Specific ASD trait you DON'T have/Have improved In....

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[quote="LuckyLeft"]
-Recognizing Faces (but I have a heck of a time remembering the name to that face!)
-Reading Body Language
-Monotonous Voice (actually, I do this more than when younger -rarely when younger- usually when I'm stressed and auditory processing is breaking down or I'm in a lot of pain)
-Understanding Sarcasm, Jokes, etc. = never had a problem with figurative language, and in fact got idioms and non-literal language, written or spoken, a lot earlier than most people my age (when I was 8, I said to my father while walking to school, "Sarcasm is the language that enables me to look at the world with eyes open. Without it, I couldn't face it.")

Sensory issues are greatly improved from childhood (it used to be that I could tell if someone who smoked set foot in our car, even if they didn't smoke while in it, and could identify a lotion smell applied more than 12 hours previously, and some even more ridiculously heightened sensory stuff).

I scored 198 out of 200 on that online test that’s so popular on these forums, and 48 out of 50 on another, so it’s not too surprising that most of the traits apply to me. The only one that really doesn’t is the preference for nonfiction over fiction. I have no preference one way or another.

Sensory issues - I have them, but they are hardly severe.

Meltdowns - Based on the descriptions from what I've read here, I don't think I have meltdowns.

Jokes and sarcasm - I've never had issues with this. In fact, I frequently use sarcasm myself.

Preference for animals over humans - I don't really like animals all that much either.

Talking too loud or quietly - Never had problems with this.

A monotonous voice - I don't have that, although my voice is somewhat weird.

Fear of crowds - I don't like crowds, but they don't bother me to the extent that most people here describe.

Hyperlexia - I had this when I was younger but not so much anymore.

And, lastly, a lack of empathy. But I think most of us here don't actually lack empathy, so I guess that's kinda redundant.

Other than that, I'm 100% aspie. Or should I say the stereotypical aspie.

I strongly dislike animals, and am very apt with humor and the English language. My eye contact wavers between not looking at the person at all, or staring them down like I am trying to bore a hole into their head (I don't blink either, maybe once every ten minutes, so I am told this can be quite disconcerting during long conversations). I am usually pretty good about not saying those offensive things, also, but more so because I lack any interest in talking to people throughout the majority of my day/life than any particular skill in this area.

I seem to have improved in everything because I cannot think of something I have never improved in. Only thing that has never improved is my learning differences and listening problems and me zoning out when someone is talking too much. I don't think these things ever got better and have always been the same. The rest, I got better in because I had improved a lot and have little difficulty or some still or still difficulty but it's not as bad. And there are traits I have outgrown like the need to sit in the same seat every time or I'd get upset. Now it doesn't matter and I just sit somewhere else if that seat it taken unless it's in my own home, I don't like it.


I never smeared feces on the walls I don't think. I never flapped my hands. I wasn't a little professor. I did have friends and played with other kids and also had troubles relating to other kids and playing with them but just as long as we were all doing I liked, I was fine. I was never a picky eater. I never had above normal hearing. I did pretend play.

I've never had a problem with face recognition. Nor have I had a monotonous voice--I don't think, at least. Meltdowns and sensory sensitivity haven't been problems since I was young, either. .__. As of late, I've been improving on eye contact, reading body language, and understanding jokes. The narrow, powerful interests disappeared more naturally.

I am able to process auditory information. I hadn't realized that having issues remembering what is spoken to you is an aspie trait, because its one that I've never had.

I'll tell you what I think have/ experince on a daily basis:

-Lack of eye contact
-Rigid posture
-Not very good with math and science
-Dislike of crowds
-Problems recognizing faces

I admit I have poor posture and just recently I bumped into a classmate without recognizing them straight away. I have always disliked crowds, not only do they make me nervous but they can be quite loud. I've been ok with science but was terrible at maths. With the eye contact I can look someone in the eye but it feels unnatural to me. My voice is monetone when serious and high pitched/ quick when excited or happy. Itchy jumpers don't bother me much but I'm picky with what I eat. It varies

I usually understand jokes and sarcasm fine and I don't tend to take things literally. I also recognize metaphors when I hear them and know that they are not meant literally. They rarely make much sense to me, but I've learned what most of them mean and when I come across a new one I simply look it up and don't get confused about it. I have bigger problems recognizing whether people mean what they say or whether they are being polite/fake/manipulative etc.

