Strange behaviors as a child

[trackyboy]

I used to collect pokemon cards at the age of 14, still a bit fansinated with one of the characters from it...

 

[Jute]

I made my own "Ginger Beer" by mixing pepper with dilute washing up liquid. And I drank it.

I went through a phase of leaving my bedroom by jumping out of the winow rather than walking down the stairs.

I had a thing about taking my clothes off. I danced around naked in the garden during violent thunderstorms on at least three occasions. I danced naked around a bonfire. I also rode a motorbike, naked except for a crash helmet and a pair of trainers.

 

[biblophile]

I used to leave out my window as well, because I wished to avoid my family. I would do so now but I live in a third floor walk up. the doors of my building are guarded by nosey, overly friendly neighbors that I would like to avoid.

 

[WereBear]

I would read EVERYTHING. The sides of the cereal boxes. Instruction and first aid manuals. The credits on television shows.

I would not only create elaborate fantasy worlds, I would create things for it. Like the weekend where I created a new language and worked out its grammar rules. I would build "cities" using my room and let them stay that way for weeks so the inhabitants could work out their lives there.

If anything was important to me, it was named. Not just pets and stuffed animals, but a favorite pillow, fountain pen, or toy.

I recently got my first weighted blanket. It is named Conan.

 

[Destinyz12]

for several years I was obsessed with learning all about different dog breeds and I had a number of books about them that I could just look at and read all day, and I was able to identify pretty much every breed just by looking at a dog, even the more rare ones. I even started to branch out to cat breeds at one point but not as excessive, I guess since there are a lot less of them. Still a big animal lover to this day but my only current pet obsession is pet nutrition lately- mainly since I am in charge of selecting the food and feeding our cat.

 

[LittleLemon]

--Had facial tics from 10-12 and was made fun of for them.
-Sniffed my food before every bite. I still do it, but not as much.
-During recess, I liked playing by myself and narrarating as in a book in the 3rd person
-Pretended I was my favorite character in a book so I would feel braver at school. I would pretty much fantasize about being pretty much anyone but myself.
-I liked to stare at people from behind and pay attention to their breathing pattern. I even did it in high school. Not sure why.
-When I felt overwhelmed, I climbed into trees during recess and read or just sat there staring. I still take every chance I get to climb into a tree and sit.
-meowed at random times
-I remember drawing the same 3 or so drawings hundreds and hundreds of times. I also built the same building structure with Legos over and over again. I was never comfortable with branching out.

 

[NervousSphynx]

I had my most intense tics at about 11-12, probably due to stress? I would twist my wrists, pace, pick at and lick my lips, move my eyes in weird ways so they'd "pop", etc
Also I tended to act out whatever I was thinking about without realizing it. I watched a lot of anime back then (and now) so I'd be humming character's lines under my breath at the bus stop and moving around and then when the bus came I'd realize everyone was staring at me.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who did that at recess. I'd pretend I was a wolf entering a new wolf pack or a stray dog and narrate my story.
A much weirder thing I did was fantasize about being the protagonist of one of those low budget straight to DVD/Video series from the late 90s/early 00s. Like, if I got hurt or bored or something embarrassing happened, I'd imagine a narrator describing my wacky situation with cheesy synth music playing in the background. This morphed into more anime related shenanigans when I got older.

 

[LittleLemon]

A much weirder thing I did was fantasize about being the protagonist of one of those low budget straight to DVD/Video series from the late 90s/early 00s. Like, if I got hurt or bored or something embarrassing happened, I'd imagine a narrator describing my wacky situation with cheesy synth music playing in the background. This morphed into more anime related shenanigans when I got older.

I actually did this too. I used to watch martial arts movies with my brother and I would always fantasize about being the protagonist. I liked the old Cynthia Rothrock movies because it was easier to imagine myself because she's female. After a time, I would fantasize to music all different scenarios. Fantasy worlds are big for me, even now.

 

[ksheehan88]

I used to hum when I ate... not a tune type hum, more like a droning. I didn't even know I did it.

I used to (and occasionally do now) hold my arm in the air to sleep... If I felt it dropping I would jerk it back into the air... I also used to sleep upside down, ie my head on the floor and my bum/legs on the bed.

