Being Delicate and Weak?

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Is this directly related to AS - to be ill more often than others? How is Your health? Have You got any phisical problems? I feel very weak. I am contantly ill. Is is just me? Or is it common in aspies?

Last edited by ReGiFroFoLa on 12 Dec 2008, 2:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

My health is fine - I don't get sick any more often than any other healthy person, and I don't have any chronic ailments. But, physically, I am very slightly built, just don't have a lot of strength, especially upper body. My strength has always been on par or slightly greater than girls my age. Never have I ever had the type of strength that other guys have. And so I pretty much sucked at anything sports-related growing up. It was awful. Even today I avoid situations where I might have to be athletic or do anything relating to strength in front of anyone else.

Nothing out of the norm I think.
I have to wear glasses, have a slight body.
When I was a child and during my twens I had lots of colds all during winter. That stopped, when I started doing at least some basic sports (cycling for me)

I'm definitely not as healthy as I was when younger - and my physical health only reflects a fraction of what I feel my mental health is.

My health is okay now, but when I was younger I was constantly sick. I do tend to have a lot of autism related stress to work through. And, I think that stress can lead to illness if not dealt with.

Always had allergies, asthma, sensitivity to smells. Slight build, I was often the smallest lad in my class. Bad eyes, have to wear contacts and glasses to read a computer screen.

I think the hypersensitivity to sensory stuff easily exhausts me, and that makes me more 'delicate and weak' - although, really, physically, I'm fine. I have a very small build, so I'm not cut out to do heavy manual work, but I don't think that's anything to do with AS. However, I am hypermobile, which is to do with AS, and that can give me aches and pains. I have terrible eyesight, but again, that is nothing to do with AS, as far as I'm aware - I've inherited it from my NT parents. I also have visual processing difficulty - scotopic sensitivity syndrome - and that is related to ASD.

Oh - also related to AS is being crap at sports, which I definitely am, so when I was a kid I avoided them as much as possible. So I guess that can contribute to weakness, if you are not exercising. But as an adult I've found alternatives to team sports, and I try to keep fit in ways that are comfortable to me, like swimming.

i got tonsilitis a lot when i was younger and suffered with migraines here and there, but over the last few years i've not had too many illnesses. i think those with any autism spectrum disorder think they're more ill than they are sometimes and so the psychology attribute causes the illness to worsen. i could be wrong but that's a standing theory of mine.

recently i've had back problems and chest problems that are aparently muscular, i have a somewhat muscular/slim build and sometimes i wonder if my muscles are working too hard in places.

Maybe the back and eye problems are due to you being lashed to a burning stake? (bad joke)

Not really. My second husband had AS and he was ill all the time. But that was due to a really, really severe asthma and being on steroids for it all his life. But other than the Asthma and complications from steroid use, he worked out and was in great shape physically.

I'm pretty strong physically, and I almsot never get sick.

I used to play sick almost every day since being sick gave you a pass for being strange. In the real world a lot of us don't eat to well and also develop some bad habits that can lead to actually becoming chronically ill at some level. I think you need to see a doc to get some blood work done and then figure where to go next.

I get sick a lot. I think the amount of stress that comes with having AS (dealing with sensory assaults, social situations, etc.) probably weakens my immune system - after all, don't people tend to get sick more often when they're under more stress?

I agree. This is acceptable explanation.

I did the same thing....I would play sick..but I was responding to discomfort and sensory overload....

My verygood AS-isg friend has very good health, as in he does not get SICK....but he faints or passes out very easily, and does not like to be any place in public where he does not have the option of lying down without being bothered.

I only finally knew his name after he came and passed out at my venue severeal times in a row years ago...and I was happy to meet someone so shy and yet comfortable enough with us to crash at our place.

I've probably got scoliosis (according to a simple test my pediatrician did to me a couple years ago...I still need to get that checked out by a specialist) and I've got sunken chest syndrome as well (or whatever the proper term for it is). The latter I've never really worried about since it's really only cosmetic (just a big dip in my chest that most people don't seem to notice, or at least don't say anything about) but as of late I've had some trouble breathing which can sometimes be a complication from that. I honestly don't think it's severe enough to be causing breathing difficulties though, but it can't be asthma since I don't have trouble getting air in (none of that "it feels like I'm breathing through a straw" feeling), it's just that my lungs don't feel like they're getting enough air inside them (either that the air isn't going anywhere once inside or that the lungs just aren't expanding enough). It may just be a new tic from my tourette's syndrome though, who knows. I should probably get that looked at as well, along with a screening for hemachromotosis which runs in my family. It's really bad that I still haven't got any of these things checked for, especially considering that my university has a huge hospital on campus that's free for students (at least for your first physical).

Anyway, as for being "delicate", there was this one time where a nurse complain to another nurse in the room about me being "so fragile" (her words) when she was putting an IV in my arm (I'm guessing she said it because I'm really skinny). I probably would have said something but I was high on laughing gas at the time.