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Geekonychus
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18 Jan 2013, 10:13 am

I can sometimes pick up on it if I'm talking to someone. My direct supervisor and the guy in the cubicle across from me are almost certainly on the spectrum.



Joe90
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18 Jan 2013, 12:51 pm

chlov wrote:
No, I can't recognize a person with AS just basing on how they look, and people can't say I have AS just basing on how I look.
Autism/AS has no physical features, maybe you can notice that someone with autism has a weird posture, or gait, but even many NTs have weird postures and gaits, and they don't have AS.


Very true.

I do find it irksome when people seem to make up all these physical traits just because they may have that physical trait what anybody could commonly have. There has even been a mention on WP that having brown eyes is an Autistic physical feature. How can that be so, when brown eyes is common in a lot of people? I always thought blue eyes was more common in British/white people, but actually I have met more British/white people with brown eyes than any other eye colour. My eyes are blue that I don't correlate that with being an Aspie. I correlate that with coming from a family where blue eyes is rife. If a lot of Autistics had red eyes, or purple eyes, or some other unique eye colour, then it would make sense to say that there is a connection between this colour eye and Autism.


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blue1skies
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18 Jan 2013, 7:51 pm

Interesting question! This is just about myself and what I've observed... Even when I feel pretty content, I look nervous. I fidget with my hands or jewelery or hair and I have a hard time making eye contact when speaking. It just feels too personal for me, like all my inner thoughts are revealed through my eyes.
I have very good posture, I walk extremely fast, and I veer out of the way of other people.
Maybe something like this is what you notice in other people?



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18 Mar 2013, 6:12 pm

anxiety25 wrote:
On a parenting forum I'm on... it was rather interesting. A few parents kept bringing it up in the photos section-they said we all seem to have almond shaped eyes. Smaller towards the middle and wider on the other sides. It was interesting. Some called them "tear dropped shaped eyes". But I doubt that is all of us... looking at the pictures though, I saw what they were talking about. It was pretty coincidental.


Hi!

Are you allowed to share here in the forums what parenting forum you're referring to?

I do firmly believe that there are people with Asperger's that have facial features that are strikingly similar to each other.

My son is one of them and that's why I pick up on the "look", because they look like my son (or my son looks like them). ;) Not all people with Asperger's have "the look" but some do.

Please let us know the parenting forum you're referring to (if it's allowed), and the pictures especially. I'd love to take a look at it.

If it's not allowed, can I ask you to please PM me with the information?

Thank you so much!
Diane


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18 Mar 2013, 6:37 pm

I've noticed something childlike and smooth about the face a lot of the time and an overall naive look. Clumsy gestures and of course something unusual in the tone of voice or volume of speech. All this probably applies to me (and I've even been told I look "innocent").



AspergersnotAutism
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26 Oct 2014, 5:54 pm

I'm new to this site. I don't think we can really tell people with Aspergers by look in a lot of cases unless its gait. When I was younger I held myself more noticeably but now my gait is just very normal looking in most circumstances (maybe a bit strange for some dance or bent over row exercises), I might run funny but probably in a normal way rather an aspergers way. My user name reflects a little concern I have of the linking of Aspergers to Autism, Autism to me is usually folk with severe social problems and sometimes more apparent physical features of the face than Aspergers.

