I spy an Aspie

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Do you guys find it easier to spot a person with Autism/Asperger's easier than when you knew nothing about the syndrome? I'm not saying that I quickly assume that someone has the syndrome, but I suspect. I went to a 90s party last weekend and there was this chubby guy standing by himself, so I approached him and started making conversation. Yes, I was drunk but I didn't care and he didn't seem to mind either. He definitely struck me as an Aspie for a few reasons. I guess I didn't annoy him cause he added me on facebook the next day LOL I just saw him there by himself and I quickly felt like he was an aspie, and my heart went out to him (in a friendly way). I just wanted to hug him hehe

I can't spot an Aspie unless they are doing something to make it look obvious.

Sort of, I can.. Since I got involved with an aspie meet-up group/made some close aspie friends, I can, more-so now, tell if a random person I meet MIGHT be a aspie.. Mostly, I think of a few people from my past, as well as a couple more recent friends/associates and now see that there's a good chance they are on the spectrum.

Well, I found out that one of my Biology partners has Aspergers. He asked me if I had it.

I don't know if I can tell at all but at recent visits to the mall I saw a kid going in that went back and forth between toe walking and regular walking. I also saw a guy that when he talked he reminded me of Stephen Hawking.

One of my professors always reminded me a lot of myself, even stating herself that I reminded her of herself when she was yonger. She would get so excited while lecturing, sometimes hopping when especially so.

However, I hadn't heard much about asperger's until recently. Since we are on fairly good ones I broached the topic of asperger's and she said that most of her family had it, including herself. After having learned about asperger's I had started to suspect she might have it but I don't know if that would count as "spotting" since I have known her for several years.

I wouldn't know. It's not something I'm in the habit of confirming by asking someone I don't know very well.

I can only think of one person I'm nearly positive is. I work with him on occasion. I highly doubt I'll ever ask him though, unless the topic of Autism ever comes up, but I doubt that will ever happen either.

I saw 2 suspected ASD people today at work. One was sort of obvious, wore a T-shirt with something about not being crazy etc. ..
But I didn't ask. Complete strangers after all.

Sincerely,
Matthew

I do not consider myself qualified enough to "spot" people with Aspergers or Autism of any form. I'm more about having good evidence about something before making a guess though, with everything.

It's impossible to know when one "spots" an Aspie without a follow-up confirmation. While someone may think that they've spotted an Aspie, they may have only spotted someone having a bad day.

Read up on the reticular activator. It's highly related to priming, but serves a slightly different purpose.

Basically, once something has been brought to your attention, you start noticing other things related to it with much higher frequency.

You may not really pay much attention to the cars on the road, but the moment you start thinking about what kind of car you'd like to buy next you start noticing them a lot more. Once you own a car, you will tend to pick out and notice that same model almost instantly when you see others on the road. When I started working for a plumbing company, I started noticing other plumbing company trucks on the road, and I defaulted to looking for their master plumbing license number on the truck, since I know that is required to be displayed on the truck - but the reality is, I DON'T CARE about plumbers driving around, not one bit. It's the reticular activator that's causing me to notice things I could otherwise care less about.

Once you are aware of the various symptoms of autism, your reticular activator starts looking for them with greater frequency. We know autism is a spectrum disorder, but there's no reason to discount the possibility that it is also a continuum that reaches all the way into the "full-blooded NT" side of things, especially if it really is just a difference. That would make it no different from "water temperatures" which range from hot to lukewarm to cold to freezing.

(I do like that reticular activator article, because of the part of the first sentence in parenthesis, seeing as how it is directly related to most of the sensory issues with autism.)