Autistic physical traits

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I'm probably biased as all my children look very similar [often mistaken for twins] regardless of which combination of all four children you choose. Since 2 are neurotypical and two are autistic and none of them look like my husband or me, perhaps we just don't fit into the mainstream of opinion. [atypical]
Best wishes
http://whitterer-autism.blogspot.com

For me, it has been long legs and very skinny. I've always have trouble gaining weight but very losing it. Also, when I was younger I was very flexible and would worry my mother about what I could, however, I'm not that limber anymore. I've had upper jaw surgery to correct a very bad open bit. (only my back teeth touched!! !!) After the surgery, I still had bad headaches which lead to the knowleged I have very loss joints which cause problems in my back and my skull. The plates in my skull move around too much which cause a back up in fluids in the brain and cause my back to go out of wrack. Also, I have very very very sensitive skins which has cause problems with soap and lotations.

First of all, Drowning medusa,

Your picture looks fine. I don't know if you remember, but you might have been talking or something at the time. It's a pity, for this purpose, that your hair covered up your ears in the younger frontal shot.

As for me, the maximum asymmetry is perhaps 1/2"(about 1.2cm). I think I have more rectangular ears. Narrower and taller. Some DID say they stuck out a bit, but I don't know if they ever really did, and I don't think they do now. I estimate they stick out about 1/2". STILL, I have the auditory issues going on. PA systems, and people to close to the mike, etc.... make me WINCE! I turn away to avoid the pain. I am often the ONLY one. That is one part of the aircraft, and street I could NEVER tolerate. The corners of my mouth DO turn down when I am relaxed. My eyes might be a LITTLE sunken, kind of like medusas. And I have the visual deal going on ALSO. I used to think this was dumb luck because of fair eyes, etc... but others have fair eyes and no such problems. And the last flight I took in an A319 cinched it! DOZENS of people thought I was NUTS!

Officially noticed differences?

1. Droopy eyelids. (doctor)
2. Double Pupils. (doctor. And looking closely in a well lite room, it is obvious. Only ONE person at school ever mentioned it though. It was enough for his attitude toward me to change!)
3. Small mouth. (dentist)
4. big teeth. (dentist)

BTW I was brought up thinking my eyes were blue! I REMEMBER them being blue! My MOTHER said they were blue. They are green/grey, and none of us were or are color blind. The sky is still blue, and the grass is still green!

Also, my hair is brown, but my beard is redish.

I bring up the color thing because it is odd, and apparantly grouped with an odd situation dan akroyd says he has.

Frankly, I don't think I look unusual. Heck, what do I know? I don't think drowning medusa looks unusual either.

Steve

You're probably right, steve, i do look as though I was talking. I can't find a pic of myself as a kid with my ears outside of my mop (I'll blame that on my mom's bad taste in haircuts... what am I saying... i have the same haircut now! lol)

As for noise, I also find many noises painful. Motorbikes going by on the street, firetrucks, feedback... they literally make me panic a little. I wonder if droopy ears just collect more sound...

And as for my officially noticed differences, it's the large, sunken eyes. My stare is unnerving to some. Luckily I'm not interested in people enough to stare at them very much...

What do double pupils look like anyway

Drowning medusa,

WOW, I only found about 1000 references to the word combination, and most are not about what I am talking about. That IS what the doctor called it, even when I was born. One sight says something about vision problems, but it WAS fiction. I have normal vision, and the name refers to the way that part of my eye is colored. If the pupil is larger, you can't see it.

As for the ears collecting more sound, I doubt that is the whole thing. I DO sometimes rotate my head to try to avoid the pain without being TOO obvious though. Besides, I like to often be able to use my hands. 8-( So obviously a change in the ears COULD vary it. At least with me. Yeah, some motorcycle noise can hurt me as well. Sadly, many people actually TRY to make their motorcycles sound like what I hate. Yeah, I didn't mention it. Alarms of ALL sorts also hurt. Anyway, that is one of the things that REALLY struck me every time I saw a definition for autistic. It has affected me as long as I can remember, doesn't seem to affect anyone else, and can't be explained away by anything else.

I don't know if there is really anything where you can say he or she has such a look, and isn't autistic. The shape of my face is more like yours than the boy you also showed. As for your stare? I have a stare that could seem similar. I usually don't do it when I am looking straight at a person though. Heck, I caught myself doing it on the road last night. Maybe it has something with all that I am doing. At this point, I would be willing to learn ANYTHING to correct a lack of info in a useful area, etc... and am trying to take more nutrition for the brain, etc... I guess it must be working. This week, I just WENT to my car(no attempt to remember where I parked), and I used to NEVER even try to rmember the password here(and I still don't), but I remember the last 2! One is a month old. This week, I tried to go over a list of almost 2000 words. I think I still have over 50% retention of those I only saw once. It will take me a while to review them all to verify that. Again, that is how I always been, with the stare, it just seems to be more like it was.

