Breaking things!! X_X

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My hand-eye coordination is actually pretty amazing, it's one of things that is completely unaffected by autism for me.

That doesn't mean i don't break things, i always "play" with stuff when i'm around friends house's. I've broken computers, computer games, chairs, toasters... the list is endless. Infact, i'm not allowed to touch certain things in certain friend's houses anymore.

I also don't get a sinking feeling, i always offer to pay for what i've broke, it is the simple solution after all. If people don't take me up on it, that's their problem.

Yeah, I did gymnastics for 12 years and have been doing circus for 8 or 9 now... and am still just as clumsy as before. I find that if I'm paying strict attention to what I'm doing (when I'm doing circus or gymnastics), I'm much more coordinated. But it takes a lot of concentration. Often when I'm walking, I'm paying attention to other things or I'm lost in thoughts. Because of this I'm not paying attention to my surroundings and I don't see that little crack in the sidewalk, or that protruding tree branch. I have discovered that if I follow a line or walk on a curb I am much more coordinated, because I force myself to pay attention. Maybe just finding your trick like that will help with coordination.

I saw someone mention high heels... I've worn high heels twice in my life... the first time, I broke a toe and sprained my ankle. The second time was for prom, and I took them off and put on the socks that I had smuggled in my bag. (Prom was a horrible experience that my mother made me go to. Not only did I have to wear a dress, it was WAY later than my bedtime (between 10 and 11 pm), and there were over 500 people there and loud music and strobe lights. I hid in a back room. The number on the wristband that they gave me to show they had searched me and I had no alcohol was prime. It had 7 digits. I didn't have a calculator.) I generally wear flats when I have to wear fancy clothes. Flats go better with black dress pants anyway.

I broke so many expensive things as a child, including our only heirloom and my dad's glass stereo case. Nowadays, I seem to hurt myself slightly more than things. I very rarely wear skirts/dresses because I look like I've been fighting all of the time.

I'm also terrible at crossing roads because I can't judge how far away the cars are. I err on the side of safety and stand there for ages getting funny looks.

Oh to be lithe and delicate.

I searched around a bit and found one study that asks what is going on. Here is the summary:

That is yet another thing I never thought of. These people say the trouble is not that the motor commands are wrong, it's that aspies are not so good at knowing where the limbs are.

I'm not sure I get this right, but it seems to be just the other way around with me - I mess up when I rely on what I see.

Let me explain: I sew by hand and I'm great with it and I usually do it while watching TV- I only have to check it once in a while to make sure I'm following my pattern. I can push multiple buttons on a game controller (simultaneously or in a predefined order) fast and accurate, but if I look at it I get confused.

As I said in my first post I've trained myself to be careful (I was disastrous as a child), but if I'm very tired or agitated I might end up placing my glass a bit more to the left or right than intended or bump it into something, although I'm watching it.

i dont break things by accident, im more prone to breaking things due to seeing the affect or out of anger, ill break glasses, tables, picture frames, anything you name it, use to do a lot when i was a child now more often due it when angry or upset. I'll still ocassionally break something to see it shattered basically to see the affect.

feel like a veteran at breaking things...similar way to Age.

Am smash things in 'incidents',and meltdowns,as well as through being hit in seizures and by accident due to not knowing own strength.
Have broken a lot of things ranging from walls,to laptops which am partly use to communicate with,beds,mirrors, CRT monitors,PC towers [decked front panels in on one,and wrote off another],windows,spinny chairs,floor standing fans,sensory equipment,parts on peoples cars,house doors [front door,back when they used to be all glass with a skinny wooden frame] and inside home doors etc.
Am used to break tables and chairs at school in incidents and meltdowns,but dad had to pay to replace them and would take it out on am as soon as got in the home.
The most precious things have broken were the laptops,and the PC that doesnt work anymore,not just because of what they were used for,but because they all had years worth of photos of pets that are no longer alive,and being an idiot had never backed them up,apart from a limited few had on a memory stick [but that got stolen along with psp this year].

I chose "once a year" because I'm very careful with breakables, but I'm clumsy in other ways - I keep bumping into people and things, dropping things, overturning things, losing my balance, etc.

