Not being very aware of surroundings.

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I'm a 16 year old with AS and I'm not usually aware of my environment. I just get so absorbed in a train of though or something that I'm doing that everything else just seems to fade away. I've never had any serious issues with it. My worst problem with it has been social. The other students at my school really seem to get a kick out of it when I 'm walking around the building while reading and walk into a pane of glass or something like that. usually, it's something else, but the time I walked into a pane of glass was just one specific example. I suppose that it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't pace all the time.

Some of them have tried rearranging furniture while I'm too absorbed in my own thoughts to notice in hopes of causing me to trip & fall. I suppose it's not unlike that trick where they pull the chair out from under you right as you're sitting down. One student in particular likes to just walk up to me and kick me in the back of the knee in hopes of making me fall & then tease me for having poor balance. I once tried to point out that it wasn't a matter of balance, but I was scolded by a teacher for being "disruptive". I suppose I can prevent this if I notice them walking up to me, but sometimes I don't.

I jog across town & back almost every day & have never failed to notice a car coming or anything like that. One day I even walked 15 miles from my dad's house to my mom's house & it wasn't a problem at all. With some individuals, this may be more severe than others & may be caused by other things. I know another aspie who's far more aware of his environment than I am. I suppose it's possible that some are less envoronmentally aware than me.

My husband has proprioception pretty bad. He is 53. He thought everyone thinks where your arms go in space. Or where you should put your feet walking. When he told me, it blew my mind. Yes, when one is learning a skill, you do that, but not in every day living.

He is horribly unaware of his surroundings, and is getting worse with age. We were at a hotel, during the holidays, and someone knocked on the door. He went running over to open it without asking. WTF? It could be a drunk, house keeping, or Ted Bundy (kidding there), but you see the point. Husband forgot we were at a hotel???

I grew up in the hood. I have my foot against the door if I open it, and don't know you. Hubby opens it wide open. Why? We'll someone was knocking. He'll talk to any scam artist on the phone. Why? It's not polite not to...they called. He wants to do "what is right", even when it goes against his best interests.

I have a lead foot, and get speeding tickets. I can usually get it lowered or with only a warning. Hubby gets them, and NEVER get a break. Why? For one his overtly honest and polite to the cop. They think he's f*****g with them. Like being sarcastic. Well...I was speeding. I was being very polite, why did that officer look so aggravated?

So yeah, being unaware of person (what your body is doing in space) and place (where am I, what should I be doing) seem to be an Aspie trait.

I was a bit like this as a kid but I've gotten better at it as I've gotten older. I think that my unawareness had two different reasons behind it - a tendency to get lost in thought and physical inactivity. I've always been fairly sedentary and I think that made controlling my body slightly more difficult as a kid.

I was very inattentive of my surroundings as a child, and would focus on specific things (looking for coins on the floor, watching my feet to make sure they were where they should be, not stepping on lines, etc.), and some of it was sensory, some of it was my terrible sense of direction.

If I was going somewhere with family, I had no sense of place, so it was like a sea of chaos, no beginning no end, just frustration. Everyone and everything looked the same/blended in together like a big mush, and since I had no idea where we were going, how long we would take to get there, what exactly we would do when we got there, etc., it was immensely frustrating. So I'd look everywhere EXCEPT where I was going and of course bump into people, things, etc.

If I did have to go somewhere by myself (like in school), it was extremely anxiety producing due to my tendency to get lost. So I would barrel down in the direction of where I had to go, because the quicker you know if you're lost, the quicker you can correct it! In the process of being a steam train, I would invariable rub people the wrong way, also looking like a complete nerd at the same time, for running down the hall, probably with a crazed look on my face.

Now, I have to consciously remind myself to not do certain things, like abruptly cut in front of people who are walking in the opposite direction, or check behind me to see if there's someone I should hold the door for when exiting someplace, etc., but it gets easier with practice. However, if I have something pressing on my mind, many of these courtesies are the first things to be forgotten.