Lately my young sister was diagnosed with aspergers, I have an aunt (she's 50 years old) and now I'm starting to believe she could have aspergers as well. She don't like me talking about it, for some reasons, so I'm writing her as anonymous in here (which I'm sure I'm allowed to) -
HERE ARE SOMETHING ABOUT HER, THAT MAKES ME WONDER IF SHE HAS ASPERGERS, OR SOMETHING ELSE LIKE THAT?:
-She’s very socially awkward, she think that herself and she’s very shy when meeting new people. She may come across as unapproachable. She’s very bad in groups, and not comftable working in groups at all. She often refuse to go to parties where she have to meet new people, and she tells me that one of her biggest nightmares are her going a cocktail party, or disco or something like that.
-She’s a dancer, but when not dancing she can stand or move really clumsy and weird, suddenly she kick with her leg, walk on her own foot, pull her shoulders, stretch her arms and wriggle her wrists.
When she gets exited she often makes a weird giggle, and clap her hands together and rub them.
When she think she often put her finger on her chin, and when she sit, or stand still she feel the need to move from side to site, but take herself in it most of the times. When she just stand she almost always cross her arms in some way.
-She’s obsessed with dancing types, theatre and cats (animals), she can talk about it endlessly.
-She always see details that her husband, and we never see. Like if her husband sees a wood, she sees the trees then the bark then the patterns in the bark.
-She laugh at EVERYTHING, if a person comes running and says “Oh hi *her name*” then she can just crack up, and she can even laugh so hard that she overturne. In a conversation you can sometimes see she is about to crack out in laughter (when there’s nothing to laugh about), but she often try to take herself in it.
-She somehow camera shy, and don’t like the lights from a camera. When I was with her at my friend’s wedding, she, me, my friend, and 5 other girls had to pose infront of 7 cameras, suddenly when the cameras started flashing my aunt took herself to her head and covered her eyes, like she had said something wrong or was having a headache, that has happened several times now and she never says why afterwards.
-On pictures she often have a weird/awkward/forced facial expression.
-She does get meltdowns, but they are often quiet once, where she lock herself in. Sometimes she get loud meltdowns and people get afraid of her. She get frustrated if things don’t go her way, and she have this idea that she MUST take a 1 hour nap everyday, at around 4pm I think. If she don’t get that nap she’s PISSED and you don’t want to be near her.
-Some people who have just briefly met her find her rude, weird and up-in-herself.
-She have a unusual deep and at times monotone voice.
-She's certainly reticent/reserved, and very independent. And when people meet her she often have a "wall up" they say.
-As child she had some problems behaving herself, but she wasn't extremely wild, she was a kind of bum in school, she never made her homework and refused to do math sometimes because she thought it wasn't interested, and that she was never going to use it. She could drive her parents crazy. Now she won't really talk about her school life anymore.
-When she’s in crowds she often avoid talking to people she don’t know, and she often rush through crowds and wanting to go home. She avoid small-talk, and if people ask her something like “How are you?” she often reply with just “Fine thank you”, and move on. Most of the times she very polite, and pretty gracious too, but she can also answer very unpolitly, if people ask like “Can I help you?” , she can answer “Uh, no!?”. If something get her interest though, she can talk on and on about it, even with strangers.
-She sometimes insist on wearing the same clothes for days. And keep her old clothes and use it like 10 years after, she never throw it away.
There are some other traits, I just can’t think of them right now.
THESE ARE SOME “TRAITS” SHE HAVE THAT I DON’T KNOW IF A PERSON WITH ASPERGER CAN HAVE?:
- She's good at making eye contact (especially in interviews and when she's talking about stuff she know a lot about).
- She's very independent, determinded and fierce.
- She's always been a great "actress" when she's dressed up in a costume doing "another character". When she's in a "character" she's great at performing, even on stage for crowds. (She's a dancer as I wrote before).
- She can talk/teach in front of big crowds, but mainly if it's a topic she knows a lot about. (Like dancing). That said when she's talking to the audience/crowd she most of the times have something going on with her hands, like pulling in her jeweleries, clapping her hands together, playing with her hair, picking her nails, going from side to side now and then and twickling her hands a lot. And she says "Uuhm" a lot and can forget what she's talking about if something interupts her.
- She have some friends, though I don't know how good friends they are and how often they see each other.
- She can show feelings for other people, and sympathy sometimes, not always.
- She's extremely sensitive.
- She can go to shops, supermarkets and stores like that, though I don't know if she likes doing it.
Last year she married a man who is 15 years older than her (she've had several boyfriends through her live, most older than her, and she's been married before but ended in divorced).
I doub I'll ever get her to a person who can diagnose her on proffesional level, so I'm asking you here about what you think. Do you think she could be asperger, or something like that?
I will much appreciate your answers, please!
26 Aug 2010, 4:45 am
