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Ai_Ling
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16 Mar 2011, 6:16 pm

I know not all aspies have trouble with eye contact. Lacking eye contact or bad eye contact seems to be a very prominant symptom of autism in general. Are there any aspies who naturally make eye contact like it was never ever a problem for you at all. For me eye contact has always been hard it was probably my most prominent aspie symptom.



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16 Mar 2011, 6:51 pm

I also have issues looking people in the eye but because sometimes I want to appear like an NT, especially if it's someone who will be an aquantance or a professional relationship and I don't have the time, energy or inclination to get into an in depth conversation about autism education and awareness.
I generally look at people's foreheads like they have grown a third eye(well if they really had a third eye then I couldn't look at that either! Lol) or at the beginning of their hairline.



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16 Mar 2011, 7:02 pm

My wife has noticed that I tend to sometimes look past a person while I'm talking to them.

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ocdgirl123
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16 Mar 2011, 7:22 pm

I make it naturally. I did go through a stage at ages 6-8 where I had trouble with eye contact. I had eye contact when I was younger than 6 and when I was older than 8, just that stage.


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16 Mar 2011, 7:56 pm

I fake eye contact really well. I suppose I do the standard things: look at their mouths, hair, over their shoulder, etc. Nothing natural about my eye contact.


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16 Mar 2011, 9:04 pm

Quote:
I fake eye contact really well. I suppose I do the standard things: look at their mouths, hair, over their shoulder, etc. Nothing natural about my eye contact.


I do the faking thing too. It's normally a case of intermittently looking at the reciprocant's face as whole. It's only when they look back I get caught out and turn away very quickly. Occasionally I have made genuine eye contact and it is a very powerful thing, it normally happens with people I'm very close to. When it happens it is a very good way of sending a message (normally a negative message)


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League_Girl
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16 Mar 2011, 9:11 pm

I can do it naturally now. I don't have to remember to look at people anymore and sometimes I do have to remember to do it. In the past it never came natural and then I started to remember to look at someone as I talk or listen. I don't know if it's appropriate or not. Either we don't do it or we do it too much or we just do it wrong. I just look at their faces or their body or their hair. If I feel comfortable enough, I can look at someone and it's with my husband or family.



CockneyRebel
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16 Mar 2011, 9:12 pm

I tend to look out the corners of my eyes when I'm talking to people. I find it very hard to give direct eye contact. The whole thing also makes me wonder why NTs make such a big deal about eye contact. I'm doing the best that I can.


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16 Mar 2011, 9:25 pm

I am cross-eyed actually, but my brain gives me an image as if it was normal, so I can even think I'm looking right at you while you are wondering why I'm looking off at something in the corner. Probably one of many reasons why my AS wasn't diagnosed until college - no one knew where I was actually looking and my parents were very concerned with my multiple eye disorders as well as my 3 other siblings that the idea of AS ddin't come up till high school.



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16 Mar 2011, 10:17 pm

Eye contact is one of the many social ques that I had to teach myself to be aware of. When I was young I would avoid it completely then sometime during middle school I would stare at people or through them. I didn't really get the hang of it until junoir/senior year of high school and even to this day I have a bit of a problem with it. But to other people it seems natural enough they don't get freaked out by me anymore when I talk to them so I guess I found that happy medium.

That being said, trying to talk to me while I'm driving or working on an engine or a car in general and while I can carry an entire 30 min conversation on with you, I'll probably only look you in the eye for a split second while changing lanes/looking for a required tool =P same way when I use to be heavily into computer games.



OddOne21
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08 Jul 2014, 7:09 pm

Interesting, it seems eye contact is a big problem for a lot of people with AS. I never really had a problem with it to any extent. There are definitely subtle abnormalities in my body language though



Magnanimous
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08 Jul 2014, 7:11 pm

I wear sunglasses... like a boss.

I've got absolutely NO problem looking people in the eyes from behind one-way tinted lenses.



ASPartOfMe
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08 Jul 2014, 7:37 pm

There are times it seems almost natural, other times it is still is onerous. That s a big improvement from not knowing 1. I did not do it to 2. People think it's impotent.


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Andrejake
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08 Jul 2014, 7:52 pm

I can't do it naturally and i only force it when i feel that i'm into a really important situation.



UmbrellaBirds
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08 Jul 2014, 8:47 pm

When I was little I would stare directly into people's eyes for extended periods of time, mostly because I didn't really know what else to do. Then my mom taught me that it made people uncomfortable, and since then my eye contact has been really awkward. I now just usually look at people's eyebrows or over their shoulder. If I'm talking to more than one person I won't look at anyone (I'll look at the invisable person in the corner/back of the room).



btbnnyr
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08 Jul 2014, 9:02 pm

I can look people in the eyes if I do it on purpose, but I can't keep up the on purpose part, so my natural behavior is really low eye contact and my looks at eyes at fleeting, each fixation much shorter in duration than normal.


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