Sadly no... I tried a lot of that stuff when I was a kid - one year of jazz and tap (total disaster) only managed to get through 4 months of gymnastics, and I've did choreography (dancing) with my choir for 11 years and never got better - in fact I was so bad I was always in the back row, and it kept holding me back from moving up the levels (you have to pass a dance audition as well as a singing audition). One dance audition I managed to hit the dancer next to me in the face, and trip on my own feet, all in the space of a 3 minute piece. The only reason I ever made it into the top level was because I had to miss the dance audition that year due to sickness, and they decided my singing was good enough and gave me a position.



I have problems with both spacial awareness and poor motor skills. And have weak muscle tone all over my body, apparently (I was diagnosed with all this by some specialist when I was 5, when my parents went to see them about my social problems and lack of coordination - I wasn't diagnosed with AS until several years later, I don't think most people realized it existed back then). Lol tried Team sports too, I used to play netball (and I was terrible, my reflexes were about 10 seconds slower than everyone elses, and I was just uncoordinated full stop). I also played tennis, and I wasn't great at it - but I was better at it. I've always been best at individual stuff like cross country running.

I do think it is possible all this dancing and random sports over the years has helped me some; while I am still bad, I am not nearly as awful as when I was younger and breaking things every single day (as well as the constant bruising).


I don't think that is the same as coordination. You'd have a purely motoric problem if you knew where things are, but your motor commands are too variable. If you don't know where things are that means either you get the distance wrong or you quickly lose track.[/quote]

I have this problem, and I also have the thing mentioned about being unable to judge distance when I can't see something - like if it's too far in my peripheral vision - that's when I often run into things, if they're on my side and I'm not looking at them.

These days I do tend to bruise myself most often - and the toe thing too! I totally relate to that! I am constantly banging my toes, even when I am sitting in the dinner table. There are less breakables in the house - I broke most of them already years ago, and the ones I didn't break my parents put away for safe keeping. And we moved to a smaller house - less decorative items.

It also does get worse the more tired I am. When I get tired, that's when I start knocking more and more things over, and dropping things, and suchwhat.

I don't accidentally break things that often, I actually spend a lot of time fixing things so I can buy them at cheaper prices (who's gonna want a broken *********? "well, what's wrong with it?")

It's when something serves no purpose anymore, that's when there's no greater thrill than to take stuff out back and smash it on a rock, or blow it up, etc. Most electronic things are easily destroyed by hooking them up to an arc welder and slowly cranking up the output until said device starts smoking. Microwave ovens can be easily destroyed by putting a full beer can (from a skunky pack) in the microwave and setting it on high for 10 minutes. TVs don't function that well after recieving a shotgun blast, etc.

That explains me entirely!! !

I voted once a week.

I would say once a year. Even though I'm a pretty big person it's surprising how seldom I break things. Every once in a while, well, accidents happen. I do bump into walls a lot, but not people.

I never break something intentionally, even when mad. I almost have a phobia of breaking anything and I always somewhat cringe at scenes in movies where a room gets trashed or an object gets broken. I am fairly defensive about my possessions because in my experience the average person has far less respect for other people's property than I do.

I used to be worse when I was young because I was clumsier then. Early in high school I had a growth spurt that got me noticed for the basketball team and I was pressured to join. I had no natural talent at basketball, when I started I was horrible at it, I couldn't even dribble and my shots were way off. One of the players always took me to the gym during lunch time to practice and lift weights, else I probably wouldn't have stayed at it. In a couple of months of practicing every day I developed a nice stroke on my shot and my footwork and dribbling was getting better. I became a starter on the team maybe only two months of practice. At about this point is when I stopped being clumsy. Though I know what most of you aspies think of team sports, if you give basketball enough of a try it might help with a lot, even if you just go alone to shoot free throws or 3s. I do that a lot, still.

I try to fix and then break more.

Headphone wires, I'm always playing with them twisting them squeezing them and they are so thin they break. Oh and people, I've broken a few people. Got to love full contact sports.

I've learned to keep breakables far away from myself, and vice versa, so I don't break things very often anymore...but on the other hand, I knock stuff over probably an average of once-a-day, so I went with "once a month'.

I seem to have amazing eye/hand coordination for example I can see a ball thrown at me from the corner of my eye, throw out one hand and catch it with ease. I also catch flies by just grabbing them out of the air.

My problem is with not knowing how much force to apply to something, I usualy break heads off screws and bolts, and I've even broken screwdrivers and bent spanners.