Downer wrote:
I am NT, but I am kind of borderline NT; I'm just a few points away on the tests given by psychologists from ASD.
Whenever nobody is home, I absolutely love to walk back and forth, from one end of the house to the other. I normally accompany this behavior with "interviewing myself". I basically talk about my life and my views on certain things, as if I'm answering a question that somebody has asked me. I can literally do this for hours if the family is out long enough.
Now interestingly enough, I have two twin brothers who are both autistic (and they are not identical twins; somehow they managed to have the same severity of autism) and they pretty much do the same thing. They are a lot more open about talking to themselves, but they do the pace around the house thing more when I'm not there. When I walk past the bathroom door while one of them is taking a shower, I always hear a conversation going on. They talk to themselves very frequently while they are in their room as well.
So I just wanted to ask, how many of you talk to yourself, pace often, or do both at the same time? I was interested in seeing whether or not it is a common thing among people with autism/Asperger's.
This sounds just like me. I do this to a very large extent. For a few hours I can quite enjoy it, actually. Often I go through the same discussions or interviews in my head several times in a row, just slightly refining and adjusting them. It can be either a discussion with myself, a fictional discussion with a true character, or a fictional discussion with a fictional character. Some discussions makes me depressed or worried, others makes me happy or excited. Although I usually don't speak out loud I often mimic and/or whispers and may sometimes burst out in laughter. Although I do this a lot more when I'm alone I also do it on the bus amongst only strangers or when my girlfriend is nearby. She says I'm cute when I do it, although I have not discussed the possibility of me possibly having AS or boardering to AS with her. I have even decided not to pursue a diagnosis as I have whatever help I need already, although I sometimes think it would be nice to know for sure.
Sometimes, these discussions can be about technical or deeply (but rigorous) philosophical topics. The technical parts is actually helpful for my work as a scientist. I am of the opinion that the philosophical is helpful for me as a human although it also cause some existential troubles. I also have wondered whether the "interviews" as you call it are a kind of practice for social situations as it means that I have thougt through a wide range of scenarios in advance (although most of them never happens in real life). A bad thing about these "inner talks" is that I can get stuck in a kind of loop, repeating (almost) the same interviews or discussions over and over again, sometimes for an entire day.
Is this what you mean? If so, yes I have it.
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Many traits but no official diagnosis. Certainly BAP, possibly AS.