no facial expression

Post Reply New Topic

I was out with friends for coffee today, and while I was making an effort to visibly react to what other people were saying, apparently even when I try it doesn't work because one of them commented that she couldn't tell how I felt about what she was saying because there was no expression on my face.

Is lack of facial expression an ASD thing? I think I have a problem with lack of body language too but I've only ever gotten comments that my body language is lacking while performing. (I'm a singer.)

I make facial expressions hardly at all. I'm 29 and there are not even the slightest hints of lines anywhere on my face or forehead. Expressions have never come naturally for me but it's only been recently I've really noticed it.

Lately I have been going through a significant episode of depression and anhedonia so my expression is blank pretty much all of the time, even more so than usual.

I guess the upside of all this is that we will look young for a really long time.

********************************************************************************

Check out my IMDB page!

Yep. I'm almost 23, and people usually think that I'm 15 when they meet me. It's a little embarrassing now, but in 10 years it will be awesome .
People usually remark that I have either no expression on my face, or that I look slightly sick/tired/upset. When I am having my picture taken, I have to make a great effort to really smile and try to show the emotion, and then the picture usually comes out looking totally different than I thought it would (ex: I feel like I have a big smile on my face, and look really happy, but when I see the picture my smile isn't that pronounced and my eyes are half closed). It took me at least 50 tries to get my profile picture, lol.

I like your profile pic

This exact thing is what causes me a lot of problems at work (I work in a customer service role). I wear a smile so often that, when I let my expression go flat, people ask why I'm so angry. And one time recently, I was watching a coworker with what I would have called a "neutral" expression. He saw me and asked, "What's with the death glare?"

So I guess my expressions need a lot more work. Of course, my almost complete lack of eye contact just exacerbates this problem.

Well I use facial expressions, actually my facial expressions and body language can be quite exaggerated at times (I borrowed some of it from lee evans especially when it comes to my sense of humour lol) so I can tend to become a bit over animated. I have people comment on how over animated I can be at times. However there are also times where they seem to misjudge the mood that I am in. In my teens people used to keep telling me to cheer up when I was in a perfectly good mood. I actually went home to my mum and said "what am I supposed to do, walk around grinning like a cheshire cat all day?". When I am upset they think I am angry and so on. I always thought that they were just abysmal at reading someone's mood but now I am wondering if I am not giving out the right signals in some ways. Whilst I can read basic emotions via facial expressions (happy, sad, disgust and so on) I don't read complex or subtle ones accurately. Neither can I read body language so I am not always aware of what signal my body language is giving out exactly unless its using a hand gesture etc.

It has been an irritation to me since I was a child as I would get annoyed and frustrated because people would constantly misjudge my mood and as a result misjudge me. I often wonder if that's why my dr keeps thinking I am depressed when I am actually not feeling depressed or sad at all...

I do make an effort to grin at people...but its mechanical. Smiling only comes naturally when I am very very excited or I find something funny. At other times I can be in a very good mood but I don't walk around grinning at myself lol.

It depends. Sometimes I get told to "cheer up" or "smile" or "it might never happen", and I thought I looked neutral. Other times I get very excited about something and people tell me to "calm down". I imagine that most of the time I look neutral, but because of how people react I suppose I might look odd rather than expressionless. Not sure.

My face is so darned tic-y that I don't get much expression in. (And saying that just set it off lol).

I have suck a blank look on my face a lot. I force my self to smile and try to show I'm happy. But when tired I'm back to my grumpy look. This is so fustrating. My wife thinks I'm in a mood so she puts herself into a mood. Then I'm all confused about what's going on.

I tend to get asked "what's wrong?" pretty often even though I think I have a "normal" facial expression whenever this happens. I tend to have this look on all the time, even when I think I'm smiling sometimes I'll still be asked that.