A question about Aspergers Syndrome?

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Is it true that sometimes people that have aspergers syndrome have a stiff kind of gaze. Basicly not always a lot emotional expression on thier face?

Yeah, that would apply to me at least. I'm pretty expressionless unless the situation is hysterical in some way.

Nothing wrong with having blank facial expressions. If anything it might make you appear more interesting and mysterious?

My son has a ton of expression in his face, and I remember I had a ton of facial expression when I was younger, but I became aware that I wasn't always making the appropriate facial expression at the appropriate time so I kind of stay neutral/flat unless I'm positive my response is going to be correct... Now I find that I'm too busy in my head making sure that I am understanding things correctly that my base facial expression is probably one of not really listening and lost in my own head.

Wondering how Alex's facial expression frequency will change over time....

No.

It's not true that ALL people with aspergers have ALL of the symptoms associated with it but gaze avoidance is one of the most common traits.

As aspies grow older, they learn to fake things better and they look like they're gaze avoiding less - but are often looking at mouths, eyebrows etc more than eyes.

I have a very blank expression that most people seem to interpret as sadness or fear. My expression rarely changes and when it does it very swiftly returns back to its natural apparent vacancy.
I find it very painful and uncomfortable to look people in the eye and feel like my brain is being overloaded when I do so. I have to look away before I answer to "restart" my brain, almost, otherwise I doubt I would be able to respond, not that I ever respond well to questions. They make me anxious.

Last edited by Hala on 23 Mar 2009, 6:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I keep a gaze during conversation, directly into the eyes, have to stop with some people, they get freaked.

I do that as well. At least until I get aware I'm doing it. I don't know where else to look. Normal people is said to frequently alternate between the eyes with their gaze, but I keep a dead still gaze directly in one eye.

I think my avatar will answer your question.

I'm either blank because I'm thinking about what the person's said, or overly emotional with my facial expressions

I do that, but I don't think it really bothers other people that much.

Now what does bother people is when I have inappropriate facial expressions for the situation. Like looking happy or indifferent when someone tells me of something bad that happened to them. That can cause a bit of misunderstandings. I really don't mean for that to happen, though.

I don't make eye contact at all, because when I look at somebody's eyes it seems to make us both uncomfortable.

I also furrow my brow a lot, usually because when I'm with other people they're being too noisy. Because of this I've had frown-lines since I was about ten years old. I think people assume I'm really grumpy because of this but such is not the case.

So is a stiff peculiar gaze.

Disruption to eye contact behavior is very common, but it does not always take the form of aversion or avoidance.