What Autism characteristics do I have?

Written on 19th Jan 2015 by Alex Lowery

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I thought it might be interesting if I shared a list of some of the common traits of autism, and provide a comment of my own, explaining weather I have the trait or not. Not all of these are part of the triad. They’re just simply common traits so I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about each one and weather or not it’s a trait I have. For those of you who don’t know, I am on the autistic spectrum myself, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I tick the box for every single trait, nor do the majority of people on the spectrum.

• Very little or no eye contact.

The truth is, eye contact isn’t something I really think about that often. I don’t really think about whether I give it or not. However, from what people have told me, I think it depends on the situation as to whether I give eye contact or not. If I’m in a situation of stress, I likely won’t be giving much eye contact. If a stranger talks to me at a very unexpected time, I likely won’t be giving eye contact either. Also, if someone is talking to me about something which I know nothing about or have no interest in, then I likely won’t be giving much eye contact. However, there are other situations were people have told me that I am giving eye contact. If I’m having a conversation with someone about a subject, which I’m interested in, then I likely will be giving more eye contact, but may not hold it for as long as others do. If I’m relaxed in a situation (or as relaxed as it’s possible for me to be) then I may be giving more eye contact as well. However, even in these situations, I’m not sure I’m looking directly in the eyes. I think I’m just looking around the eye area, so it looks as if I’m giving eye contact. As a child, I never gave any contact whatsoever. When people spoke to me, I’d just have my head right down, not even looking at their face. It was only when I got to maybe 14 or 15 years old when I started giving any eye contact, and this seemed to because I had the Learning Breakthrough program.

• Resistance to being held or touched.
  

I can’t remember how I found being held as a baby (obviously) but from what my mum has said and what I’ve seen in old Photos, I’m under the impression I wasn’t a fan of being held. To this day, I really dislike being touched. I dislike physical contact in general. I can handle a handshake, but I don’t like being hugged at all. I really dislike someone putting his or her arm around me, or patting my back. I just hate being touched! When someone touches me, when the hand is removed I often feel like I can still feel the hand on my body. It feels like its left an uncomfortable imprint. It’s like when you put your hand in pant and then put your hand on paper. The paint from the hand has gone on to the paper. It’s like that when someone touches me. It often feels like it leaves a mark. However, I do cope with hugs better now than what I used to.

• Tends to get too close when speaking to someone (lack of personal space).

I don’t really like to get too close to people in most situations. If someone talks to me and is really close, I do feel uncomfortable. But that doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes get too close.  As a child I certainly did, but had therapy to work on this. I find that when I’m talking to people, I normally try to be an arm’s distance away, but when I’m getting really into a conversation on interest, I may forget my boundaries and get closer than what I should. I don’t mean to, but I’m just not thinking about it at that time. I also find that I can be in a group of people talking and when I talk, I stand in front of someone else blocking their view. People find this irritating. Again, I’m not meaning to do it, but I’m just not thinking about it. I can only concentrate on one thing at a time.

• Responds to social interactions, but does not initiate them.

I think this is true. Initiating social interactions isn’t easy.

• Difficulty understanding jokes, figures of speech or sarcasm.

I definitely have this problem! I am often the last person to understand the point of a joke. I can’t always tell when people are being sarcastic either. I can tell when it’s extremely obvious. If something went wrong and someone said, “Oh great!!” I’d know they were being sarcastic, but there have been plenty of times when I have not picked up on someone’s sarcasm. I have learned many old sayings/figures of speech. I also have got to the point where, when I hear an everyday expression that I’ve not heard before, I may have worked out that it is an expression, but I likely won’t know what the expression means. There sometimes are cases where I will take an expression completely literally though.

• Difficulty reading facial expressions and body language.

