Hi, I'm new! And some questions!

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Hello! I'm new!

I don't have a formal diagnosis (very expensive where I live). I only realised a few months ago that I might have aspergers, and there is a local support group who have been welcoming regardless of my lack of diagnosis. They loaned me the book "Asgergirls" and reading that I suddenly feel for the first time that I understand who and what I am. I'm not a weirdo who doesn't fit into any boxes, I fit into this one box quite well! I was really worried talking to my family, that they might think it was nonsense. Turns out a few years back they'd looked at getting me a diagnosis, baulked at the cost, and decided not to mention it to me because I might be offended...well at least this made me confident that I'm not imagining that this fits me!

I have a whole bunch of questions though. Even though I feel like this fits me, I also feel like I don't understand autism very well yet. I have a bunch of unrelated questions that I've googled a bit, but I wonder if people can help with answers or pointing me towards good resources?

Spectrum -
Is the "autism spectrum" something that everyone is on, and there's a cutoff point where a certain number of signs mean you're on it and fewer means you're close but you're not there? Or is it something everyone either has or they don't? I know someone who says they are "half aspie", does this make sense with the spectrum, or would it be that they are definitely on it but it's very high functioning and manageable?

Sports -
I do martial arts as a hobby, so I'm quite interested in the physical problems. I was definitely a clumsy child. Growing older and martial arts training has definitely helped with this, but I definitely find that a lot of the techniques don't come naturally to me and I need to spend a lot of time becoming accustomed to them (and that's not necessarily a bad thing, at the end I'll understand the mechanics far better than my classmates who just do it). But anyway, the searching I did came up with "proprioception", "developmental coordination disorder" and "low muscle tone" as physical issues.

So, proprioception is about body awareness. I used to bump into doorways and corners a fair bit, but not so much these days. This is also where bad hand-eye-coordination comes in? I'm curious whether this also covers internal feelings of awareness? I sometimes get a sensation I call "floating head" where...well I feel like I'm a floating head and the rest of me is less present than normal. I'm not actually numb, and I still seem to have normal movement control. Is this a proprioception thing, some other autism thing, or something completely unrelated? Oh, I can also detect low levels of alcohol (<1% fermented juice kinda levels) because it always makes my legs feel semi-numb, is this another related thing?

Low muscle tone - I'm definitely not fully hypermobile, but I do have a flexibility that others are envious of, and I suspect it's the cause of a couple of injuries.

Are there any exercises or activities specifically to improve issues with these things? I definitely feel like my coordination, balance and all that cool stuff has improved a LOT from martial arts training, so it that pretty much it? Practice is what it takes? I also do Tai Chi, which is all about body awareness, so that probably ticks all the boxes. But I am worried about the muscle tone thing...if I'm learning to be relaxed, but low muscle tone is being relaxed when I shouldn't be and allowing me to be injured, that seems bad. Any tips for avoiding that kind of injury in training?

I read a really great book about the mental side of training as well - The Inner Game of Tennis. It was very helpful to me, but I'm wondering whether there's anything like this for autistic/asperger people? This question feels dumb because Inner Game is no doubt useful to everyone, but information like this with a specific audience would also be cool.

Other stuff -
Some things I have trouble with, I haven't seen them specifically mentioned in autism information, but I wonder if they're related anyway.
I have a lot of trouble absorbing information that's written in formal, non-conversation-like language. I always hand off board game rules to other people to browse, because I find it too difficult. I had a lot of trouble at university with certain assignment descriptions, trying to understand what the questions meant. Once I got it, I could read it and it made perfect sense. It was just parsing it in the first place that I found very difficult. Is this an autism thing?

Have tremendous trouble writing anything "fluffy" and not dealing with obvious truths. I could easily write a several page essay explaining how something works, but ask me to explore the major themes in a poem and I'll write a couple of obvious statements and run out of anything to say. Again, is this an autism thing?

Oh, I also don't get poetry. Stupid stuff!

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Sorry for wall of text. Hello everyone!

Hi Lekrons from anther N00B!

I'm not sure I can help with all of your questions but I've trained Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) for several years, so I might be able to give you some pointers with Asp and martial arts. What art do you train in (other than Thai Chi?).

Lots of people "don't get" poetry. Even neurotypical.

Just out of interest - how much does an diagnosis cost where you are?

To answer your question about the spectrum, autism is a cluster of traits. These traits aren't necessarily good or bad, and if you take any given trait, you'll find people on and off the spectrum who share it.

Diagnosis is partly concerned with the degree or strength of these traits, how many someone has, and if someone has autistic traits across different broad categories. There's a cutoff somewhere, of course, so maybe some of the people who call themselves half Aspie are saying they have some traits but don't think they're autistic. Maybe I'm in that category, I'm not sure. Since I can't say for certain one way or the other, I just say that I don't have an autism diagnosis.

Most people who take the Aspie Quiz on www.rdos.net will find that they get an aspie and and NT (non-autistic) score, although one score is often higher than the other. These scores measure traits that the test creator has found correlations with being an aspie or being non-autistic. I found it helpful to see the traits I have on both sides.

Welcome
In regards to some of your questions
Autism can include differences in sensory perception, including the feeling of one's own body. It can also affect how your brain is involved with motor control. These can occur in a wide variety of forms among autistic people. What you're experiencing could very well be a particular expression of autistic traits for you.
In regards to your other stuff section, Autism can affect how one handles and interprets language. this can occur in a wide variety of ways. Your particularities with reading and writing can be associated with this.
I myself have a style of writing which included long sentences, a lot of abstract terminology, detailed terminology, and a variety of grammatical peculiarities. Sort of like the writings of Immanuel Kant.

My coordination is actually much better than it used to, even though I'm now in my 50s, when most folks are in a decline. I used to accidentally cut myself all the time when working with sharp tools--this hardly happens these days.
A lot of it is practice, spending the time to do physical tasks with a high degree of accuracy. When I was young I'd do things quickly without much accuracy. Throwing darts is an example of something I'll do to practice accuracy.

Welcome! I wouldn't say everyone is on the spectrum, but everyone has some traits of it at some times. For it to be diagnosed, you need to have a significant number of traits and they need to cause impairment. It is possible to have some traits but not enough to be diagnosable--this is called Broader Autism Phenotype. As for your reading problems, I usually associate ASD with more formal language, but ASD can cause trouble understanding language, so it might be a trait. I'm not sure about your other questions.

I also have the strength to do things slowly, like carefully positioning my body to prune thorny shrubs without getting all tangled up. Again, it comes from practice. And the realization that while it might not come easy at first, we can get better if we put in the time and effort.