Eye contact

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Are there any other conditions or whatever out there that have this as a diagnostic criteria?

Just plain old shyness, I suppose... But I always wonder.

This was really the first thing that clued me in... before I knew of AS or anything but... I remember always being told to, "Look at me!" when I would get scolded by parents and such. I always wondered why I had trouble doing so, in general... Not just when I was in trouble for something...

I have always hated when people tell me to look at them but I didn't get much of that in my teens. Maybe it was because the teachers knew about my AS so they didn't tell me to look at them. I assume they knew because I was on the IEP.
My parents did tell me in my childhood to look at them because I was learning to say words correctly and they needed me to look at their mouths so I would know how the words were formed. Even at two years old they had to hold a favorite toy of mine up their their faces because my eyes would wander around when they speak to me. They wanted me to see where the words were coming from. But I still failed eye contact. Of course I knew where the words were coming from. I have some memories of being two.

But I got told "Look at me" last October and I just stared at her fat body. I couldn't look at he face.

many schizophrenics avoid eye contact, i think because it's too difficult for them to look and process thoughts at the same time, but i might be remembering the reason incorrectly.

The "autism" part of Schizophrenia (see: negative symptoms, with the lack of eye contact coming under the affective flattening cluster).

The negative symptoms of the aforementioned disorder are quite similar to AS (AD tends to have the worst "autism" symptoms), which is why it's mentioned in the differential diagnosis section.

People with autism have trouble with eye contact, I thought, because the brain processes it differently and gives a fear response?

I remember being told that as well, I also got the "look at my nose"
I always thought I was doing it and it annoyed me when they said this stuff.

Sorry for the late response... Having PC issues.

That kinda sounds like why I can't look at people. I'm a very visual thinker and it's hard to have the visual input & output running at the same time... If I'm talking to someone and get caught looking into their eyes... I can't think or hear... and depending on how soon I can snap myself out of it... I will just be blankly staring at them indefinitely.

@Danielismyname-- I hadn't heard of that for schizophrenia. Thanks. Though it makes sense... I have heard it being linked to autism before.

Hadn't heard that either. Thanks. That type of response would be amygdala/hippocampal dependent... Both structures have been shown to be affected in autism... So could make sense.

When someone posts on WP asking if they sound autistic, probably the simplest question to ask is how much eye contact they give. I've been under the assumption that continual, rather than occasional, lack of eye contact suggests some specific defect above and beyond mere shyness and narrows down the range of possible mental illnesses, schizophrenia being the other candidate, depression also.