Do you look autistic/weird to other people?

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I was waiting for my boys to play in the playground today. I jumped onto the wooden border, and walked along it, balancing myself carefully. If I saw any wood chips on the border, I kicked them back into the playground. I walked around the whole border without falling off , while humming happy songs. Then I noticed a woman sitting on a bench was looking at me. I thought "Hey did I look like a weirdo?"

Then I sat down beside her and chatted about our kids for 10 minutes. So maybe she think I'm OK now.

I still wonder if I looked weird to her, of course I always felt perfectly normal. How about you? Are you aware of yourself doing anything that might be weird?

Yes. I am consistently told that while my features are normal, it's very easy to pick up that I am not. The way I walk and stand and apparently even my aura suggest an intensity. And that's not including the actual shambles that any attempt at social interaction is. I would say that this is probably fairly common in many Aspies that we physically behave abnormal. The other individuals I know on different regions of the autism spectrum, it is fairly easy to pick them out as different.

I don't think they'd immediately jump to 'aspergers', but I have been told I look stoned/miles away quite a few times. 'Bored' and 'half asleep' are others.

Probably not.

I look normal. However, my posture/body language isn't, and people pick up on that.

I get this alot.

Usually when I am happy, my eyes are half closed and people think I am bored/tired.

If I am stressed or active at some task, my eyes are wide open and I have that "deer in the headlights" look.

Yes, always have. Except I have a severe physical impairment and some people decide the wheelchair explains everything weird about me. Outside a chair though people rapidly think of MR, autism, or even seizure/stroke/etc if I'm not responsive enough. They talk like I'm not there.

Yes, people generally quickly realize that I don't seem like everyone else does.

When I was in school, many people repeatedly said I was "crazy" or "weird". Different people said it during different grades, and some of the same people said it during different years.

Many people have said that it seems that I am autistic. I know because I have overheard people's discussions about me and some people have said it directly to me.

With me at work only one person really said I seemed different and it was not just by looking at me it was when I would talk. Though some people at work do always ask me if I'm ok. They keep saying you don't look happy even when I am happy or they ask it when I have something on my mind. To which I say I'm just fine.

That one night back in October, when I've spent the night in the hospital, a heavy set nurse felt out the features of my face, and my shoulders, and told me, "I can tell by your profile, that you were diagnosed with both High Functioning Autism and Asperger's Syndrome." I felt loved, at that moment.

i've been told i have the stupid face on, which is just a blank stare straight face.

I'm 50 and still like to ride shopping carts across the parking lot. If you get a good start, they'll roll for forty feet or more... When I have to wait in line, I stim back and forth on the balls of my feet and click my keys together in a handflap motion. I don't think there's anything about my features that looks odd (except the 5 earrings), in fact in my heyday I was a cutie-patootie, but my behavior is another matter entirely. I am a six-foot-one twelve year old with tattoos and a ponytail. I can't imagine what that makes people think and I frankly don't care.

It's odd--either they see me as a disabled person, or they put some NT interpretation of it on me that still makes me weird, but non-disabled. I've had people assume, for example, that I'm shy and neurotic; or that I'm much smarter than I actually am; or that I'm eccentric, and that this is what makes me different. I've had people assume ADHD more often than any other correct assumption (they don't guess autism as often, probably because I can talk the hind leg off a donkey).

So, I guess they always know I'm different; but they can't generally place autism specifically, or even disability in general.

People can tell that I'm different. If they have their wits about them, and if they're educated, they can tell that it's autism. If they don't, they just think I act aloof, rude, unintelligent, or much younger than my actual age. Usually the people who think I'm rude are people who are rude themelves. Just something I've noticed. I'd much prefer people think I have autism than think I'm rude. This frustrates me.

jebus, I do this same thing all the time at the park with my kids.

I can usually count on someone to ask me: "You're not from around here, are you?"