Does anyone get these symptoms?

Post Reply New Topic

A big phobia of photos. With some people its the actual camera but with me its more to do with seeing the photo. sometimes I'll let people take a picture so long as they promise not to show me it or put it online. Its not because I dont like my appearnce either, its more because when I look at picures of myself, I dont think it looks like me...its kind of weird to explain. I am ok with some photos but I'll usually reject loads before I'm happy with one.

The other one is to do with housework. I've always had terrible trouble getting cleaning done yet I can quite happily spend a whole day tidying things and putting them into neat organised piles...so its not laziness. My philosphy is generally to avoid mess and dirt in the first place but once its there I have a real hard time doing something about it, mainly because I dont like touching it.

The other one, which is topical for this time of year is that I dont like to remove my jacket in public...even during the hottest part of Summer...I just dont feel right without it on when I'm not at home.

I have the photo one, I avoid them. Part of it has to do with in group photos they make me stand in front 'cause of my height and I hate people behind me. I also don't like looking at myself in photos-- I avoid mirrors too. Like I'm fine with mirrors but accidentally glancing myself isn't okay!

Housework is something I sort of have trouble with. Cleaning up after myself. I don't really realize when I make a mess and any kind of housework I mess up so mother said it's easier to do most of it.

I also never remove my jacket. I like tight clothes and like something around my arms as well.

People keep asking me in work at the moment why I wont take my jacket off on these hot days, I can never give them a straight answer because I'm not entirely sure why myself. Its just part of my routine to have it on outside the house. Admittedly working in the current heat is hard going, but I'm more likely to go to the toilets and pour cold water down my back than remove my jacket. It can be frustrating.

mum [she is not on the spectrum in any form] has the same sort of problem with getting photos taken of her,she will threaten to break the camera of whoever is taking the photo,and has attempted to do it before.
her relatives always manage to get her to be in one when they want a group photo,but she says she "hates photos of herself as she looks very ugly on them",am wonder if for her cause it could be a form of body dysmorphic disorder.

sm_droid,
if have got a visual perception problem with recognising people [its got its own difficult to spell name,prop..something,and perception problems are very common amongst people with ASDs],that could be part of what is causing the difficulty with liking any photograph are in.

Hm...the second one applies to me. I think I just sometimes find the work to do overwhelming and I don't know where to start. But then I have those rare days when I get an urge to clean and I pick a place to begin, and when I get started then I get into a routine.

I only dislike getting my picture taken or having to see it later, but it doesn't bother me that much.

I don't like my picture taken, but I think it is in large part because I don't like the way I look in them. I'm hyper critical of myself in all areas, and appearance is of no exclusion.

Housework in some ways is difficult for me. Dishes, laundry, and vacuuming is a standard routine for me, so that gets done as often as needed. The rest of it is a different story. I can't seem to just dive in, and get anything done. I have to get so detailed into it that one project can take me hours when it would've taken someone else 30 minutes. I spend half of my time just planning out stuff, usually by making way too detailed lists. Then once I get started I keep going until the smallest detail is taken care of. I can't just clean a little part of a room. Like everything else, I'm all or nothing. If I get started dusting, for example, I can't quit until the room is spotless from top to bottom. So, there went an entire day on a small chore that should've taken me less than an hour.

Also, my husband told me that part of why I can't get everything done is that other people multi-task as they're cleaning. I can only do one thing at a time, so it takes me twice as long. Having 2 young ASD kids to look after while I'm trying to get stuff done doesn't help my efficiency, either.

I also don't like seeing myself in a picture. Just a few weeks ago, I had a new picture taken (first time I went to the photographer without my mother, by the way), and I still didn't want to look at my pictures, I just paid the money and took them without looking at them.

I recognise the feeling of not seeing your face as 'your actual face'... I posted before that I have the same problem with mirrors. With me, I know that it's mainly because I'm so used to seeing myself from inside my head, and barely ever being confronted with my own face, that my brain apparently doesn't immediately 'recognise' it as being 'me'. It's an interesting phenomenon, isn't it? Maybe it's that our minds feel a certain detachment from our faces as 'personal identifiers'?

aaack. photos of self. especially seeing the results. i do have one that i took myself that i don't mind. other than that, i duck, cringe, or flinch when anyone pulls out a camera. it's like sudden eye contact, but even bigger.