I have normal sized head I believe, and normal forehead though not sure what a high forehead looks like, I don't have a problem with eye contact though on pictures I struggle to force myself to smile, or know where the camera is so it would look like I am not making eye contact if I am not looking at the right place but isn't a total reflection of how I usually look in that regard. I used to take things more literally when younger but not really so much now, however if given a task to do I would just do what is asked without assuming sub parts not explicitly stated if it didn't occur to me that a sub task was to be done, part of this is lack of experience in certain tasks, the other part is maybe a lack of intuition. I can read body language quite well, and bar thugs or drunks I can usually put folk in their place if their being a bit off. The biggest problem I have is with some folk who are not diagnosed with asp, who I believe have it more severity than myself, they think I take things literally (and try to make jokes that are weird, one great example of this one guy taking stuff literally I wish I remembered what he said it was pretty stupid) from them when in fact its because they don't have the usual intonation etc of other people (as verified by a relative of myself and a person that works with one such person that annoyed me that they take things literally and lack intonation). My body langauge can be stand offish but this is mainly a defense mechanism and not my inherent sociability as It's not social interaction as such that worries me but rather being judged for things out with my control and common experiences, once I have those things sorted which they should be soonish I can go back to the person I was high school which was outgoing. I struggle to tell when adult females find me attractive or if they just like me as a friend or a bit of both, but can tell when adolescents like me (which is no use as Im not a creep) as their plainer with their emotioIns. Beyond that one area I'm generally good at reading people.

The things that give me away a bit to some folk with incredible pereception ,however I even belief that part of that is due to confidence too,that I would be more willing to ask them if they liked me etc if I felt proud of myself). I am good at making small talk but not opening up, I dont open up because of a sense I havent yet fulfilled my potential, thus I could begin to make friends but I don't then develop them because If I asked the usual type of questions people ask of each other when it comes back to "what do you do..." or " you ever been to ibiza" etc I'm just terrified of saying nothing,so I stick to small talk, kind of the reverse of a lot of people with aspergers. The more give away signs is an ever slight unsymertic smile with no teeth showing when I try to smile forcibly. I worry a lot more about things and all the things that could go wrong, it doesn't help that much that my parents are over protective and forever telling me I "see" things differently, I think they overstate it, just like the media, but I know I do see things differently, the difference IS I see both the individual bricks and the wall, but my parent thinks/can only perceive the detail I see not the big picture, admittedly they admit to themselves that though they have normal neurology they tend to have traits of autism, what is funny is I don't have traits of asepergers beyond certain areas,Like I don't mind change, in fact I want change in my life but I also worry about that said change such as failing or confirming my parents fear correct, plus the practical things I have to do to partake in something like travelling to a place in a city i have never been etc, how to rent a flat etc. I struggle to stick to a plan of events, which apparently Aspergers people we are either like that or totally rigid in our events. Giving me a total blank page for something is bad though, I like to have some guidlines I can work to, whilst enough freedom to research different directions for a project, limited freedom rather than total rigidity or structure suits me best.

I seen a thing saying people with Autisim, not aspergers, often have big eyes and big heads, wide mouth, well my mouth is narrow in width and height, my eyes are slightly more wide but small in the vertical direction unlike the sort of look they had (the sort of look that people used to disparagingly call "spastic" or ret*d, the association of Aspergers with looking ugly or slow or both is rather unhelpful in the extreme as I look normal-attractive beyond a lack of bone thickness, height and small writs but they are sort of in proportion with my height just my lower arms and upper arms are less than they should be). I look a bit young but thats a good thing but not child like beyond my small height and stature, that said my body shape is like a mix of endo morph and mesomorph in my legs (but skinny ankles and calfs though I believe my Calfs can become quite big the way they look...), I have mesomoprhic upper body but small shoulders and skinny arms yet broad shoulders, if I am making sense. I also seen a video with a girl with Aspergers, at the end of the interview because it was clear she was high functioning the interviewer said "oh you would be really good with people with aspergers, our camera man is really good with people with Aspergers (the camera man has Aspergers)" as if having mild aspergers and looking attractive, acting basically "normally" with almost imperceptible differences in behaviour means you don't really have it or your better than people with more severe aspergers. This worries me because in Nazi germany they sometimes made exceptions for Jews (such as George Sorros) they liked in the Nazi party who where members of the nazi party,and its the same logic being applied here. Fundamentally I see Aspergers as usually something very mild and linking it to autism or people with more extreme aspergers isnt that helpful and seems dangerous. It is also wrong to even link more extreme Aspergers with autism or to suggest even all people with autism have large eyes etc, just seems a bit like comparing a lot of high or mid functioning people to like invalids or people with severe downsyndrome.

