All the core traits of Asperger's

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This thread has enlightened me by putting a name to the fact that I am an Aspie Empath. Amazing. I had always wondered why I was so obsessed with other people's feelings to the point where I harass them by constantly asking if they are okay and how I can help. Thank you for that.

- not bothering with eye contact
- odd nonverbal communication, poor or unnatural facial expression
- uninterest in "normal" social interactions
- tendency to have failures in social contacts
- being bullied in schools, being prone to mobbing, mockery
- fixative interests, which often are impractical
- "stimmability", constant thinking or moving
- liking of statistics and simple repetitive activities which are rather boring to "typical" people (liking of simple routines)
- narrower menu, need of having comfortable clothes rather than "neat", dislike of sudden noises
- some clumsiness (for example being very poor in volleyball)
- high IQ, good results in arithmetic, block design

I have not some popular ASD traits, like fear of change/need or sameness and face blindness. My sensory issues are relatively mild. I would consider my case of autism as schizotypal, because I have bizarre content of thoughts and have not only diagnosis of Asperger's, but also of schizotypal disorder (and of OCD with history of magical thinking). So I think that my case of PDD belongs to other continuum than "standard" version of "aspieness".

Some more:

*Stomach problems
*Being naive
*Being gullible
*Being unaware of unwritten social rules
*Finding social situations confusing
*Being more interested in things than people
*Acting/looking/dressing/feeling young for your age
*Being very knowledgeable about your topic of interest
*Not being a follower
*Poor motor skills
*Being unexpressive of emotion

The main core traits I think are:

*Overly logical thinking style

*Rigid or formal speech and behavior

*Obsessive intellectual interets

*Unusual body language, and difficulty mirroring other people's body language and emotions

*Poor theory of mind; difficulty understanding that other people's thoughts and interests are different than theirs

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Other traits such as social anxiety aren't inherant in aperger's; they sometimes develop it though.

Who is defining these as core traits of AS? Surely the DSM defines what the core traits are? These just seem like arbitrary traits.

These are the core symptoms of Asperger's/Autism in my opinion:-

-Routine
-Special interests
-Social awkwardness (Asperger's), social deficits (Autism)
-Meltdowns/outbursts
-Sensory issues
-Anxiety and panic

Not saying everybody on the spectrum has all of these, but I do believe these are the core symptoms.

Here are mine, ranked by intensity now and in the past. 1= little to no affect, 10 = Intensely affected

* Intense interest (Now: 1/10, Past: 8/10)
* Going on and on about interest (Now: 3/10, Past: 8/10)
* Need of Routine (Now: 3/10, Past: 8/10)
* Shyness (Now: 6/10, Past: 9/10)
* Noise Sensitivity (Now: 8/10, Past: 9/10) (specific types of sound in my case)
* Trouble making/keeping friends (Now 7/10, Past: 8/10)
* Trouble reading body language (Now 8/10, Past: 8/10) -- unless someone is flipping me off, it's generally invisible
* Theory of Mind deficit/glitches (Now: 5/10, Past: 5/10) -- I understand that ie. if I don't tell people I'm feeling sick one day, they won't know, but I still have to remind myself of this.
* Trouble with small-talk (Now: 7/10, Past: 9/10) -- How about those... sports... guys? The weather sure is... happening. Bah, just get to the point!
* Inability to focus on the uninteresting (Now: 8/10, Past: 10/10)
* Lack of eye-contact (Now: 6/10, Past: 9/10) -- Actually didn't realize "eye contact" was expected until diagnosing doc told me
* Introspective (Now: 8/10, Past: 8/10)
* Anxiety (Now: 6/10, Past: 8/10)
* Easily Exhausted (Now: 8/10, Past: 6/10)
* Clumsiness (Now: 6/10, Past: 7/10) -- sometimes feel like I'm going to fall over when walking around a corner, or hit the edges of a door frame.
* Lack of Awareness of unwritten social rules (Now: 6/10, Past: 9/10) -- At least the rules can eventually be "written" in memory
* Naiveness (Now: 4/10, Past: 8/10)

And a bonus not previously listed: lack of gestures while speaking (Now: 7/10, Past: 10/10) -- This was mentioned at diagnosis since I never used hand/facial gestures while speaking. I didn't realize this was something I was supposed to be doing.

Not sure about shutdowns/meltdowns. I don't think I've had any in the traditional sense. Over time I think I've become more apathetic (I don't recommend this) and have lost interest in things and learned to internalize anxieties, which probably explains the easily exhausted number going up.

I've learned a lot too though.