ASD traits in yourself? | Autism PDD

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I can hear viperations far away. 

O ya I forgot, I also have a HORRIBLE sense of direction too. Meaning I can get lost in my town and ive lived here for 3 years AND its a very small town. I hate when people ask me for directions and I dont know what to tell them, then they ask me "o did you just move here?" lol This drives my husband crazy!

I also notice patterns in things all the time too.

 

Intersting topic!!

I am definitely NT... thrive on contact with others and LOVE social settings...  I am a nurse by trade and my favorite part of my job is interacting with people and teaching... but I do see some quirks in myself. 

*  I definitely have food texture issues... can't stand tomatoes cause of the goop or mushrooms cause they are spongy

*  Can't stand tags in my clothing if they itch me (not all do)... always have been that way.

*  I am completely uncoordinated and bump into things all the time as well... lovely sets of bruises all over my body at any given time

*  I SUCK at jokes

*  Always been very good and math and very analytical by nature

*  I can be a perfectionist

*  Oh and I HATE making phone calls to people I don't know 

*  I am getting more and more ADD the older I get I've noticed too.  My brain just can't focus like it used to... I blame that on the kids though

Ditto = I tend to have thoughts rasing so fast.  Most of the time I cannot speak, write or type fast enough to get them across.  I also have a great imagination.  I can read quickly and retain what I read -- but could not formulate a story. That 's why I love math  -I guess.

I realize I have a hard time with eye contact unless I am sitting down.

Stupid people scare me.

I have the social skills of a paperclip at times.  Other times I am just The Southern Belle. I think that freaks people out.

Hate concerts and large congregations of people.

If I cannot get organized it drives me nuts.

I am somewhere on some spectrum I'm sure.

 

 

Hi there

ASD traits???  oh yea I have them!!!!!!!

I hate social settings, the thought of having to go to any makes me sick to my stomach  even family events.

Forget about starting a conversation, I can't do it, I don't know what to say

I can make eye contact when listening to someone, but not when I have to talk.

About 2 yrs ago I went NUTS over flowers, tore up my yard, planted flowers every where, researched types, growing habits everything. now I could care less!

I even quit my job and went into cleaning homes so I don't have to be around people (home owners are always at work when I am there)

I just thought I was becoming anti-social, until I learned about AUTISM

 

 

More..

I am obsessed with autism also.

I tend to talk in a loud voice and have to remind myself to lower it down.

Mostly I talk passionately about something and often have to remind myself to 'lighten up' and laugh or try to make a joke or something.

I too hate making phonecalls to people I don't know.

I literally have a 'brain freeze' when someone asks me for directions. I nearly have a panic attack!

I am changing the size and font of every single post of mine as I just like how it looks.

Mary

 

I am laughing reading all these..it is like we are cyber siblings or something:)

I wanted to add that I hate to call people on the phone and have lost many friends because I never call them...I sometimes wont even answer the phone even if its family..anxiety?? I might email them to death.. I feel like crap that I dont call...I really feel like I have nothing to say though and not much in common with them.

I never get jokes either..I get picked on for this..I am way to literal:) I cant tell them at all!  Cause and effect visual jokes .I get!

I maintain a even keel and find it hard to be around drama or chaos..I like peace and quiet.

I hate Conflicts. News. Politics. Religion.(oops! I said the "r' word

Pretty boring!![QUOTE=ShelleyR]

I wanted to add that I hate to call people on the phone and have lost many friends because I never call them...I sometimes wont even answer the phone even if its family..anxiety?? I might email them to death.. I feel like crap that I dont call...I really feel like I have nothing to say though and not much in common with them.

I hate Conflicts.

[/QUOTE]

 

This is HILAROUS!!!! I never imagined I would find one person who felt the same way about phone calls.

Btw I also notice that we post around the same time (midday for me). So who's stalking whom?

Mary

Mary,

It's funny I try to do early morn or late night but lately I am posting like crazy...so many fun threads:) It's 12:20 a.m. right now and I am wide awake and everyone is sleeping:) I love it:) Nice and quiet~peaceful:)

I have a sense of direction so good my wife calls me the human GPS.

I hate phones, too.

