Why do I never notice my Asperger traits?

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I find it quite unusual how I never notice my "weird" behaviors. Maybe its cos its natural to me? I dunno really.

It's because they're a part of you. You just do them naturally, and you tend to not really pay attention to things you just do.

I often think I'm being totally normal, but then someone tells me I'm "having an ASD moment"...as in not understanding...

Because the problem isn't inside you, its a mismatch between you and your environment. It's good you have people to tell you when that's happening, so you can fix it if you want to.

I notice my dyspraxic moments more than anything else... but then, it's hard not to notice when you forget your address, or what side of the street your house is on.

I've started to notice those times when I go hyper intellectual and boring about subjects that don't matter to anyone else on the planet.

Love the avatar, Sinsboldly. my cat is called Hobbes...


Yes I find I feel very normal at home. I didnt realise I was weird until I was at school and that was only because someone else told me I was.

it took me forever to realize that people were getting bored when i spoke endlessly on a topic, or tried to explain to them why they were wrong about a fact... only recently did I have this "epiphany." I still struggle with it, my boyfriend will often give me a little nudge to let me know when I start to "ramble." Now I have to really think before I say something, it's exhausting...

And I love that quote by Tony Attwood! It's so true.

I love the avi, too. He is just not worried about anything, is he? And he looks so fluffy and soft.

I was just thinking that I knew myself all those years, and how amazing my sense of not grasping the obvious (that I was different i.e. autistic) just escaped me. So I started trying to figure out what it was that I was experiencing that I didn't get a clue that I was autistic all my life.

And I came across the most interesting article the other day. here's the gist.

Honestly, I think everyone else is wierd and I am normal but hey--what do I know, I am oblivious to my surroundings!!

Like body odor or bad breath, you really don't think you have a problem until it's so bad you can't ignore it.

That's why many people with AS realize what they've done wrong AFTER they look back and reflect on what happened and pick up on all the clues that what happened was bad.

As an analogy,

It's like driving with your car headlamps on full beam on a sunny day.

You don't notice it, but you might wonder why you're receiving odd looks from other people.

When you step outside your car, you realise what all the fuss was about.
You realise that the you've accidently left the headlamps on full beam.
Later you might have to take the car to the garage because you find you can't turn the beam off for some reason.

If it's your mind (and not a car) you're sitting inside and you're in a social situation; it's not like you can easily step outside yourself to check what the problem is.

To do that, you'd have to look at CCTV footage or do a candid hidden camera of yourself.


Watching your face in the mirror isn't entirely free of bias.
Because I wake up and look at the same face in the mirror everyday, I don't see the "weirdness". I just assume that I'm normal because that's what I'm used to seeing. If you become used to a behaviour, it becomes routine and therefore "normal" to you.

Well I was always bullied at school for being weird but I always thought I was in the right and they were in the wrong so never thought there was something odd about me. I guess that is why I never had any self-esteem issues, as I was too assured of myself being right. It was a shock when I was 19 and my partner told me I was just really really weird. He pointed out a bunch of stuff and why it was not normal (though he did was not doing this to complain, just to let me know) and I was really taken aback. This was before I found out I had AS so just went the next few years thinking I was weird. When I was told I had AS, that is when I realised much of how I behave and feel relates to AS. Though, I still felt I came across fairly normal until I told friends about the AS and they were like "ohhhh, it all makes sense now". Funny how they never pointed out I was weird before that!

Although now I recognise why I am odd, I still feel like I am the normal one and everyone else is weird.