I don't have much sensory issues with touch or food, just very mild ones.

I don't talk endlessly about my interests or monopolize conversations. I rarely speak much at all and am more of a listener.

I am able to read body language. I did research it a lot, and pay attention to people interacting.
I can make eye contact.

I find this topic very thought-provoking.

Over the years different aspergic traits have come and gone and become more or less extreme.

1. The routine thing has always been there to some extent, but i also enjoy spontaneity. When i was in my early 20s I had a housemate who complained that I was too spontaneous and never planned anything! But since I've had a full time job that has changed. When i think about how little time I have left in the evenings and weekends, I want to cry. I feel scared, like my chest is constricting. All my life is slipping away. The only way i can hold on to ANY of that time is by being EXTREMELY disciplined, having perfectly repetitive routines and planning every moment. While I'm living like that I feel calm.

But I cannot manage to do this for more than a few days or weeks at a time. I do it in an unrealistic perfectionist way and the result is I wear myself out and cave in, get drunk and lie around for days at a time, getting depressed because my life is draining away.

So I guess I have a love/hate relationship with routine.

2. I did Baron Cohen's facial expression recognition test and scored better than an average NT. Yet in the real world, other people seem able to read faces better than me. They get more information from faces than I do. Where can the difference come from, I thought, if I did so well on that test?

Well, after years of having meltdowns triggered by the slightest look of irritation or anger on my boyfriend's face or the slightest unpleasant tone in his voice. I suddenly understood it. I may be good at telling WHAT emotion someone is expressing (so long as they are being honest - and sadly often people are not) but I have no idea what the extent of that emotion is.

Here is a quote that says exactly what I am talking about, from child psychiatrist and AS specialist Daniel Rosenn of Wellesley, MA:

"If you sound a little annoyed, he thinks you're furious. If you are furious, he thinks he's in danger. Survival instincts take over."

3. Sometimes I think about going to get a diagnosis. But I know that whether I get one will depend on whether I want one. If I want one, I'll let my guard down with the specialist and show her the real me. If I don't want one, I'll use all the energy I have to harness my intellectual powers and make a very good NT performance. Then I'll go home and go to bed with lager and crap TV, exhausted.

I was upset to find that in my local clinic they talk to you for two hours and give you a diagnosis.

Two hours is no longer than the average play, so with someone who survives socially by life-long-learned acting skills, what hope do they have of discovering the real me?

I have improved in not being detected easily by simply deciding other people's perceptions on me don't really matter. If I stim while talking, I no longer care. When I did care, it just made my stims more pronounced and I'd fumble more with my words because I was trying to focus on trying not to have a slunched over posture, not stimming with my hands (which I could only pull off for maximum of ten minutes), trying to get jokes etc..

I can now get when someone is joking better now or at least more quickly than I used to however it still takes a little more effort.

I still stim while talking but NOT if I am holding something in my hand or if I can just be a motor mouth for 10 minutes and leave the situation.

I was fooling myself when thinking this means my aspie traits are better but really I have just merely come up with a solution to not being easily detected.

So first step is...shrug your shoulders to what others think of you.

Second step is, well if you must stim or display your akwardness vs. trying way too hard to focus on not seeming awkward, I'd focus on not caring and if you're going to stim and others don't like it, OH WELL!

Not everyone is going to like me, I don't care.

Where the line is drawn is when others infringe on your rights over not liking you then you just avoid those people all together or combat it the best way you know how.

The majority of people are cliquish and more biased. Accept that and move on. Some people just don't like people like us but the more you try to cover it up because of how many times you've been told you're weird or have been shunned or other penalties, the more the other person is feeling uncomfortable with your attempts of covering it up as it makes you even more awkward.

If someone does say something bad about your stimmy habits then fill them in on the catch 22 situation. You have to pick and choose but learning how to shrug at someone else's negative reaction towards you helps ease.