I cannot talk to someone in a sports bar if a TV is behind him, even with the sound off.  The slightest motion where I can see it catches my attention instantly.  BUT I really like this when I hike, I see lots of stuff most folks miss.  Now if I could only turn it off when I needed to.
Wow! I forgot..I cant talk at all if two or more are talking in room or TV or any noise really in background or distractions....I had my ears checked because I never couldnt hear the conversations from people just bits and piece..the same for watching TV..thank goodness for closed caption:) I was told I had a auditory processing problem and that my ears are fine..when I talk to people I am opposite of not having eye contact..I like to look right at you and it is hard for me to understand if I cant see your lips and eyes for some reason?? Helps me to concentrate on your words..I also have a hard time comprehending what I read and have to read it over and over..highlight everything! Probably ADD..not hyper at all even with tons of coffee I can sleep like a baby. Too many things going on in my brain to focus on people's words for too long:P

I havent read all of these but sometimes I wonder if I am on the spectrum...maybe aspergers?

I am really weird when it comes to empathy.  I dont have it for whom I have dated or married.  I have been married twice.  I get upset when they cry if we fight.  I get mad when try to be romantic.  I can say some really mean things and even though I dont want to say it, I cant stop it from coming out of my mouth.  BUT, for friends, family, animals and strangers I have tons of empathy.  This empathy thing has kind of been a secret of mine, I dont share it with anyone...but, I figured I am online and its easier to get it out.  I do feel bad though, I want to be a good wife...  

I have never been one to socialize.  I have no interest in parties or anything like that.  I have no interest in hanging out with anyone.  I love being alone.  It feels so nice to stay in bed all day and watch movies.  I have had one best friend.  We met in 4th grade.  We have always had eachother.  Funny though, people loved us.  People wanted to be our friends all the time but we could never keep up with them.  We both hate the phone unless its with each other and whenever we made plans to hangout with anyone, we never followed through.  Thankfully we had each other in school. 

I have had a lot of boyfriends.  I fell in love with only one guy.  It was very natural.  I cant say I loved my ex husband or my current husband the same way...its a lot of work for me to "love" anyone else.

I am very, very rigid.  I cannot have a good day unless my house is clean.  I super-clean all day long.  I describe it as a "feeling" when all is "perfect."  If I dont have my perfect feeling all hell brakes loose.  I function much better when I have my "feeling." 

I obsess about autism and weight.  I dont have that "feeling" unless I am 10 pounds underweight.  Stupid I know, I wish I didnt feel this way.  I research constantly about asd.  I worry about my dd constantly. 

I had unusual fears about the dark.  Until I was about 25.  I couldnt sleep alone.  I also banged my head a kid but only as a sleep ritual.  I dont know if that is connected to asd???

I am very much like my Mom.  I always said she was crazy because she used to have a substance abuse problem...now I know it was not the drugs and drinking.  Something is going on with us.  Before I knew anything about asd I always said "whatever my Mom has, I have it too."  Makes me wonder...

 

My father was phone phobic, too.  I increasingly think he was Aspie.  And I inherited it from him.  And his sense of direction ... and his "shyness."

I find this thread SO interesting!  OK, here goes:

I get super interested in a subject and hyper focus on it.  Or, I'll start to worry about something and become obsessed with it.  Medication has helped with the worrying.

I cut all of the tags out of my clothes, because they make me crazy.  I also can't stand to have anything covering my elbows and constantly push up long sleeves so that they are above the elbows.  When I was younger, I couldn't wear turtlenecks.

I have a very high pain tolerance (when I was a child, I couldn't feel pain at all and would opt for a shot at the doctor's office because "medicine might taste bad").

I cannot sit still for an extended period of time.  Can't go to the movies (because I get "movie butt" and have to get up and move around).  Pace on the phone, was duct taped in my chair once in grade school because I wouldn't stay in my seat - I still got up and walked around with the chair taped on (apparently in the 70's the teachers were allowed to do stuff like that).

I am a chewer.  Fingers, pens, you name it.  I always catch myself gnawing away at something.  Sometimes I chew on my cuticles until they bleed.

I was hyperlexic, read at 18 months, and have a photographic memory.  I still love to read, often reading one or two novels a week.  I also have a freaky recall of song lyrics, even those that I haven't heard in years.

Noises such as static and ticking clocks make me crazy.  I do, however need to have the television or radio blasting to stay focused on it.

I could (and often do) eat the same food for weeks at a time.  Last month it was sushi every day, recently it's been a cut up cucumber and a lean cuisine panini.

All that being said, I have always been really social, so I don't think I'm on the spectrum.  I do think that I have OCD (self diagnosed) and ADHD, and I think that there is a relationship between that and my son's ASD.

Can't wait to hear what others have to say!

Tiffany 

STILL do not drive, gave up trying ... no social interest to speak of ... low eye contact.  SPDs as a child ... trouble with the BIG picture, HUGE vocabulary and avid reader with good imagination, but struggle with sense of story in writing ...

