Appearing ''robotic''

Post Reply New Topic

I have Aspergers' and I'm told frequently by people that I appear like a robot. This basically means I rarely change my facial expression, have strange and mechanical body language, talk in a monotone etc. A lot of the time I simply look indifferent, tired or dazed, and any facial expression I try to make comes across as forced. I'm pretty much at a loss with how to make this better. Did any of you guys have this problem and if so what have you done to make it less noticeable?

I don't express emotions well.
When I was young I had a waitress job and they told me I had to smile.
I started practicing smiling and that exercised my smile muscles and made it easier to smile.

I've had issues with this as well, with all of the behaviours you listed. I haven't been able to make it less noticeable, but that's simply because I don't really care if I seem like a robot. (In fact, I won't be surprised if I learn I have a computer in my head instead of an organic brain.)

I've had this "problem", but it lessened over the years, presumably because I've since learned to more become what I was always supposed to be.
I still "lack" facial expressions, but from what I've gathered, this is because aspies are more sensitive to sensorial stimuli and "should" be able to pick up on them quicker (so you need less to see stuff), once you've learned how.

My diagnostic report claims that I have a tendency to speak in a monotone and have "limited facial expressions", as well as "frequent use of odd words or phrases". I've also been told by my family that I don't show much emotion, and that I sound like I've "swallowed a dictionary", and my dad once told me that talking to me was like "talking to a computer" in that you have to be very specific and exact when coding; one wrong word or symbol, and the whole program fails. I suppose that amounts to appearing robotic. Around strangers, this stiffness, lack of expression, and use of overly formal diction is a defence mechanism, a protective barrier, if you will, which prevents me from having to show my real self, and which acts like a social script that I can just repeat the same way over and over, which is safer and less confusing and anxiety-inducing than real interactions.

As a kid, I had an extensively large vocabulary (I was called a walking encyclopedia). I also (and still do) mumble due to a hearing problem and did what I now know is called echolalia. That's not even talking about how completely literal I was: for example, mom asked me to get a Band-Aid and I would tear apart the first aid kit before claiming we had none. We only had the generic ones but she specifically used a brand name.

Later on when I got to Junior High/High school, the experts would tell me what to say stop being a target of bullies. I would recite it word for word without expression and wondered why the bullying got much worse. Did I mention I was a computer whiz as a kid?

When I was a kid, in school when I was asked to read scripts, I was often criticized by the teachers for having a monotone voice. Eventually I grew to have some variation in my speech in my late teens, but I suppose I may have a lack of facial expression most of the time, unless I am laughing.

I would say I appear more Vulcan than robotic, given a choice between the two.
That said, I once won a masquerade at a science fiction convention
for my eerie portrayal of Borg, 1 of 5.

Me too. People have used variations of this theme, describing me as "zen," "calm," then less kindly as "uninterested," "indifferent," to "dead." I recently had a run in with this in a job interview and the subsequent dissection of it by the employment agency. The real kicker of this is I notoriously don't speak with a monotone due to years of cross-gendered socialisation and my voice does have appropriate variations, I do okay with facial expressions and I know my face is not completely blank, I'm a bit short on body language but I know for a fact I was not sitting there perfectly still.
The point is, even if you do find out how to act more NT, for people who have this complaint, it never seems like you act enough just like they do. I told the employment agency I was working on getting myself into a situation where not only was being calm a decided asset, not a failing, but that there would be no need to play act because my work and training will end up speaking for themselves. I vote putting ourselves in situations where we can just be, not trying to change ourselves to every petty situation.

Just remember that the fact they don't see you showing your emotions, doesn't mean you don't have any or even experience fewer emotions.

I've been told a lot about "the things that were wrong with me", but it makes sense once they start understanding me. Not all want to try hard enough to understand me though, so at some point I stopped bothering explaining it to those people. They didn't even want to hear it, they had their opinions and stances about me already loaded in the barrel, ready to fire.

What you are describing is VERY common in people with AS. It shows strong evidence that you most certainly have AS. Trying to overcome or at least minimize autistic traits takes.a lot of time and effort. One problem with that is a lot of us lack self awareness. My cousin who is my best friend helps to coach me.

I too have been told I sound like a robot when I speak. I also think I have a electronic brain and someday they will discover I am not human at all.

When I was at school we read a book called The Stone-Faced Boy by Paula Fox, as a class reader, guess what my nickname was for months afterwards?

Last edited by Jute on 13 Sep 2016, 2:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.

A girl left me for another dude one day.
She said I was too "Green Day".
Still don't get it, but get the idea.
Same feeling right?

How? in a selfie world I don't even have a pic on LinkedIn because I just don't look right, it's either deer in headlights or high times. Unless I am laughing naturally I just can't get the logistics of the smile on demand, plus the eyes, how do you soften that up.