I hated the fact an interviewer in a video said "whats it like living with autism, my brother has autism" asking a high functioning aspergers person that is like asking any one with a mild difference what it is like to live with spinabifida based on the logic, oh somones not normal, all not normal people are the same thus having garrets syndrome is just like having spinabifida. Sorry if my examples seem slightly silly but I hope I convey the message I am trying to about said interviewer asking people with Aspergers about autism, and the cliched "dont you have a great talent", we are not idiot savants either....



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26 Oct 2014, 9:22 pm

anbuend wrote:
ASgirl wrote:
asperger syndrome is often referred to as an "invisiable" disability so i don't think one can tell who has the disorder and who hasn't. of course some aspies might have more noticeable physical traits such as tics and stimming but they are not restricted to aspies (people with Tourettes for instance have them).


invisible disability doesn't mean that it's impossible to tell. It just means the average person wouldn't notice because the characteristics are not well known. A paraplegic may be visible in a wheelchair but not in bed.

See:

http://www.ragged-edge-mag.com/0301/0301ft1.htm
http://www.disabilityhistory.org/dwa/qu ... omery.html

I am fairly good at spotting neuro-atypical people with supposedly "invisible" disabilities. It's there in posture, walk, sound of voice, lots of other things. I have an online friend who would autie spot and run up to people and cheerfully ask if they were autistic and go "cool!" if they were. She was usually right.

When I was a kid and could often hide my stimming in public, a neighbor says I "walked as if my arms and legs were too heavy for my body" and a bunch of other stuff. And other kids could spot it as they would come up and call me a ret*d or a spaz or a psycho.


The way I see it, with invisible disabilities you can't tell if they are disabled or not based on their appearance/behavior, but once you know it's there, it's easy to connect some very subtle physical traits with the disability, like a slightly abnormal gait or intonation.


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03 Aug 2016, 1:05 pm

I think we have a bit of a "look" about us, and a few little giveaways, but I think we know what to look for. Odd posture, unusual gait, flat affect face (or resting b***h face in my case).

I think it's possibly a little harder to tell in Aspies who, like myself, were diagnosed in mid life. But I'm 46 and I wear converse and batman tshirts and my face looks much younger. Always did look much younger, even in my childhood, would be mistaken for 5 at the age of 10.

All part of life's rich pattern, eh....


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golda
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03 Aug 2016, 2:27 pm

Of the few oddities, I have noticed:

- I am told the way I walk is strange. I have a bouncy walk and walk on my toes a bit.
- I have a child-like voice.
- Leg-bouncing.
- I have a very stiff posture.

- G



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04 Aug 2016, 8:24 am

Kaysea wrote:
Some traits that most of us whom I have met in person (and pics posted on WP) seem to share:

Body:
Long Arms
Bony wrists
Slightly bell-shaped rib cage
Shorter-than-average distance between the ribs and hips
Shorter-than-average necks
Square shoulders
Arms hang out to the side, instead of being directed straight downward.

Head/Face:
Intense or dreamy, deep-set eyes
Eyes slightly too close together
Prominent features
Large head
High, wide forehead


Yep, I have most of these, but I have short arms and a small head, and my shoulders are narrow and tend to roll forward. However my head probably looks large in proportion to my shoulders. And my shoulders naturally sort of hunch up, I can't really drop them or relax them, which makes my arms feel awkward.


Laz wrote:
For some reason in recent years they seem to have downplayed the old physical signs that would of been part of a diagnosis back in the 1990's

Asymetrical face. In the traditional ancient greek ideal of beauty. This was something that was studied in the 1990's I don't know if anything came of it. There was some kind of theory that people on the spectrum are more asymetrical in their facial features then the mainstream population.

