Have people nitpicked your posture?

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I suppose this is one of those things that comes with the package and territory of "being on the spectrum", but have you dealt with frustrating moments when someone - maybe a salesperson in a suit shop, maybe a dance instructor, I dunno, whatever that might involve maintaining a "natural" posture (which, of course, we have no clue what that is??)

I can recall occasions, less frequent now since learning to "mask" and get feedback on posture from therapists and friends, when someone would say "Why do you have a tense posture" or "Can you just relax and adopt a 'natural' posture" and then you can imagine when I told the NT suit salesman "This IS my natural posture" - he probably jumped to the conclusion that I was a chronically angry person or that I was bigoted towards him in some way.

One time, I had this sort of back-and-forth with a clinician, who then asked me "Are you in engineering or computer science / IT?" And of course I said YES...because I always have been...right in my element!!
Talk about invoking a shameless cultural stereotype.




And of course, even autism experts aren't 100% sure of why we tend to have "odd" postures - but I'd theorize that it has something to do with the impairments in non-verbal communication and motor skills, same regions of the brain affected.

My mom would complain about my posture a lot. When I was sitting at the table she's be like, "Why are you hunched over like that, sit up straight!", and then I'd force myself to sit straight which felt very unnatural and uncomfortable.
And my brother would tell me how weird I looked when I was laying on my bed with with my legs crossed while eating some ice cream in a bowl, or something like that.

Apparently, being relaxed or comfortable is "wrong" and it makes other people anxious and uncomfortable.

I've had people critique my posture some as a kid. However at least a bit of my bad posture is related to having a very rare low vision disorder that was not diagnosed till my senior year of high-school. Glasses help a little but my vision is still far from 20/20 & glasses make my close vision worse. With lots of things(especially at home) it's better for me to get closer to things & lean forward without wearing glasses.

I've been having occasional back pain for a long time now that is sometimes very severe. I finally got an X-ray a couple weeks ago & my lower back has a curve. It's not severe enough to be scoliosis but there's a chance it could become that. Doc wants me to get physical therapy which I'll look into in the beginning of next year. I'm concerned that physical therapy will make my back hurt worse for a while. I have a routine appointment scheduled in a couple weeks & I plan to discuss better long term pain meds. I guess my lesson is that having bad posture can potentially lead to back problems.

Slouching and hunching and otherwise loafing in slack positions might be more "comfortable", but it also does long term damage to your body. It's not considered "wrong" and "bad" for arbitrary reasons like it making people "uncomfortable" - it is in fact OBJECTIVELY BAD, as it causes known physical harm in the long term.

Slouching and hunching are "comfortable" cos it takes little to no effort to maintain those positions. It feels "relaxed" cos you are relaxed - no exertion, no effort. The problem is, while it may not hurt NOW, it is doing damage to the body. Since the muscles aren't being engaged to support you, the load and pressure are then put on the ligaments and cartilage - which aren't meant to support your whole body weight for extended periods.

Over time, those ligaments and cartilage tear and deteriorate. They don't get better - it just gradually gets worse and worse. Eventually, you start to get all kinds of back and hip problems.

If you slouch all the time, sitting up straight feels uncomfortable cos you've stopped using your muscles to hold you up, and the slack posture has made your joints and range of motion accustomed to that position. After you've already slouched and weakened your muscles, sitting with correct posture takes wort, and feels odd, cos you're not used to it. So people go back to sitting "comfortably" - and end up with worse problems later.

Citing that IT people have bad posture isn't a "shameless cultural stereotype" - it's a statistical fact. People who work in IT or other similar desk-jockey fields tend to have bad posture, because sitting in a chair all day isn't good for you. Hunching over a keyboard all day isn't good for you. Even if it is "comfortable". Those jobs tend to cause posture issues and back problems.

Maintaining good posture takes work - and that work is what helps keep you aligned and healthy into your later years. If you slouch and hunch all the time, eventually you'll develop back problems, and it will take even more work to make anything better.

I get some remarks mostly because of my weird 'bendy' ways of sitting/hanging...
Vocal therapist noticed how hard it is for me to just relax.

Condescending work ergo "when you are older" (at least no longer "as old as me" after pointing out I'd have to be dead for 5 years) can't seem to understand I am already old (since most just ignore her, think she likes bothering me since I do pretend to care ). And still flexible, certainly compared to quite a lot of my team people .
Of 800 people in here, only one does put his desk in stand position frequently.
Apparently my main benefit is I do not stay in the same position for hours (and this is mostly an issue for the other people because it can get on THEIR nerves )

Dactylo courses did enforce a stiff way of sitting at a typewriter and quite some of the older people are a bit like that on computer. Hands are malformed a bit from using mouse since mid 80s.

I know I have poor posture but nobody has ever commented on it

I just know it's bad because I have to adjust my walk to accommodate my limp and I think that has caused me some structural issues over the course of time

Also I used to cycle in all weathers 100 miles a week to commute and with a heavy rucksack on my back...not ideal and then sat at a desk in a freezing cold office in wet clothes all day

And I do enjoy flopping myself down in my seat and vegging out fas a favourite past time as well

So it all goes towards dunnit

People nagging about posture and standing up straight always crack me up. Don't these people know that the cervical vertebrae are curved forward, so it's impossible to stand up completely straight without straining your neck? It's completely normal to slouch a little bit, because your spine isn't straight up-and-down.

People also bugged me about my posture as well. I remember my mum telling me to sit up straight and now to slouch.

There can be a bit of sexism with this. Some people expect women to normally walk like they are fashion models walking down the runway catwalk. I remember one of my elementary teachers complaining about how girls needed to have better posture. That statement might make more sense if it was a private all girl school that focuses on teaching girls proper social manners but those sexist comments should not be made at a public school that includes both girls & boys. I do agree there are some health reasons why people should have good posture overall but focusing on the gender & how poor posture looks to others comes off to me as adults having a power-trip at children's expense.

yes, all my time growing up my mother made me walk around balancing a book on my head and telling me to stand straight, walk right, etc.
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She even took me to a foot doctor complaining about how I walked and wanted him to fix it, he saw how my self confidence had been eroded by her constant corrections and told her I had an extra bone in my ankles that made me walk like that ( I am not certain how I understood it, but to me it was perfectly clear)
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So since I could not help it, my mother left me alone after that (around 6th or 7th grade) at least on that particular issue (but then she explained to strangers that this was why I walked so weird, then it was another way to show others how much she cared and what a good mother she was (she wasn't!! ! )
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The persecution and correction continued in all other ways.
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She was determined to fix me ( she was autistic too, I now realize and hated me because I was so much like her in so many ways that made her uncomfortable)
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For more information on posture and gait, see "struggles with proprioception" . A survey was done a couple of years ago among Drs and discovered that almost all autistic folks treated by them had signs of struggles with proprioception in one or more ways. The dr who gave me diagnosis at age 68, six years ago told me the same thing. It has been a relief to know and understand so many of my lifetime of "whys" are answered by "ASD"