I can't read facial expressions at all?

Post Reply New Topic

Only the basics but anything further I can't read at all. Even mine own sometimes, I need to get people to help me.

Why? Why cant I read facial expressions?

"Why can't I read facial expressions?" ?!?!?! -.-

Well, assuming you have Aspergers, considering you have an account here, that is the dumbest question I have seen yet... Why?

1. You have ASPERGERS SYNDROME

2. Not being able to read facial expressions is one of the severe symptoms!! ! (ALSO THE ANSWER TO YOUR Q)

Seriously?

Now that that's over, (sorry for my rudeness, Aspergers ) I can barely read facial expressions as well. I know when someone is smiling, angry (sometimes), and confused. That's about it. Whenever someone is screaming with pain, I think they are laughing. You can guess where it goes from there, lol.

Oh, and BTW, I am a HUGE Linux fan

An NT once recommended this to me. I swear that even though this isn't 100% effective, at least it has sharpened my ability to interpret facial expressions--watch more TV.

Me neither.

And apparently I don't actively control my own. I get people asking me why I'm so pissed off all the time, when I'm feeling perfectly fine.

It's a symptom of all ASD's. Most people on the spectrum can't recognize facial expressions.

I have trouble with expressions too......I get that there's some expression if it isn't really subtle and if I'm paying attention but but even then it's more like I know it's a "negative emotion expression" but I usually just assume the person is annoyed/angry or something with me or wants me to go away,(yes...I'm a bit insecure and paranoid) where as it later gets revealed that they're bored, nervous, "irritable" but not annoyed at me or sad/upset. Another problem for me is that a lot of times I'm just not paying attention to other people's faces

As to your question, autistic people can have certain symptoms more severely and others more mildly from what I've observed. So some autistic people can recognize expressions to a certain extent (like me) and some not at all. You might have other symptoms that are more mild, but this symptom is just really severe or pronounced in you, or maybe you just have a severe overall presentation of the disorder. Anyway it isn't unusual for an autistic person to not recognize facial expressions at all. You can buy books or download internet resources to help with this, not even necessarily written for people with ASD but just resources on how to read non-verbal cues exist- I think some NT's have trouble with it too. You can learn to recognize other nonverbal behaviour this way too-like body language-you won't learn as well as people who know this stuff instinctively but you might improve a lot. I've been too lazy, not self disciplined enough to try to really teach myself this -I suck- but it has worked for others on the spectrum to a certain extent-according to this site anyway.