adopting other peoples mannerisms?

Post Reply New Topic

So I hear often times girls on the spectrum mimic other people in an attempt to appear normal. My question is is that an on going thing that they mentally work out all the time, watching the people around them to know what to do? I've known people who will adopt another's persona because they admire or inspire to look and carry themeselves like them. That include facial expression, body language, and personal appearance and dress. It's not that they are unsure of how to act in certain situations, it's just that they want to be like the other person, or even be that person. Example: many women have strived to imitate Marilyn Monroe in all mannerisms, dress, voice, etc. So there a difference between this kind of imitation and pretending to be normal imitation so to speak?

Hmm. I'd say no personally. I hesitate because I am a people watcher, and have found myself emulating but not consciously. I can manage on a superficial level most of the time from what I've stumbled across through trial and error, example, and also years of working in service jobs.
I do think there is a definite difference between the two. The former is more of a communication focus, while the latter is more role playing or identity focused.

the mirror neuron defecit in autism means females and males on the spectrum are naturaly unable to experience social mimicry to varying levels,its possible some people may have compensated for that though in adulthood.

Is there a relationship between mirror neuron deficit and echolalia?

Totally don't know what you guys are talking about!

I have mimicked phrases and mannerisms that others I've seen have used. I don't really integrate them so much as just use them when saying something like that seems appropriate.

I do this to appear normal, but I would say it is definitely not conscious. In fact, I only realized that I was doing it after having been diagnosed with Asperger's and re-evaluating my life history through an autistic perspective. It's actually sort of a sore spot, because my husband accused me of "faking it [being normal]" and seems to think that the "I" that he thought he knew doesn't exist. (For reference, we have been together since I was 19; I am now 34 and was just diagnosed 8 months ago.) I find it hurtful and exasperating because not only was this behavior subconscious, but I am also still me no matter what...

Edited to add: I do not mimic specific people in an attempt to be like them (well...except when I got my bangs cut and started lifting weights and copying specific makeup techniques (I don't normally wear makeup) because I look like Xena and am slightly obsessed with her )...it's more of a general mimicking of what I perceive to be normal behavior.

BTW, I am growing out my bangs, can't lift anymore (which sucks, because I enjoy it) due to injury, and don't wear makeup anymore...I guess I'm recovering.

Thanks, I suppose there is a difference.

I'm pretty sure NT's do this all the time. Like trying to get a specific response from others. I think people adept and mimic what others say and do....isn't that what trends are? Just a thought. I get into deep conversations with people all the time, and they reveal the most personal minute things that they do or think because they say I'm easy to talk to, understanding, and a good listener. Some of the things they talk about you would have never realized they do. I just got totally sidetracked, but I find it humorous the things people ask on this forum as though NT's don't do them too. So I read these things and start doubting if they are normal or really an autistic thing. Pretty sure these things are not really all that specific enough to be a part of ASD. I only began to realize as some said earlier in a previous post I start about a NT's view that you guys may not be fully aware about what might be normalish or not, and that NT's are freaky weird too, but not upfront about it. Anyways, haha...sorry for getting off topic.... Just a random thought.

I subconsciously copy my friends' mannerisms all the time, completely unintentionally. I could catch myself at any time saying something a friend saysor actong like them. I wonder if it's a form of echolalia?

No, that isn't what trends are and I do not think that NTs do this (or at least when I have described it I have never had anyone who was not autistic describe similar experiences), since it is a matter of memorization and scripting, and repeating with the same intonation etc. I think perhaps I did not explain what I meant clearly enough, and you turned it into something completely different and said "NTs do this too." This is similar to how my family members reinterpret my explanations of sensory sensitivity into something they can relate to and don't actually seem to understand what I describe. People who sit in the middle of a room full of people yelling at each other over the television tell me that they totally understand my inability to handle less stressful environments than that, because they don't get the concept of "hyperacusis". So they think "everyone hates loud noises." But they don't realize that what I consider a loud noise may not be loud to them, and in noisy environments I can't pick out specific sounds as well as they can. Or that when I hit a certain level of overload, I simply stop processing everything and visuals and sounds have no meaning to me.

I don't try to act like other people, or mirror their behaviors and personalities. I pick up phrases used in specific ways and reuse those phrases over and over again in response to certain kinds of comments. I draw on these (and other) phrases in conversations while I am still trying to translate what I have heard and thus understand it well enough to produce a response that will reflect what I actually think instead of simply a response that usually fits in such conversations in response to similar statements. It's always fun when I accidentally agree with something I disagree with or disagree with something I actually agree with, or when people try to hold me to things I said before I fully understood the conversation.

Of course NTs imitate each other, but I think there is a difference in terms of how that imitation occurs as well as how it is executed.

I can't mimic other people's mannerisms. I am a really bad actor, I don't want to, and I would feel ridiculous if I tried. So..... I have been told I don't have a personality,

Got it! Thanks! I suppose its hard for a NT like me to fully understand AS, and the way traits are described. I suppose someone with AS would upon reading descriptions have a "that really hits home" moment. I dunno.

I'm sorry if that came across harshly. When I wrote it, it didn't seem that way, but rereading I think it might be.

Haha..well it kinda did, but I figured it wasn't on purpose.

I have been doing the same, but some of it has integrated and I suddenly catch myself "being" my brother or father, when saying certain things. Funny enough, - my identifications are always masculine.
Even during musical education, I seemed to do best when "being" another musician.
That was all due to low self esteem, - a disease widely spread inhere.