22 Jun 2016, 8:41 am
Hello! I am a 17 year old female who recently stumbled upon Aspergers and felt a connection to some of the criteria. Upon viewing a couple of the topics here, I had plenty of little "ah ha" moments where my weird behaviors seemed to be in common with others. I am curious as to if Aspergers could be the cause behind some of it and was wondering if anyone could relate to some of my behaviors:
-I physically stim a lot in the form of wiggling my fingers and toes against one another which helps ease stress
-I visually stim by moving my head so the edges of objects in the foreground and background line up or are parallel
-I am a very visual and conceptual thinker. I can see in my mind the way systems work (or will work) and how things that have seemingly no correlation, are in fact connected. Even when writing essays, I find myself visualizing as a picture how each paragraph will work together.
-I struggle greatly to keep eye contact. I can keep it for a few seconds but will have to glance away briefly or I feel like I'm making both of us uncomfortable
-I do understand body language and facial expressions, but get tripped up when it comes to the reason behind such emotions. I think the former may be conditioned, though, because I struggled when I was younger. Now, I know when someone is mad at me, but just not why or why to such an extent.
-Emotions seem very frivolous and illogical. Life seems to work just fine if you approach it from a "does it work or not" standpoint, not the "how does this make you feel" standpoint
-I never got along with other kids when I was younger. My mom made me see a therapist when I was 9 because my roughhousing with my brother just seemed malicious in her eyes. I have a couple close friends now, though.
-I find chit chat excruciatingly painful. When people say declarative statements to me, I'm never sure how to respond because all they've done is state something. Do you want me to agree? Change the subject? Who knows.
-I don't have routines that are based on precise times, but rather things that have to be done a certain way when they arise. For example, I sit in the same chair every night for dinner and only will shower prior to 8pm.
-I'm very interested in politics, chemistry and space, although I don't have much time to pursue them while managing my school work
-None of my clothes can have tags in them because they irritate me, I hate light touches and have a lot of textural problems, especially with food.
If anyone can relate (or not relate) I would love some feedback 
thank you
25 Jun 2016, 7:55 pm
