I'm really quite typical.

By the way, I believe I've missed out the most common symptom in AS of all - social difficulties.
But with the social difficulties, it's hard to pick out a particular type of difficulty I exhibit. Because everybody on this planet are individuals and are completely different from another, everybody has their own personality and their own way of communicating, even though it all looks the same. Social cues may all be the same, but everybody has their own unique way of exploiting their social cues. Some people might complain more than others. Some people are more cheerful and bubbly than others. Some people are more confident than others. Some people are more shy than others. Some people may only like to be with certain amount of people. Some people might not have any particular friends, just talk to anyone and everyone. Some people like to joke more, and others are serious. Some people are strange, others are easier to get along with.
So you get different types of social interaction, personalities, attitudes, likes and dislikes, opinions, ect. There are so many different social cues, and I think there is another thread what's about ''what social cues do you have less trouble with?'' or something like that.

But, all in all, I struggle in some areas with social cues, but sometimes I just need that much more confidence and I don't think I'll do too badly.

OK, where do I start?

TRAITS THAT I DON'T HAVE:

-Sensory issues with sound and sight

-Extreme introversion

-Eye contact issues

-Starring issues (I don't stare at people)

-Love of animals

-Visual learning

-Monotone voice

-Blank expression

-Skills in math or science

-Collecting things

-Problems reading tone of voice and some facial expressions

-Logical thinking

-Attachment to objects

-Detail-orientated

-"Going" nonverbal when upset

My special interests aren't actually stereotypical for AS either.

I am very creative...and not good at math, and dont follow routines well
but other than that all else applies

The whole Simon Baran-Cohen theory doesn't really apply to me. I don't think I've ever been "mind blind" in any degree. Counselors have told me that I'm actually more perceptive than average when it comes to understanding emotions and motives of people, at least intellectually . I don't have much innate interest or ability when it comes to social interaction so it's kind of surprising that I have high so-called "emotional intelligence" (at least on the end of intellectual insight as controlling my own emotions is a different story).

I think I have all the traits but not all severe and some in very atypical non aspie ways

for example: although I will pursue one interest to the exclusion of all others and this will dominate my thoughts and activities and cause me not to have time to keep up with things like current events or popular culture they are not pursued in the way aspie interests are described in aspie books i.e. my interests do not involve excessive collecting (except for one that I had in preschool of stuffed monkeys...)nor do they all involve accumulating a lot of data /rote memorizing facts (although some do and I do have good rote memory). For example when I was 14-15 years old my obsession was the Simpson’s ..I planned my day around watching it several times when the repeats and new episodes came on t.v and would think about it/look forward to it all day...I didn’t have any other interests that I remember...but did not look up data about the Simpson’s cartoons and how they were made or collect Simpson’s things etc. When I was 8 I was interested in octopi. I did one project and read about them and then became obsessed with a fantasy game where I was an octopus...but I never thought to go to the library and accumulate more data on octopi (i incorporated the facts I knew into one fantasy and then played it over and over again) nor did I collect cephalopod paraphernalia (although when my mom did get me some I was very exited about it). Some of interests also only last 3-6 months and not two years (which is supposed to be average)....although some have lasted 2 or more years. Some have been VERY socially appropriate like wanting to be/pretending to be a model/actress at 12 or 13.I am a girl btw........

I've never had a meltdown and I'm not sure if I stim or not (depends on what all is considered stimming). I've never really had sensory issues either, but come to think of it, my eyes do usually bother me when I'm outside during the day and I can't stand any kind of smell. I don't know if this counts.

I'm also pretty good at making eye contact, but when I am making eye contact I'm constantly thinking "have I been looking at the other person's eyes long enough" and "should I look away so I don't creep the other person out". So, I'm not sure if that counts either.

I am not a picky eater and generally speaking I have mild sensory issues (although I have several ones, but not to a level that prevents me from having a normal life); I don't have meltdowns due *only* to sensory stimuli: they make their part but then an emotional part is needed.

I don't have panic attacks - if for panic you mean something you can mistake for a heart attack; nevertheless I am easily startled, I over-react (tremble, etc) when scared, have meltdowns etc.

I don't go nonverbal when overloaded, just find it very hard to articulate but I am always up at least to blurt out something.

I do understand metaphors because my mother is a teacher of Literature and trained me until I was little.

I don't have totally flat voice and face, but still flatter than NTs.

Then there are other things in which I am not a stereotypical Aspie but are quite common anyway:
- I can make eye contact but I tend to stare hard
- I do recognize major facial expressions, I just miss the subtle ones
- There are several skills I learn intellectually, just as many of us have done.

Moreover, I'd say I don't lack imagination, but I've never really understood this Aspie trait since a lot of Aspies have a good imagination. I think it has more to do with social imagination or being good at making excuses and such. This would be an entire other topcic.

I tend to look at people when they speak to me, although I find it very uncomfortavle looking at them in directly in the eye. I think this is because untill the age of about 11 I had hearing problems (was 60% deaf at some points) and the only way I could undertsnad what people were saying was to lip read and I guess looking at them just became a habbit.

I don't use logic and other abstract thinking (note: even "cat" is abstract compared to my thinking) to compensate for my areas of difficulty. I only use them in order to be able to communicate with other people, and then I am only capable of it in short spurts. My normal kind of thinking is like swirls of sensory information all coming in without being sorted by abstraction (even "concrete abstraction" such as "cat"), and it all forms various (again, non-abstract, so not the same as "mathematical patterns") patterns, and that's basically it. It does things totally differently than abstraction, and gets totally different results. Such different results that it's a miracle I can use language at all, although it affects the way I use language in lots of subtle and not-so-subtle ways. (My tendency towards writing a lot of detail comes from aspects of the kind of thinking that goes on beneath it.)

While I do have intellectual-type interests, I feel like my primary interests, like my primary thinking, is sensory rather than conceptual. When I want to truly relax, I go for things like playing with bead mazes, not thinking about conceptual interests (which would be more tiring than relaxing).

Most of the time, I am the reverse of the stereotypical autistic person, probably because the stereotypical autistic person has been formed by those with more language, who tend to be less like people like me. This is to say, instead of understanding someone's words but not their tone of voice, I normally understand tone but not words. I understand the person's pattern of movement as well. I don't understand these through the same mechanism that nonautistic people understand them through, but I do understand them quite a lot more readily than language. I'm far more about tonality, movement patterns, the sound of someone's footsteps and breathing, things like that, than I am about understanding that language even exists.

I had far more textbook and pervasive AS traits as a kid. The ones I have never had are:

Less than typical eye contact (as far as I know).

Monotone voice or lack of facial expressiveness.

Lack of empathy or apparent signs of it.

Difficulty with figurative language and humor (only in written form).

Difficulty recognizing or remembering faces.

Sensory overloads or meltdowns (although based on things my parents have told me, I might have experienced this in VERY early childhood.) I do, however, have unusually sensitive sensory perception across the board, particularly visual and auditory.

2011-30=1981 That is, IIRC, at least in the US, when AS became a valid diagnosis. considering that they would probably be at least 6, you figure the oldest ones that were diagnosed early were about 35 or so. In college MAYBE 43, though that is doubtful. So, I wouldn't have been diagnosed. Pity, since they DID look at me when I was 6, but they didn't know of anything that fit. I'm older than 43, let alone 35.