How's Your Posture?
I read that an Aspie trait is having an odd posture or gait. I've just recently noticed I've always had poor posture. I basically slouch like L from Death Note.
Does anyone else have posture issues? What do you do about it?
plenty of precious little "people" told me "walk like a normal person, not a thug." some of them mimicked (imitated) my gait in a caricature method. so i tried to ignore it.
it is not illegal to be egocentric, arrogant, or judgmental.
a lot of the time, i slouch. sometimes purposely, sometimes not. however, i do notice that i move stiffly.
despite that, however, several coaches commented on how flexible i was. ("[my name]" is the most flexible person i know!), one precious little "person" had the nerve to say, 4x consecutively. he did not address that statement to me. but he said it so many times, i could only imagine that he expected or wanted me to say "thank you".
but of course, he made it sound like he knew a lot of precious little "people", measured their flexibility, and declared me the most extreme.
some professional articles about autism claim that autistics tend to be extremely physically flexible with low muscle tone.
besides, being flexible is not necessarily an advantage.
but whatever.
I am also very flexible. I could have been a gymnast as a child.
I try to sit properly but my progress is never permanent. The only time I really notice is when I'm sitting with other people and I see the way they sit. Usually no one says anything. People my whole life have just concluded "she's weird".
Rubbish.
I was OK as a kid. I had some traumatic stuff happen when I was around 10, then knocked myself out and had a mild concussion. A few months later I was very close to killing myself and my posture became absolutely terrible during this time.
My whole back curled forward, lower and upper back. My feet turned inwards. I "fixed" the feet myself by pointing them forward until I got used to it. Someone took me for one appointment with a physio therapist. She told me to sit with a lumbar roll to try and give me back arch.
Sitting with a lumbar roll for a year, I overdid it and now I have far too much back arch (lordosis). My upper back still hunches forward and my head sticks forward. Turning my feet in didn't solve that problem either, it just hid it. Didn't realise for years later that my whole legs and knees point inwards.
People hassle me about my posture to try and make me fix it. It's definitely improved over the years, but it's still not what I'd call good. I get very depressed when people try and get me to fix my posture, especially when they think they have to convince me that it's bad. I haven't met anyone or heard from anyone who has had bad posture like I do for as long as I do and been able to fix it.
And of course it's all mixed up with memories of why I have bad posture and how I wasn't supported by the people who should have been supported to sort it out when it started, so that makes me even more upset whenever people bring it up.
It's only recently that I realised that having low muscle tone may contribute to the problem. But I don't think being autistic is a major cause, since I think my posture was fine up until that time. Maybe I'm wrong about that.
I wrote an android app to beep at me every x minutes, to remind me to check my posture. Keep forgetting to use it though. I suck!
Does anyone else have posture issues? What do you do about it?
The psychologist who diagnosed me said she knew when I walked in the door what the outcome of the assessments would likely be, just because of my posture. I usually don't remember to straighten up or do anything else about it.
It takes exercise to correct it, but mostly my posture is alright when I relax. Bad posture means you are not relaxing. When you do not relax, your shoulders tense up and they cover your head, and you look like a turtle. Good posture is about relaxation, and relaxing means letting go of any worry about posture. Sort of like a double negative.
My posture has slightly improved after 7 month's worth of yoga. I'll be doing something and hear my instructor's words, "Keep your heart centre open," which is all about not collapsing the shoulders towards the chest. Good thing too, as I've had a few nasty back/neck sprains, or at least I presume they're sprains, from being hunched over a PC for too long. I once was busy browsing on a smartphone for god knows how long, and when I did look up from my chair, my neck just went. It was agony second only to when I suffered runner's knee, and I couldn't lift my arms above my head or lay down properly for over a week. Overall its definitely important to keep an eye on these things, because it's so easy to not really be aware of posture.
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On hiatus thanks to someone in real life breaching my privacy here, without my permission! May be back one day. +tips hat+