This is an absolutely enormous issue for me!! Apparently normal people use body language even more than they use verbal language, but body language barely even exists to me! I’ve learned set gestures, and I may be able to determine certain gestures, but only if they’re exceedingly obvious. Many gestures, I won’t even understand. I miss almost all-everyday body language. It’s all verbal language that I rely on. In fact, I didn’t even know body language was a big part of communicating for other people until I was 15 or so. I am also not very good at reading facial expressions. I often can’t tell when someone is getting annoyed until they have got full on angry.

• Difficulty understanding the rules of conversation.

I have a very hard time understanding the rules of conversation! When someone talks about a subject that isn’t interesting, apparently you’re supposed to look really interested, and still take part in the full conversation. I am hopeless at this! If I’m not interested in the subject, then I simply have nothing to say. I’ll just be responding to each thing they say with one-word answers. Conversations with me have to be about something. They may not necessarily have to be things that I’m madly interested in, but they have to at least be things that I have something to say about. I’m not very good with small-talk ether. I’ve learned set things about small talk. When I do start talking to somebody, I try to ask the things people normally ask.. (i.e.. What’s your name? How old are you? How are you? Are you at University? Are you at work? What Job do you do?, etc. etc.), but I do find when having this conversation, I keep having pauses and struggling to think of things to say, so I do it because I know it’s the done thing, but it’s not ideal for me, and I struggle to handle these conversations.

• Gives spontaneous comments, which seem to have no connection to the current conversation.

This often is true for me in fairness. Thoughts, ideas and questions sometimes just pop into my head out of nowhere, or I may be thinking about something and decide I want to say something about that particular thing. This may be at a time when people are having a conversation about something different, but I feel desperately like I want to say something of a different subject. If I can, in most cases I try to keep want I want to say for when everyone’s finished talking, but sometimes I’m so focused on what I want to say that I’m not thinking about how it will come across. Either that or I simply can’t wait to say it.

• Makes honest, but inappropriate observations.

I have learned certain comments people think are inappropriate to say out loud, but unfortunately people aren’t all that simple. I might say something out loud that could offend somebody, but I have no idea that it would. Even when I find out, I normally still don’t understand why you’re not supposed to say the thing. I don’t get why some people ask a question, but only accept one answer. For example; if someone says, “Do you like my hair?” You supposed to say yes regardless of weather you like it or not. I normally don’t have an opinion on hair one way or the other, but you get what I’m saying. You can read a joke of an article I wrote about things you shouldn’t say to NT”s (non autistic people) here.

• Seems unable to understand other people’s feelings.

I do find it very hard to put myself in other people’s shoes (not literally), and find it hard to see something from another person’s point of view. I did write an article about autism and empathy, which you can read here

• Talks excessively about one or two topics (dinosaurs, movies, etc.).

This is definitely the case for me! I may struggle with everyday conversations, but if it’s a subject of interest, then I can go for hours and hours. However, I tend not to talk to people about things I’m interested in unless they are at least somewhat interested in it them themselves.

 

• Dislikes reading fiction, and prefers reading about facts.

Personally, I don’t like reading in general. However, I do listen to audiobooks and when it comes to audiobooks, I do quite like a lot of fiction. Same when it comes to films. I like a lot of things with fantasy or sci-phi in them. However, certain fiction I don’t like. I dislike really silly fiction that makes no sense whatsoever. I have always hated (even as a kid) the story of “Alice in Wonderland”. The whole story is just so irrational. I know the story is meant to be a dream and dreams are irrational so it being irrational isn’t simply the reason I dislike it. The main reason I dislike it is the story is just so dull. All that happens in the whole story is one ridiculous thing after another after another. That’s really it! I just get sick of seeing all the constant silliness. However, the story is very popular, and tons of children and adults seem to like it, but I personally can’t see the appeal. Sorry if I went over-board when taking there, but the point is some types of fiction I’m not into.
 

 

Well, I hope you enjoyed this blog article. I actually looked up many of the traits online, and thought it would just be fun to see how many of them I ticked, and the truth is, I ticked nearly all of them. If youve got autism, feel free to tell me what traits on here you can relate to.

Thank you for reading.

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