Psychological AND Physical differences

Post Reply New Topic

I was a strange child and now I'm a strange adult. For some reason I have had physical differences along with being mentally and I guess neurologically different, do these things normally go hand in hand?

Mental differences:
Diagnosed with several things, Asperger's now in the category of kind of acknowledged but not diagnosed. I have severe meltdowns that in school put me in special education and strong special interests.
I have a range of things diagnosed as adult: schizoaffective, anxiety nos and borderline personality. Another mental difference is high IQ.

Physical differences:
I can't run and I have very weak muscle tone.
When I walk, my feet are at a 45 degree angle and I don't swing my arms
I have double jointed hips
I can't scream

You mentioned you have weak muscle tone. How many days a week do you do weight training at the gym and how long have you been working out with no results?

I've never heard of those physical things being related to Aspergers.

Lack of muscle tone has been related in the research, though it affects a minority of people on the spectrum. I have this, and even as a child, other children noticed and remarked on the lack of muscle in my legs, especially the muscle just below the back of the knee. One asked me when I was 10, "why are yours like jellies instead of muscle?" I wondered this too, as I was just as active as them, although I was the slowest runner. I will try to locate some studies on this again and post a link here.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3145262/

Comprehensive article on (mainly) mitochondrial dysfunction in ASDs, with embedded references to muscle weakness in several places.

The muscle tone problem is so bad that a neurologist reciently thought I have muscular dystrophy. He never followed up on that

Excerpt from the linked article above:

The disease Neuropathy with muscle weakness, Ataxia, and Retinitis Pigmentosa (NARP) is caused by T8993G heteroplasmic mtDNA mutations.

If you eat poorly and never exercise then you will have weak muscle tone duh

This estimates the poor muscle tone incidence at 34% of people on the spectrum. That is higher than anything else I have read about it so it is likely an overestimate.

Dystonia of the muscle has nothing to do with diet or lack of exercise, as it would in an NT population. We are not NTs...

http://www.aspiehelp.com/documents-and- ... drome.html

I don't think there is any conclusive research on that. Sure some studies might indicate a possible link but generally I've noticed that the people complaining about poor muscle tone never answer when asked how many days a week they do weight training so I think it's most likely caused by not working out enough.

What exercise buffs call 'muscle tone' is not the same as the medical definition of the term. Exercise buffs typically use 'muscle tone' to refer to how much muscle mass a person has, while medical people use the term 'muscle tone' to refer to the baseline level of tension in a person's muscles, which is determined by messages sent from the brain.

A person with weak muscle tone, therefore, is not someone with less muscle mass, but someone whose muscles tend to relax too much and who has to expend more effort to tense their muscles. For example, a person with a spinal cord injury will generally have little or no muscle tone below the site of their injury, because the messages from the brain are blocked by the injury.

Conversely, people can also have hyperactive muscle tone, which causes spasticity (the most common symptom of cerebral palsy). Essentially, the brain constantly tells certain muscles to tense up, and the person finds it difficult to relax their muscles enough to use them properly. For example, the muscle attached to the Achilles tendon might be constantly tensed, causing the person to point their toes constantly and forcing them to walk on tiptoe all the time. Or the biceps might be constantly tensed, making it difficult for the person to straighten their arm.

Of course, since our bodies change in reaction to how we use them, people with low muscle tone will often end up with lower muscle mass due to underuse. Meanwhile, hypertonia can lead to abnormally short tendons and so forth, in severe cases requiring surgery to repair. However, the fundamental problem isn't with the muscles, it's with the brain.

I have "congenital motor deficits" which is basically a nice way of saying that my gross motor skills are very poor. Over the past several years as I have taken up swimming in the mornings for exercise (can't do impact exercise because I have degenerative joint disease) I have noticed marked improvement in my balance and strength compared to before I was swimming five days a week.

I won't say that I am in great physical health- got a laundry list of issues there, such as diabetes and upper respiratory issues that are mostly hereditary- but I do try to pay attention to diet and exercise which does help me feel better and stay more mentally and emotionally positive.

I personally believe that ASDs develop as sort of a perfect storm. Some of us were born premature or had other congenital defects. I was not premature but was small (under 7#) and had pneumonia when I was born, and was the third of three children born way too close together. Add that to the fact that mental illness is rampant on both sides of my family. My maternal grandfather died in an insane asylum. My mother is bi-polar. My paternal grandfather was most likely on the spectrum also, and oddly enough he had the same motor deficits I do. Yet both of my older sisters are neurotypical as is my son, my granddaughter, and all of my nieces and nephews. So go figure. But I think there's something up with HFA and motor deficits and/or other congenital defects. I don't think it's just genetics, unless I just happened to draw the wrong card in the genetic lottery?

I used to not swing my arms while walking. I didn't know I was supposed to. Then one day when I was twenty-six my boss very bluntly asked me about it. It made me embarrassed. I began to consciously make the effort to swing my arms when I walk. I've been doing that for 17 years now. Often, I even do it without thinking about it. You know, to fit in.