Autistic Facial Expressions?

[Kavigant]

One of the seemingly most consistent markers for autism which I have come across in my reading is a lack of facial expressions.

My situation, however, is the exact opposite: I have whatever is the opposite of a "poker face." Everyone around me is able to tell precisely what is going through my mind because I am utterly unable to hide it at all. I'm usually not even aware of how blatantly my thoughts are projected onto my face. It's made me fear that I can't possibly be ASD1.

I'm certain it's gotten me into a tremendous amount of trouble over the years, probably especially when I've had to deal with stupid or frustrating people in the workplace. I was viewed (for good reason) for a long time as abrasive, combative, and arrogant (though also displaying a rapier-like wit).


Are there any other folks who have, or know someone who has, the same or similar issue - a face which constantly shows way too much emotion?

 

[autism-and-autotune]

Interesting. I find that after a long day of masking during work, my abilities to mask afterwards are totally shot. normally I'm an unmoved person, but the fewer spoons I have, the more awake my face is.

 

[Kalinychta]

That doesn’t sound unautistic to me. I show no facial expression by default, but I do when I’m feeling emotional (happy, sad, amused, etc.).

 

[Kavigant]

Thanks for your reply, autism-and-autotune.

When I first raised the possibility of my being on the autism spectrum to my wife, her first response was that I was far too emotionally animated to be autistic. We were both so ignorant about autism at that time. But in all my subsequent reading, I haven't seen "overly expressive facial expressions" on any list of ASD manifestations.

 

[Kavigant]

Thanks, Kalinychta.

 

[MNAus]

I'll reply to you here also. I have precisely the same. I have the most unpoker face ever.

My theory is it's something to do with how some on the spectrum experience emotion. Quite a lot of ASD people have sensitivity to sound, smells, taste, etc. A bunch have sensitivity to emotions. This is the point where everyone piles in as says "Oh yah, I'm a sensitive person, when someone gets sad I really feel it and get sad too". It's not that. More like emotions, especially negative, come in at volume 11. Excitement gets things like flappy bird stims, but negative emotions don't have an outlet except our face. For some that whole "you're so easy to read" is more like "you're so easy to read when I use this cattle prod".

I haven't put all the pieces together, and it's not a subject I hear as much about. Unfortunately it's difficult to get any good info without trawling through a lot of stuff on "I really empathise with people".

Is this something your also experience?

 

[Kavigant]

MNAus, it reassures me to hear that I'm not the only one with an extremely expressive face. (In fact, in a recent video I was in along with my family, one can observe me moving my lips along with when other people are speaking. I had no idea I was doing this at the time and I still don't understand why I would do such a thing.)

Perhaps it is a more general issue of dysregulation of the expression of emotions - either too little or too much?

Regarding sensitivity to the emotions of others, I was for a certain period convinced that I must be an empath since I am "so in touch with the emotions of those around me," to realizing that I am actually hypervigilant regarding the emotions of those around me due to childhood abuse plus hyper-observant of the expressions and moods of others so that I can most effectively mimic them. At least that's my current working hypothesis.

 

[MNAus]

(In fact, in a recent video I was in along with my family, one can observe me moving my lips along with when other people are speaking. I had no idea I was doing this at the time and I still don't understand why I would do such a thing.)

Might be a form of echolalia?

 

[Kavigant]

Might be a form of echolalia?

I didn't even think to consider the possibility. I'll need to watch to see whether this behavior manifests under other circumstances.

 

[Kavigant]

An incident which just happened today: my wife pointed something out to me which I thought was very obvious. I gave her a look which I intended as a gentle (Duh!) kind of look. She looked hurt for a moment.

Switching into my newly-acquired "autism mode," I asked her what she thought that I was trying to convey with that look. "That I had irritated you with what I said." I was so glad that I had asked her how she had interpreted my look.

It turns out that she has been misinterpreting more than one of my modes of expressing myself. It suddenly seems more clear to me why people so often think that I am irritated and/or arguing all the time: I am not necessarily expressing myself in the manner I intend.

 

[Misty Avich]

My face often holds a worried or deep in thought expression, which is true to what I'm doing inside because I am quite a nervous person and I'm often deep in thought or just distracted by my thoughts. People often ask what I'm thinking about, and rather than say what I was really thinking about I just say "nothing", because my thoughts are often too random and irrelevant to the current situation lol.

I know I subconsciously make facial expressions when I'm talking, because one time when I had a sore scratch on my forehead it kept hurting whenever I made facial expressions that involved my brow, which only happened while I was talking.

 

[kriss72]

Hmm... I'm often told by others, that they can see what I feel/think, i.e. my face expresses something obvious - the issue being that what they tell me I'm expressing can be the opposite of what I'm actually feeling/thinking, I never know how to react when this happens... and I wonder how often people misinterpret my expression without saying anything - anyway with respect to your original question about ASD1, you don't need to have a stone face, you might or might not... we are all different, and might not even be consistent, it can depend on various factors from day to day...

 

[GrownupGirl]

Are female aspies usually better at making facial expressions or showing emotions? When I was a kid one of my favorite shows on TV was Sesame Street, and they often would show you what different feelings looked like. Of course, in cartoons and puppet shows everything is exaggerated for effect, and at one time I used to think real live humans didn't have expressions until I took a close look at one of the kids during recess who was angry. Oh yeah, the eyebrows.

My mother once said she saw my expressions change many times in only a few seconds.

 

[Dagan]

Resting grump face. Yep. I has it. Oops.

 

[Kavigant]

Last night, I spent about an hour laughing my behind off at a thread which was something like, "post an image that Aspies can identify with" (for some reason, I can't find it today). I found it! It's entitled, "Post gifs and pictures we as aspies can relate to"

I was happily surprised to see that folks had posted quite a few memes about not realizing that their face was giving away their every emotion, and quite "loudly" at that. I'm reassured to not be alone.