Any "normal traits?"  Hmmmm ...

 

I started a discussion a while back on this.  Here's the link to the thread.

http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=16294&am p;KW=Rhosyn

Based on that and a little more research I'm pretty sure I'm a "flaming aspie".

Wow, okay and let me say this is not a comfortable feeling to share even, but here goes.  I always felt different.  Always felt like people don't think like me.  When I was a kid I used to spend long periods of time reading the dictionary and phone books.  Still do sometimes just not nearly as often as when I was growing up.  Although I dreamed of having a husband and being in even a boy girl relationship, had no idea how to do that.  Couldn't even imagine being that close to another person.  When I was a child I was alway on one side of the house while everyone else was on the other.  Had no clue what love was suppose to be and thus my first two marriages failed miserably.  The first one lasted 2 months of living together and the remaining 4 months to get the divorce.  The second marriage was tramatic.  It lasted 4 years but should have been over before it started.  The strangest thing about it was my inability to get out of it.  It was violent and crazy and I was just as much to blame as he was.  Not in the beginning, but I could have walked away so many times and didn't. I chose to stay in this extremely unstable relationship because I didn't want to have that change.  (weird huh)  I have now been happily married to the father of both of my children now for 11 years after an uncanny religous experience.  One that changed my life forever.  (I will save that for another time).  My husband and I both have traits.  He is my best friend and we often discuss how different we are than other people.  We just think differently.  Altough we did not put the asd twist on it until the last few years when we discovered our children being on the spectrum.  I have ocd.  I do everything the same way every day. I panic over unexepected house guest, I am very uncomfortable in social situations and so is my husband.  This is one reason why we are having trouble finding another church.  We met in the church we just left and we really comfortable there as far as socially.  And we tried another church for a little while, (and I know this sounds trivial) but for me and my husband it was a big ordeal)  avery service the Pastor would have a meet and greet part, and this is difficult enough for us, but we deal with this by standing where we are and letting everyone come to us (and then of course they think you are just stuck up or something)  but the part that we just could not get comfortable with and ultimately gave us the reason to leave is during the service the pastor would have a time when everyone would join hands and pray.  At our old church this was hard enough, at the new one it was near bout impossible, and worse for my husband than for me.  Anyway, so I feel totally revealed now, maybe too much but I think that says enough to know that we, indeed have the traits.[QUOTE=LL's Mom]

Pace on the phone, ...

Noises such as static and ticking clocks make me crazy. 

[/QUOTE]

ditto!

Mary

  • obsessional interests and preoccupations that I often talk about too frequently with others.
  • software engineer by profession - self taught
  • low social drive - I like being in groups of people engaging in an activity (I love attending road races, for example), but am very uncomfortable in environments where the whole point is to be 'social' - bars, parties, etc - I avoid them.
  • somewhat rigid thinking - tend to view others as illogical in their behavior and thought process and am often amazed at the conclusions people draw from limited or questionable data.
  • was shy and socially awkward when younger (up until late teens)
  • ability to hyperfocus
  • odd sleep patterns - recovered insomniac (having kids was the catalyst for getting over this).
  • eye contact sometimes uncomfortable (worry that other's think that I'm staring at them so I overt my eyes and then worry that they think I'm shifty so look them in the eye - shouldn't have to think about it so much)
  • independent - prefer to do things on my own because I have a low tolerance for other people's ways of doing things.
  • sometimes talk in too loud of a voice (people used to tell me to quiet down when I was younger - I learned to control this subconciously).
  • overly wordy, overly formal communication style (but you know that already ;)
  • Had some moderately severe behavioral problems between the ages of 12 and 18 and lots of problems behaving like an adult until around the age of 23 or so, when I finally cleaned up my act and figured out how to live like a responsible, accountable human being.
  • rock back and forth when stading and otherwise preoccupied (on the phone, in the shower, etc) and sometimes when sitting down.  I pace, too.

Things that don't fit

  • good social skills - can be charming even though my drive to socialize is not high.
  • good fine and gross motor coordination and strength (could be from a lifetime of fitness hobbies, though - weight lifting, then hiking, then running).
  • for all cognative aptitude tests I've taken (ASVAB, SATs, a few others) I scored nearly even on all subtests - no scatter.
  • Had no social problems until middle school - was 'one of the gang' as a young child, etc.  Started having social and behavioral problems in middle school that persisted until adulthood and resolved by mid twenties.
  • No sensory problems other than a mild case of 'tinnitus' that.

 

 

fred39302.2473611111

Hi everyone.

