No Problem with Eye Contact?

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I can't remember ever having an issue with it except for ONE time in elementary school. A nasty teacher I didn't like came into my classroom and wanted to greet my class. We were sitting on the floor and had to stand up, shake her hand and say hello. I remember standing up and she grabbed my hand but I refused to look at her or say hello. She yelled at me!

Other than that no one has ever mentioned I had trouble with eye contact. I don't think I do now either. Sometimes I look to the right when thinking of what I want to say. That's it.

Is it very abnormal for a person with AS to have typical eye contact?

I'm wondering the same thing too. My psychiatrist won't consider that I might have AS because of eye contact. I'm still trying to figure out my social problems and the obsessive interests, but maybe it's being caused by something else.

It's diagnostically possible, sure, just unusual.

I also can read faces, which is why I am curious. I fit like every other criteria for AS except these two very MAJOR things.

I've always found eye contact to be on a parallel with a physical pain, and forcing myself to make fake eye contact in social situations, makes me forget every word of an introduction or conversation. If I'm having a serious talk with my wife, or explaining something to a boss, etc etc., I need to focus on the floor, or on a door knob, etc. Otherwise I'll make nonsense.

Charles

When I'm with people I often look at their eyes and then quickly avert them over and over. I just want them to know that I'm still listening, although I have gotten the "creeper" label at school when I do this

The short answer. No.

The DSM was designed specifically to detect autism in *children*. That's the problem here. We learn to imitate normal social behavior as we grow older, it just happens more slowly for us than with NTs.

Once you reach an age of 30 or so the social gap between us and NT's is small enough that it isn't easy to detect using such concrete measures as the DSM. At least not when you interpret the criteria in a strictly literal way. In fact, our differences may be so subtle that the average NT wouldn't be able to tell us what it is that makes us different. This isn't because the difference is insignificant. It is significant. It just manifests itself largely in the realm of subconscious behavior.

It takes an experienced and intuitive psychiatrist to diagnose an adult. Even then it's not easy to get a diagnosis. It helps a lot to have someone who can relate how you were *as a child*. You might also have better luck getting a diagnosis of PDD-NOS rather than AS or autism.

Like everyone else said, it's possible just unusual. But, it's also common for people with ASD to overestimate how functional they are in different areas.. because to us what we do doesn't seem strange. So, before you're so sure that you have normal eye contact, you might want to ask family members or friends if they think you have normal eye contact. Some people with ASD even make too much eye contact and stare, probably because they're trying to do what they're "supposed to do" but end up doing it wrong still.

No problem with eye contact here and I never have. Looking into the eyes of a pretty woman is one of the finer things in life.

Vanilla_Slice

It's not common for AS-ers to have no eye contact problems. When you do look in people's eyes, are you just seeing eyes or what they're feeling? Because I think being able to make eye contact is different from getting meaning out of it.