Talking with your hands and a few other things

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Hi all! I've got a few questions.

First: Do you all talk with your hands? I know aspies are notoriously bad at body language and nonverbal communication but I dare I say "fluently" talk with my hands.

Second: When it comes to itches/itching, are your itches particularly intense/long lasting? I will often have an itch in the same place for days.

Third: This is probably completely unrelated to being aspie, but do any of you have incredibly dry, chapped lips? I am orally hyposensitive and bite my lips a lot/forget to wipe my mouth etc. But also some flavors are really strong/I can't tolerate a lot of textures so hypersensitive as well?

Thanks for the feedback!

I actually think I overly talk with my hands. I think it has to do with the fact that I struggle with speaking so much that I compensate by practically miming everything that I'm saying. When I get excited about something, I literally start drawing it in the air while I'm explaining it. I have also been told before that when I tell a story it's almost possible to understand it solely by watching my hands. I'm not sure if this is typical of aspies though.

As for itches and lip chapping, that's a negative on my end.

I do use my hands in conversation, it's a trained habit from my years studying rhetoric. Cicero (Roman senator/noted speaker, and my avatar) claimed a good speaker uses his/her hands as a concrete physical manifestation of the words coming out of their mouth and was a big advocate for not only learning appropriate body posture but hand motion as well. He was so noted for his hand movements that when he was assassinated they tacked not only his tongue to the forum walls, but his hands as well. Hand movement is actually a positive trait for communication if used appropriately, just don't make it look like you're signalling in a plane on an aircraft carrier.

I've seen many autistics use their hands a lot. I'm nonverbal but use my hands a lot. Not actual sign language, just a lot of gesturing.

Many people with autism also have skin sensitivities. I have itching attacks sometimes.

I twitch a lot, yet hardly anyone notices it except me. I do talk with my hands a lot too.

I do it a lot. Words aren't very reliable to me.
Especially at home. My mom and my sister mostly 'gets it' despite speaking too little. Half the time, I'd do it for amusement. And the fact that I don't like to talk.

My fingers kinda demands a more and various kinds of stimming than any parts of my body, that my arms go tired first long before any of my fingers starts feeling any signs.

Lastly... My lips do get dried a lot. There are times I end up tearing it off and bleeding.
And taste remains my sensory weakness. Still as picky as I was a child, and still working on it.

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Do you all talk with your hands
Quite a bit, including when it's completely useless like when I'm on the phone.

When it comes to itches/itching, are your itches particularly intense/long lasting
Not sure whether this is the kind of thing you're talking about, but I've had problems with Eczema for years much longer than I knew I had Aspergers. That causing itching...

Do any of you have incredibly dry, chapped lips?
I'd say probably no. I do have one hand where the palm that is always incredibly dry and chapped though, to the point that the doctor gave me a very strong cortisone cream for it.

Regarding the last two points, I found this website (https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autis ... conditions), which says that people with Autism/Aspergers are 1.6 times more likely to have eczema or skin allergies than the general population. Certainly not enough to dra a direct connection, but still a somewhat higher probability.

I have speech issues and learn sign language - the epitome of talking with your hands. Its awesome.

Speaking with my hands: Yes, a lot. If my hands were bound, I could hardly express myself.

Itchiness: I am particularly susceptible to it. It doesn't take much to make me itch.

Chapped lips: This will probably sound totally off the wall but I suffered from very chapped lips growing up and thru my 20s. Once I found out I was hypoglycemic (at about age 30) and got white sugar and white flour out of my diet, I have not had them since. Once of the tangible benefits of such a diet.

Well, I think I did. When I couldn't contain my excitement I did the hand-flapping. To me, it was normal, but what struck me was that people seemed bemused by it. That was the most obviously autistic thing I did.

I find it so much easier to hold onto a train of thought if hands are in constant motion. This is why I enjoy my videogames so much; its a meditation to me, the steady comforting feeling of a good controller in my hands is very soothing.

Again, shameless copy-pasting here...

Do you all talk with your hands
Depends on what it's about. If I can point at what I'm talking about, I'll often do it. It's handy if you can't find the word you need, and you don't use "thingies" because that's your pet peeve.

When it comes to itches/itching, are your itches particularly intense/long lasting
Nope.

Do any of you have incredibly dry, chapped lips?
Nope.

I'm of German and Italian ancestry, so I do tend to talk with my hands a lot.

My lips tend to get chapped when it's really cold and I have had a lot of problems with itching lately.

When I'm manic I talk with my hands better than with my mouth, LOL. Other times I don't talk with my hands very much. I guess no need; I can speak better.