I am just in the mood to post today, heheh. Here goes, do you see any autistic/aspie traits in yourself? It would be fun to know. I'll start

  • I get so obsessive about my interests and hobbies that sometimes I spend too much time on them. I become an pseudo-expert on them. The interests change from time to time.
  • I find it diffiult to make small talk, find it difficult to strike up conversations with strangers.
  • I love spending as much time by myself (reading, surfing the net) if not more, than being with other people.
  • I have a very high IQ and sometimes mundane conversations bore me. I love to talk about things that I am interested in and can go on and on and on.... you get the idea 
  • I bump into things easily, never watch where I am going.
  • Sometimes thoughts are racing so fast in my head and I literally talk very fast so I don't miss out anything. heheheh
  • I am a perfectionist in the things that matter to me, though I don't think that's necessarily an ASD thing. I give up if I can't do it just right.
  • Oh yeah, I am a very picky eater too.

    I am sure there's more.. but I am as NT as they come, thats for a fact!

    Let's make this a fun thread people!

    Mary

    trains_R_us39301.9588310185I would say I have traits.  Eye contact was not good.  I didn't even realize it was important to look people in the eye when I was younger.  I look at people now.  I don't like lots of things going on at once. Just a few things that come to mind! 

    Love the outdoors, animals and earth~get lost in clouds, trees and bugs & water:)  Obsessed with autism. Very quiet except on board:) Have no real friends other than online..do have 2 sisters but completely different lives and hard to relate to them at all and vice versa

    Been on antidepressants for 20 years and still cant find one I like.  Lots of trauma in teen years due to immaturity thinking and trusting absolutely everyone and honestly would do whatever people told me too.

    Almost 44 years old but still act much younger?? I ws a nurse for 10 years and the role made it more possible for me to talk more..I specialize in geriactrics because they are so childlike, vulnerable...I trust them:)

    Still HATE crowds and DESPISE social gatherings with strangers....

    LOATHE entirely a chunk of strangers approaching me to talk :P

    I sound crippled but I deal just like you guys..fake it till I make it!

    ETA: I am a link stealer too~sorry:(.....and can get too wordy long after the person has fell asleep:)

     

    ShelleyR39302.3362152778

    Yeah, I have a few of these.

    Didn't learn to drive a car until my 30's and still have never driven on an interstate. Too much input and I have to plan ahead which way I'm going. I also took a lot of different courses.

    Called ingenious in math because I never paid attention in school but could always solve the math problems anyway... but don't like math.

    I am amazed at how little people know( i think it's how little people CARE to know) and completely frustrated when people don't relate facts properly. I had to take a refresher course in statistics at university and the professor had to dumb it down because people were unable to pass the tests but I never got one thing wrong. What has happened to the education system in the last 20 years????

    Don't know how to socialize other than having good manners.

    Food problems with texture. Also can't eat raw spinch with a metal fork. Don't like the smell of glass and usually drink out of plastic.

    Same here with the ticking clock, mouth noises, metal on metal.

    Very good memory and used to be able to remember conversations word for word for ages but now that I'm in my 40's I really need a good night's sleep to do that.

    However, serious sleep issues, I'm called the princess as in princess and the pea. No nubbies, sheets must smell a certain way, like sunshine, bed made a certain way. I have to control the light, noise levels, bed placement...everything.

    I don't like to be touched (shake hands) and I don't like saying Hi when I see someone, it doesn't seem natural to me.

    and a whole lot more!

    • oh and Mathematics was my best subject at school.
    • I prefer talking to two people atleast, as very occasionally I feel uncomfortable making eye contact.
    • Very occasionally I waste time in details and miss the 'big picture'

    I have taken many aspie tests and have always gotton a very high NT score.

    Mary

    I am very "NT", in that I am and always have been a very social person at
    heart.
    But I have ADHD (without any hyperactivity--used to be called ADD) So I am
    intimately familiar with sensory issues and executive planning problems.
    They have been major players in my life and personality.

    I am definately more comfortable with people who are older or younger than me.

    I have trouble making small talk or knowing when to say something in a converssation, start a convo. or even say hi to someone takes alot of effort, I hate making eye contact and its usually darting and alot of people think im a snob because of it.

    I get obsessive about something that interests me and do alot research on it.

    Im pretty much a loner. I like doing things better by myself or working by myself as opposed to "team work". Ive only had one best friend since highschool which pretty much sucks especially because shes not my best friend anymore! I dont really like going out and partys or socializing, meeting new people. Altho sometimes i get my mood when im lonely like right now cuz i have absolutly no friends

    I dont go on and on about something that interests disregarding other people. if someones trying to teach me something that doesnt interest me even if i try I cant "get it"  I dont think im very smart altho ive been told that I was by people but I think thats only because I love the discovery channel and bore people around me when I talk about it (except my hubby who loves it too), also i have a bad memory so I definately dont have the smarts!

