Smiling...

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No doubt! I've learned to smile well for about one second at a time, but then it starts to look forced, so I have to try to time photos just right otherwise I think my smile looks terrible. I'll have to try that dirty thoughts trick. That sounds about as good as anything I've heard to date.

It's kind of tied in to the smiling thing, but I've noticed a lot lately that I have a hard time with sincere greetings. I've got a few set-piece greetings that I give people, but somehow going through the same routine (plastic smile, small wave, and say "how's it going?", or Hi, how are you?") 35 times a day with different people just seems so stale after a while. I get a feeling that if I could manage a more interested sounding greeting instead of falling into the same old knee-jerk automatic response, that I might be able to transition into real conversations a little easier.

I just don't smile the only time I smile is when I laugh at something or I'm really really nervous.

I really hate it when people try to force me to smile when taking pictures of me like theres something wrong with me if i don't smile for photographs. I hate that because if I'm smiling in a photo you aren't taking a picture that really represents me as a person I hate that they want to see someone that just isn't there and will refuse to take the picture i asked them to take until I smile for them which looks awful and is really uncomfortable for me.

Same problem here, people keep asking me if I'm angry or upset every other day. I do have a problem where I laugh at inappropriate moments though, such as a social situation gone awry and one person says something that strikes me as being particularly absurd. I absolutely lose it and go into hysterics. It's the most shrill hyena laugh, too.

Little makes me smile, except the world's stupidity.

"Cheer up, it might never happen!" they say.

Oh, but it has. It has.

sometimes i smile but it creeps people out.
the only time i have a half-decent smile is when im at home alone.

Well, if you're in Flagstaff, you could alternate English and Spanish. It's not much, I know, but at least that would halve the amount of same greetings. Adios!

Back in college I once took a decent picture. The only reason why was that after my initial ID picture, the look on the face of the girl operating the camera after was just so shocked/disgusted(?) I couldn't help but crack up. So she snapped another shot really quick and from that I had my best pik ev4r.

It's been said to that the look on my face is a cross between wanting to rip off some one's head off and having a bowl movement.


My smile always looks creepy.

(Does anyone else find them selves compulsively editing there posts.) this is the fourth time.

I do this too. Sometimes I laugh at myself as well. I try to restrain doing this most of the time, because it doesn't seem socially helpful. If I'm laughing at a situation that everyone else is absorbed in, I'm revealing how different my style of mind is from theirs.

this brings back bad memories... People used to tell me that I never smiled, and that I should smile more. SO... I tried it out for a while and thought I was doing well. ABout a week after starting this new "smiling thing" this popular kid in my class (who I didn't really know) came up to me and asked why I WAS ALWAYS SMILING!!?? he told me he saw me smiling at the concrete when I was walking (didn't have my head up, hated looking at anything other than the ground).. It was so embarrassing. I didn't smile for at least 2 weeks after that.
This same guy had to sit next to me in a language class, and we had to read stuff out to one another in that language. HE WAS STARING ME STRAIGHT IN THE EYESS!! !! it was the most uncomfortable thing ever. I tried to look back (when doing the speaking conversation practice with one another) and my eyes just started watering. THey really hurt.
AND to make matters worse the girl sitting behind me told me to stop flirting with him. AWKWARD!
...I am so glad those days are over..

smiling...
ah, i remember wat that was like

I've been told a have a great smile. Which only occurs when I smile unconsciensously, meaning a real smile. My fake smiles suck. Smiling for pictures isn't pretty

smiles do not look real if you have to make one happen. I usually think of something that truly makes me happy, and then a smile will come without me forcing one. But forcing a smile will make it come out badly--- I have enough pictures where I look like a mannequin because I "smiled" for the camera--- uuugghhh!

Yup, I couldn't force a smile if my life depended on it. I was kind of hoping that maybe there was a good way to learn. I like the dirty thoughts idea, but haven't tried it yet (will do so tonight since it's a social nite for me). I'm just afraid that if I try it with a girl, I'm going to end up looking like a predator or something.

Petal, I grew up looking at the ground and not at people as well. Until you said it, I never really connected that with AS, but considering all my other eye contact issues it makes sense. I spent years learning to make eye contact with people, and I still hate having to do it. It's part of my "mask" though and without it I don't think I would have been successful in daily life.

My best photo smiles are the ones that are candid photos and not posed. Mugging the camera used to work for me, but I quit doing that when my dad managed to get a posed photo of me in my college gown with my uncle and cousins... and my finger jammed up my nose. I have the photo framed, but I figure that I shouldn't accumulate too many of that kind of thing. So now I need a new trick, and I need something that works with people and not just cameras....

i have the same problem, i think i look goofy or weird so instead of smiling i look angry most of the time. i feel more comfortable that way but it doesn't help with the anxiety and i am overly aware of what i'm doing wrong.

I tend to feel as if I'm playing the part of a cop in an interrogation room when I have one on one conversations with people. I have a feeling that if I had better facial expressions that wouldn't be the case. I'm more comfortable talking to people when we're doing something that requires no eye to eye contact (driving, walking, etc). For some reason, my smiles and facial expressions are more natural when that happens. Has anybody else noticed this or is it just me?