Not knowing what expression was on your face?

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I work as a computer tech for a school, and on Wednesday morning I was helping the principal because her mouse wouldn't work. When I went into her office to find out why I saw that when I moved the mouse the cursor would move on the screen but clicking the mouse didn't cause any response.

I plugged in a different mouse and it worked. When she came back, I told her that her old mouse wasn't working. Her old mouse is covered with fake jewels and when she got it she showed it to many people and said she loved it very much. Even after she got a new computer in March she used that same mouse with it.

When I told her this mouse wasn't working, she said "No, that can't be right. It has to be something else. What did you do?" I was trying to determine if she was serious and if she was going to become upset(especially if she was going to become upset with me) because she makes lots of jokes I don't always understand to be jokes and she has said she really loved that mouse but no one has ever responded that way when I tell them their mouse is broken. I don't know what the expression on my face was, but she stopped talking and looked at me and said "Well I know what that expression means." And then she walked out of her office.

I was confused before she said that, but after she said that I was even more confused, because I didn't know what expression was on my face.

Since that, she has told me never to close my door(which I want to keep closed because of the noises in the hall) and has stopped me several times in the hall and demanded that I fix certain problems immediately, even if those problems were very unimportant and if I was working on very important problems.

Have you ever been in a situation where someone said they knew what you were thinking based on your expression when you didn't know what expression was on your face?

I still don't know what she thought was the expression on my face.

That occurs to me frequently. I don't express much on my face in the first place, and what I do express doesn't quite seem to work to many people's satisfaction. Either they misread it or cannot read it. Since I'm usually not thinking about things that would interest other people (or have anything to do with them), I can answer honestly that I wasn't thinking about them in any particular way.

But I've probably lost some potential friends or had other troubles that I'm unaware of. I often feel like I'm out of phase with the universe, able to observe but not really interact, except with physical objects, of course.

Separately, jeweled mice!?!?

often. When I am thinking the look on my face is apparently sad/depressed/upset


your "are you serious (are you joking?)" face was probably interpreted as the "are you serious(ly a f*-ing moron?)" face

just go tell her that you were unable to tell if she was joking or not and that you may have made a face with could have been taken wrong. Then offer to help her find a new mouse (or decorations) or to help her decorate the old mouse as a desk item.

Example:












Heck if she finds something she likes in Japan I could ship it over. Decorating cell phones and computers is a huge thing here

OOOH, CUUUUTe! I want one!

Thanks for letting us know no one escapes with out having our visages scrutinized by those who think they know what our thoughts are when we don't know ourselves. !

I get it all the time and I'd say that 'I don't know what my face is doing' and people would burst out laughing. But it's the truth that my mood and facial expressions don't match. I have been in so much trouble because of my face expressions.

Yeah. I also get that a lot. I don't know if NTs do it, too.

You should train in front of a mirror.
And for Matt, he could try to do the face he did to her boss in front of a mirror as well. With the same look in the eyes and everything.
And look at his reflection as if he was a total stranger.
That can help for those who do recognise facial expressions on others.

No, my experience is that mirror training has limited effect. Perhaps that's due to the persistent memory of my father screaming at me "Get that look off your face!! !" while I strove to keep any expression at all from appearing.

I suspect that the aspie-typical flat affect - not responding to the micro-movements of people's faces with micro-movements of our own - disturbs normal people and leaves them believing that something bad is happening. But I don't know...

I use to have people ask me what was wrong frequently or that I always looked like something bad was going to happen. For some reason after antidepressants the comments stopped. I think maybe my flat affect is a little less droopy.

I think that's a large part of the problem, and why the eye-recognition test isn't really accurate. Even if, after careful study and contemplation, you can figure out what the person was saying, if a bunch of strange, thoughtful looks have already crossed your face, you've failed socially, even if you come up with the "correct" answer.
I may be able to analyze and figure out what someone actually meant, but in the process, they're going to think bad things of me.

People always accuse me of sulking or say that I look upset even when I am not. That's just how I hold my face (people must think I'm a right moody madam!). Have you told the principal about your AS? If you have than she shouldn't be telling you to leave your door open and stuff. If you haven't she probably is assuming you are one of those smug, all knowing computer technicians who laughs at those idiots who can't tell the mouse from the monitor! Thats the problem with us because the facial recognician problems go both ways!

Same here. I got told to "smile!" a lot, or asked, "Are you okay?" I conditioned myself to wear a consciously pleasant expression to avoid these comments but I have to be careful because sometimes I catch myself with a pasted-on half-smile that I'm sure looks just as unnerving as my non-sad sad face.

darby54 wrote:

yeah, people would be quite aggressive and rude about it too. Of course then there's the response to "I was just thinking" of
"Does it hurt?"-hardy har har

I often have this problem, with people thinking I'm sad or angry when I'm not.

It only becomes a big issue when strangers accuse me of giving them 'evils' and try to start an argument, which happens occasionally.

We had a baking class last year and everytime I nearly finish my work,my classmates would interrupt and finish my work as if they are the one who made it...I never got angry at them..but it seems that I was showing an emotion of an angry person (according to them)

my classmate: I guess you're getting angry
me:huh?!i'm not..
my classmate: don't deny it...
me: i'm not angry,swear...
my classmate:it's pretty much obvious,Jolly!(my name is jolly ) look at your eyebrows infront of the mirror

It should be that your body knew before your brain (or your heart or your guts) what was going on there.
Or that body knew what you should have felt