ah HAH! I just realized....

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Thought I'd share a story about something I experienced tonight

I usually watch the world news around 6:30, but rarely take much time to observe the reporters. After a day of watching interviews with Christopher Walken (whom I suspect is on the spectrum) and observing his mannerisms, I thought "hmmm, let's see how these reporters conduct themselves.

I was watching a segment where George Stephanopoulos was interviewing Gen. David Petraeus about Afghanistan, and although I don't like George, the subject was interesting. I noticed that, as he asked a question, he kept his eyes right on his guest. As Gen Petraeus answered, he conducted himself likewise, AS HE WAS ANSWERING THE QUESTION!! ! The interview went on a few more minutes, both appearing to be quite natural at keeping their attentions focused on each other and not needing to look away whilst talking.

I have the common AS problem of not being able to maintain eye contact, but never had it hit home like this. I have to look away as I speak to collect my thoughts, and even do so when listening to someone. I notice many of my friends also glance away, and I take this as normal. However, here were two men, average to above average intelligence like me, and their conduct was markedly different from my own. I was surprised and also relieved that I had some sort of "standard" to compare my mannerisms to. No twitching, fidgeting, etc.

I'd be really interested to hear others' accounts of when they had their definitive "ah hah" moments

Well, for me it wasn't one thing, but after dropping out of college I met a guy who ranted about politics, and he made sense in the process. I then slowly realized that mostly everything I had been brought up to believe was a bunch of crap(not just politics, everything) and that I always knew this, but I buried that part of me during adolescence. It snowballed from there, and then I was able to put my thoughts into words, something I always thought I could do, but couldn't.

I've been watching eye contact on tv lately too. It seems odd to me to have that amount of eye contact especially in a real or in depth conversation.

Well, just now you made me realize that the reason I prefer to listen to the news than watch it on TV is probably that I can't watch and listen at the same time.

I never really realized that looking away when listening to someone wasn't normal until recently. I guess no one ever said anything to me about it. I once had to sit in on job interviews because they wanted someone there who actually knew about the work to be able to judge the interviewees by that. There was this one guy who interviewed who did not make eye contact with anyone at all. The whole time he was speaking his eyes were looking down at the table. This was odd even to me, someone who looks away, because I make eye contact, I just don't hold it. Sadly, they refused to hire him because of it, even if his work was decent.