Rose coloured cheeks. The people who advocate the gluten/casein diet claim this is a reaction to the Heroin substrates that are present in the body from eating gluten all sounds a bit pseudo science to me

Unusual Gait, that I most certainly have

Poor gross motor control (But not to the same degree as Dyspraxia)

No natural sense of balance (Cross over with Dyspraxia)


I have all of these too.


HighPlateau wrote:
Movement gets a para all to itself. All movement is planned. Say in a crowded market I always have my destination point in sight before taking the first step. Difficult to modify route without breaking stride but must be done in order to avoid bumping into people or having them touch me.


I do this too.



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04 Aug 2016, 8:29 am

Barliman wrote:
At age 48 I finally identified the cause of these problems as being a subluxed atlas ( Atlas on skull subluxation) and had it treated at a single sitting by a method called Atlas Profilax. This killed off a good number of my ADHD symptoms as well as relieving my neck and back pain- but I still found all sorts of things very stressful- triggering racing heart and unpredictable episodes of cognitive fog. (now manifesting as fatigue rather than ADHD).

Quite recently I met a chiropractor who is an enthusiast of Melillo's work and he convinced me that he knew enough to be interesting. The point is that he has in a few weeks taught me a series of simple exercises that can more or less turn off most of my residual symptoms at will. The treatment was easy, cheap and straightforwards.

The critical points are that atlas subluxation is very common- common enough to be a causative factor in both ADHD and autism, that atlas subluxation causes a sort of autonomic hypersensitivity - which is a common issue in both ADHD and autism.


This is very interesting! I don't know if I have a skull subluxation...but that would explain a lot. My back is pretty messed up. I have scoliosis, lower back problems, and my neck juts forward and to one side. My neck cracks a lot when I move my head around.



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04 Aug 2016, 1:31 pm

I seriously doubt that there are any purely physical differences in people with Asperger's. We may look different based on how we hold our face or smile, or be built different due to lack of exercise, or have odd posture or gait, but other than that, I don't think there's any difference. I have a few things that stand out like being very tall and thin, having slight scoliosis, having long arms and a long neck, and having a prominent dimple in my chin, but my neurotypical mother has all of those characteristics, so it's probably not due to Asperger's.



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05 Aug 2016, 11:46 am

If all of these "physical signs" were accurate, then ASDs would be easier to diagnose. Also, every thread here that's about physical features in Autism seem to state different ones each time, as though these physical features are just invented by people on the spectrum picking random features on their body what have nothing to do with their neurological condition.


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07 May 2017, 10:54 am

I was often told that I walked funny when I was younger. My eyes are very deep-set-almost cavernous, but a bit narrowly spaced for the size of my big head. While I have short arms and broad shoulders, my neck pushes my head forward and I have very prominent brows and a broad forehead. My eldest daughter (also likely on the spectrum, testing next month) often says that I look very much like artistic renderings of a Neanderthal except for the lower slope of the forehead and I actually do have a chin. I honestly think that except for some cases in which microcephaly is an issue, the look thing would be very hit or miss. The body in motion would be where the more likely determination would come from.


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28 Apr 2019, 10:35 am

FaeryEthereal wrote:
I've noticed how many aspies are either extremely thin, classic ectomorphs or are BIG. I am one of the extremely thin ones, stick thin my entire life, went through my teens and never did fill out. I have long very thin arms and legs, tiny bony wrists, exceptionally pale skin, tiny head, big eyes and body language and facial expressions which I've been told comes across as hostile and guarded. I walk very fast, much faster than anyone else and have a stiff, slightly awkward gait.

This is so TRUE.



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28 Apr 2019, 10:45 am

It is all so FALSE.

Every so-called sign or symptom can be explained away with normal behavior, normal development, or other common disorders. For instance, there is a much wider range of normal behaviors than autistic behaviors.

There is no “Aspie-dar”. It’s all in your imaginations.


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