    I have bruises all over me because for some stupid reason I bump into the doorway, amongst everything else,all the time because I cant judge distance too good. People always tell me howd you walk right into that?? I have no clue! Im also always putting pressure on everything like pencils, resting my elbow on something and my bodies always tensed up pushing on something.

    I dont know if im a perfectionist but like if I start cleaning something it has to be perfect and if I cant do that than why bother cleaning it at all. Also my husband drives me crazy cuz he never finishes what he starts or he does a crappy job of doing something and it annoys me! Altho me being like this is irratating because even when I pray I need to get every single person i know of in there and cant miss a thing and my prayers become so long that I dont even want to pray next time.

    There might be more but I cant think of them. I dont think im asd I even took the test which said I was NT with asd traits. Oh yeah sorry Im not sure if everything I said is considering an asd trait but Im pretty sure Ive seen them in asd quizes.

    143hayden39301.9823611111

    143hayden,

    Almost everything you have said holds true for me too. How could I forget that I always get along better with older (wiser?) people and I have a lousy sense of direction. DH can't stand the latter.

    Mary

     

    well... uhhh, as for myself people generally see me as NT tho they dont know anything about me from along time ago, heres what I find about myself.

    - Interests, I learn detailes well, to the point where collage essays in the classes I loved would be to big and full of too much unnessissary information, wayyyyy to specific! I was top of class in the ones I obsessed about (history and science) and for the ones I did not obsess about I actually had to do some reading every now and then or attend to maintain my deans list GPA.

    - Planning, I plan for every little thing, go crazy with details almost to the point where I can make my planning process into a math formula, and where ever their are variables or un-forseen events that COULD take place I have such a wide range of varables that I tend to always over compinsate or assume the worse case scinario, this is my biggest HFA problem, as a break or change in scedual or routine really screws me up.

    - Sleep, well... I have no sleep scedual, I post here at 4am, 4pm, 8pm, or midnight, I work 3rd shift so im supposed to sleep when the sun is up, and have occasional insomnia which now requires medication to enshure I sleep after 2 days with minumum sleep.

    - Social, as a kid, i was horrible, to this day I fear everybody in my old neghboorhood where I lived between 1984-1991 hated me. Today, many in my parents neghboorhood where I grew up I fear hate me and think im weird because they probably eather heard of my special education past or because of past conflicts with peers. I was as they say it 'ditched' as we got older because I would not respond to their social ques, 2 this day we dont talk. I have friends, as I got better at the social thing, really good, during high school, for the first time here I felt like i could fit in, belong. It was this time I felt most like a normal kid.

    - I dont make eye contact, or stair, or bounce my eyes around, I can control this if its important to, like at an interview.

    - Everyone I encounter from day to day, I often have much more knowledge about a number of subjects, many times more then they do, so often I get asked about stuff, am known as a 'smart individual'.

    - I read a strange post a long time ago, showing that many children of fathers who were engineers, or scientists or in the tech feild had an increased number of children with autism. In my case My father is a nuclear engineer and my grandfather was a physics teacher. My father shows many aspie traits. I also read that many with AS or HFA end up in jobs they are overqualified for, in my case, im the only person in my warehouse to my knowledge that has a collage education, and graduated high honers as well.

    - relationships, this is another real rough 1 for me. I cant read ppl, I understand faces and looks and stuff, but often cant tie it to their particular emotion, how they feel 'now'. I have never seen anybody in a relationship reading a 'how 2 do' book about it, they just know what to do, i dont, the whole time im nervous, avoid all physical contact, no eye contact, talk about stuff typical with that of just normal friends where clearly she could have been interested in being more then friends. Many start learning, getting experience in high school, never did I have that, so im just starting out at the age of almost 25.

    - I live alone, even where I have no neghboors around me, i need lots of space, I meltdown without personal space when needed. I cant have anything outa place, everything should be as is, as far as minipulation goes, so a roommate is outa the question, and I have a nice big place to myself.

    To this day I still struggle to eat like a normal person, Im the skinniest adult you have ever seen because growing up I just did not eat, now im better, and ive always been very healthy, but I look like im from Mogadishu er somethin... have not eaten in days, when in fact I eat alot.

    Their are quite a few more, these are the most severe, the problems that get in the way of me having a compley normal life, the others can be hid or masked.
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