Yeah, I don't think any doctors have, or any one has, ever said anything about sunken eyes with me.

As for your hair? That's fine. I just meant so I could see how your ears stick out. Most of the people that have pictures show features I can say I don't have. Like that boy you had in your post. In retrospect, I don't remember any time when the shape, etc.... has suggested any real massive head growth. I wish I knew about this earlier. 8-( I ended up having a CT scan of my brain in DC.(I had an accident, and blood thinners, and I guess they wanted to make sure I didn't have any bleeding. Ironically, if I had, I would have died before I got the scan!) It would have been nice to see if they could have looked to see about any differences in my brain. I have ALWAYS wanted to see it, but never so much as now! That would probably be the thing that REALLY makes it clear.

Steve

I don't know if the large head means anything, but my grandson has a very large head. The pediatrician sent him for MRI's, CT scans, x-rays, etc. because his head was growing very rapidly compared with his body, but no problems were found. Just the sheer size and weight of his head caused him to be delayed in crawling, sitting, walking, etc , because he couldn't hold his head up. He didn't walk til he was almost 2 1/2 years old.

DrowningMedusa you were one cute kid!



Here is the most recent pic of myself. Just taken today. Age 53
(I have got those lose set ears and the kind of drooly mouth)

JTsNana,

Yeah, it DOES! Apparently, at least some autistics have a growth spurt in the brain that most kids get later. The resumt is that the brain my end up being the same size, but it is bigger earlier on.

Everyone,

And my ears do look like pauls from what I can see. right down to proportion, position, and even the relation of the last fold to the rest of the ear. My mouth looks more turned down, if anything.

BTW Drowning medusa, for the record, I thoughr about saying the SAME thing! You WERE a cute kid! If you were teased, I don't see how it could have been for your looks. I can't comment on the older shot, just because it doesn't show enough to make an honest appraisal. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to show anyone. I have a job were I am constantly being hired, and some may treat me differently or have preconcieved notions if they thought I was "autistic". That is the only reason why I don't put up my picture. I DO definately have SOME trouble with certain facial features. Sometimes I can't see the forest for the trees. You guys may see something I just don't.

I even wanted to ask alex to change my username. I really didn't expect to say so much stuff about me, or change my way of refering to things in a way. Also, someone that knows me COULD easily discern from my posts who I am(if the name didn't give it away).

STILL, with all the shows starting to talk about AS, someone is BOUND to consider it. One guy at work fancies himself a linguist. Apparantly he CAN speak several languages relatively fluently. English isn't his first language, but he DOES know some odd words, etc... He was REALLY trying to get the answers to questions like WHY I know so much, and don't have trouble with the more obscure words he uses when others don't know so much, and don't understand the words.

He is the first one that I can remember recently that asked such questions after such a brief acquaintance. When I was younger, I used more bigger words, and it was more distinct. Lately, people could know me for YEARS and not comment. But he knew me for less than a month. nd MOST people just wonder out loud, or ask once, and that is it. OK, for computer knowledge they ask a lot.

The computer knowledge comes from all the usual sources. I guess the language does also. It is just that I was more interested in them, so I learned more, and quicker. HECK, I still remember things about basic that haven't even been taught in nearly 25 years. I learned some of the basic in highschool, but I kept learning. And I STILL remember finding the word zygote in the dictionary. And I know I was younger than 7 when that happened.

Still, even though it seems so simple, WHY ME? For computers, most of the time I didn't seem to have a great memory. It looks like I am finally getting THAT back!

Steve

By the way, children (in teasing) often notice differences that adults don't, unless those adults are trained to notice those specific differences. Non-autistic children tend to have a very honed eye (and ear, etc) for differences.

The differences in my appearance (by which I mean, structural ones) are blatant to some people and subtle to others. But I can always count on some kid yelling in public things like "She's got really small ears!" whereas most adults (except the ones who wash my hair, who for some reason also frequently pick up on these things, possibly because they're in contact with so many different bodies all day) don't tend to notice, or don't notice as strongly. (Adults do often see the combined "effect" as it were, but are less likely to point out specific parts of it.)

(I also think the shower people are also strapped for conversational topics, since I can't take a communication device into the shower with me, so they start commenting on body parts to pass the time. So I hear a lot about my "tiny" mouth, ears, hands, or feet, and a lot about my "very thick" hair, etc., also from medical professionals sometimes.)

Here is the most recent pic of me (with ears more in view) They are pretty square and low set and turn over at the top.

Try'd to get a pic of my cat doing the head rub thing, it's bad quality but you can see my ear pretty clearly. I'm not sure if that's usual aspie shape but i know my ears stick out a bit (think thats one of the traits). I've also got the wetlips and slightly downturned mouth thing.

Paul you have very pretty eyes! They look like my boyfriends, big, blue, long lashes, slightly heavy lids...