I think I can recognize Asperger's just by looking at people

Post Reply New Topic

The other day, I was looking at my childhood photos and right off the bat I could tell I was an Aspie. In most of the photos, I basically have the same facial expression, like I'm freezing or something! And even in the ones where I'm smiling you can tell that it was basically an "emulation" of the 'expected' human behavior, and not a genuine expression.

It's difficult to explain but... you can tell that my upper face (eyes, forehead, eyebrows) is not in 'sync' with my lower face. It's like I'm just spreading my cheeks (< I know).

Another thing I'm starting to notice is that my forehead basically has no wrinkles and I'm 33! I just don't use the upper part of my face to express my feelings, merely because I don't know how to.

I've been also watching interviews of Aspies on YouTube etc. and in most cases, it's actually quite apparent... at least to me.

P.S While I've Asperger's, I don't face difficulty recognizing other's facial expressions.

I was severely autistic as a child. Not Aspergian.

One cannot tell that I was autistic on the basis of photographs of me.

I do not have... whatever the ASD version of gaydar is. I've only met one person who was very obvious in his mannerism and speech patterns, everyone else I've met who said they were on the spectrum didn't appear to be unless I got to know them more.

Whoa, I don't have forehead wrinkles, I'm pretty sure I use the upper part of my face to express things though, maybe I didn't growing up? I know I didn't really smile as a kid.

Last edited by usagibryan on 01 Dec 2022, 9:53 am, edited 2 times in total.

You may have a superpower, or you may be letting your bias influence your interpretation - who knows which is true.

i dont think i look autistic

OP:

unlike down syndrome, asperger's does not have a "look".

furthermore, standard operating procedure requires a psychologist that specializes in autism spectrum disorders, to make that diagnosis. even then, they do not just look at a picture of the client to differentiate between "asperger's" and "neurotypical".

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Caz:

Among the many people that I disclosed my autism diagnosis to, by far, the most popular statement they told me: "you don't look autistic."

I can’t tell if someone is autistic from photos, but I can suspect it immediately right after communicating with them. Usually when I talk to neurotypicals I can feel a theoretical wall between us. However, when I talk to autistics, we click better. It doesn’t feel like a theoretical wall is between us.

autism seems to be based on stereotypes so if you make regular eye contact and can have a conversation without talking about your special subject and you dont speak in monotone or flap your hands or rock or whatever then you will likely get away with passing off as nonautistic at least

_______________________________________________________________________________________

True: I have friends who don't look like that at all.
Then knowing them well themselves they denote it.
Generally it is the look that strikes, not in anyone.
But we distract it while talking or looking at people.

I do it often and it has nothing to do with shyness, for example.

§

I also remember that I didn't smile in the photographs.

§
The posture appears unnatural if I realize it from the photographic shot

§
I'm neotenic so this may be a significant sign in some I think
§
I remember a photo of my mother as a child, she swung her foot and blur was present in the photo, in addition to not looking into the camera, this compared to anyone else in the same photo.

§
I met who patented Eye Tracking.


§
What struck him in the diagnosis phase was precisely my way of looking.

§

However sometimes I don't realize it at all, but here it is. to people, i tend to come across as shy.

§

I'm not shy .

Reserved yes.

§

One can recognize an Asperger's with difficulty

§
My mother was a model for photographers, I assure you that you could not understand it was Asperger
§
My father was also a model, but it was understood that he was neurotypical both from his attitudes and his interests (if you spoke to him)

I give some examples:
I can't look people in the face for long.

Between talking and looking together, we actually lose 50% of our communicative potential.

§

So most of what you write is possible.

I've been working on it every day.

Very important is not to talk too much about a topic.

Look at a point between the interlocutor's eyes.

It decreases anxiety and makes those around us happy.
Don't look away, but we don't notice this, I know it from some videos on you tube of friends.


§

We tend to keep our hands still post covid, some gestures should be imitated to put the interlocutor in harmony with us and vice versa.

§
As much as I'm concerned, I struggle a lot with these things, I tend to outline conversations with a lot of data and polished words.

§

People don't make much use of it.

§

The environment in which we speak makes the difference:

for example ... I will be able to express myself fully in a university lesson.

Because it's based on what interests me, but what he says is interested

§
If in another context, be very careful to say short sentences without complex concepts.

§Making other people talk a lot is helpful.

Understand the dialogue shift and not overlap.

§

In these months I'm seriously considering minimizing my verbal interactions, I hear responses related to my talking too much.

Then I will satisfy them: I will speak as little as possible, or nothing (in the Shutdown phase it recently happened to me and I am an excellent speaker, this struck me a lot)

Sometimes one is able to tell if a person has autistic traits, but that may not be the same as the person actually being autistic.

I do not think looking at pictures of yourself or aspie vloggers is a good test of your "aspiedar" abilities.

This is a good description of high level masking … just hard to do for extended. Periods of time . For me .
But kinda. Enjoy the people , i do not have to mask with .. all three of them. 2 of them kinda appear like undiagnosed ASpies

I've been to many socials now for autistic adults. MOST do not "seem" or "act" autistic. Lower functioning ones you can tell immediately. HFA's it may start being apparent as they explain things, and I see their quirks with mannerisms and facial expressions, but MOST simply seem like "normal" people -- yet they've been diagnosed on the spectrum. My giveaway may be little facial expression and the way I describe things, maybe looking away too much WHILE I describe or explain. Outside of that, I don't have any odd mannerisms or peculiar prosody or weird looks on my face. Are these typical-appearing auties masking? Maybe, maybe not. I'd think they wouldn't be masking much AMONG EACH OTHER. My lack of peculiar prosody or mannerisms isn't masking. It's jsut that I don't happen to have these traits with my autism. I have plenty others, though!

Everyone who you have described that you could tell were austistic, you knew they were all austistic beforehand. Do you see how that might cast doubt on your superpower?

People couldn't tell I was aspie just by my appearance. but then again Asperger's wouldn't even be officially recognized until 1994, and even now NT people think saying you have Asperger's is Nazi and ableist. Sorry, I didn't mean to offend myself.

Actually...people wouldn't think those with Asperger's are "ableist and Nazi."

Most people don't know Hans Asperger. They almost certainly wouldn't know his Nazi connections.

I've never been diagnosed with Aspergers; I was diagnosed with classic autism when I was a very young child in the 1960s. I would never be diagnosed with Aspergers because I had a major speech delay.