I used to sit and prod my eyeballs with my finger.

I also sucked my thumb all the time up until I was about 17. I do it still on occasion now.

 

[Astroganga]

Sucked my thumb (still do), was obsessed with stroking mine and other's ears, especially when the ears were cold. Used to flap my hands against my sides when happy and still do from time to time. Made weird shrieky noises when stressed or excited that seemed to come from someone or somewhere else. I used to read dictionaries, encyclopædiae and other reference books cover to cover. I used to be obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine, and trains in general. I used to group toys together but not really play with them in the typical way other kids did. In playgroup I used to go and hide away on my own and never really interact with anyone.

 

[ksheehan88]

Sucked my thumb (still do), was obsessed with stroking mine and other's ears, especially when the ears were cold. Used to flap my hands against my sides when happy and still do from time to time. Made weird shrieky noises when stressed or excited that seemed to come from someone or somewhere else. I used to read dictionaries, encyclopædiae and other reference books cover to cover. I used to be obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine, and trains in general. I used to group toys together but not really play with them in the typical way other kids did. In playgroup I used to go and hide away on my own and never really interact with anyone.

I used to read encylopaedias and other non-fiction stuff... I never considered it a strange thing to do tbh lol... Is it strange for children to want to read reference books? :\

 

[Judge]

I used to read encylopaedias and other non-fiction stuff... I never considered it a strange thing to do tbh lol... Is it strange for children to want to read reference books? :\

Strange? Good question.

But that would be me. I've always preferred fact over fiction. At any age.

Though I adore science fiction. But yeah, when I recall what I used to check out at the libraries as a child...mostly reference books of one kind or another.

 

[ksheehan88]

Strange? Good question.

But that would be me. I've always preferred fact over fiction. At any age.

Though I adore science fiction.

Psychological/supernatural horror books... Think Stephen King, Thomas Harris... I love those... I don't read any other fiction, I just can't get into it.

Reference books though... History books in particular, I can read and read and read. I tend to do alot of online reading about particular interests too

 

[Judge]

Psychological/supernatural horror books... Think Stephen King, Thomas Harris... I love those... I don't read any other fiction, I just can't get into it.

Reference books though... History books in particular, I can read and read and read. I tend to do alot of online reading about particular interests too

I found a series of books quite fascinating as a child. An eclectic combination of historical fact and folklore and horror at times. "Ripley's Believe It or Not" books. Visually more like a comic book, but in terms of text, somewhat like an encyclopedia. I loved them. Just googled them...looks like they're still out there too. Always fun reading for me.

http://www.ripleys.com/books/

 

[Astroganga]

I used to read encylopaedias and other non-fiction stuff... I never considered it a strange thing to do tbh lol... Is it strange for children to want to read reference books? :\

I don't think it is considered strange to read them but to read a reference book cover to cover when it is designed to be a dip in, dip out reference, maybe is

 

[ksheehan88]

I don't think it is considered strange to read them but to read a reference book cover to cover when it is designed to be a dip in, dip out reference, maybe is

You mean as if reading it like a storybook yes? Thats what I did, and do.

 

[Judge]

You mean as if reading it like a storybook yes? Thats what I did, and do.

I had a friend at work who had a tendency to do that. But it served him well, particularly in doing that with an English dictionary.

English wasn't his first language. Yet he managed to soak it up like a sponge.

 

[xudo]

I used to be weird about colours, it's really hard to explain though and even when I think about it now, it sounds crazy. Basically, I didn't like to have certain colours next to each other, so if I had colouring pencils for example I would have to put them back in their box so that they were in an order where certain colours were not next to each other. I still do this now, when I'm sewing and I put pins into fabric before I sew, I'll have what I consider a 'boy' colour, then a 'girl' colour and so on. So, blue, pink, white, red, green, yellow, black and so on. I also can't have like, two reds next to each other. Yeah, sounds even weirder when I put it into words.

 

[Sashi]

My obsession when I was a kid was soap operas. Names that might ring a bell are General Hospital and the Young and the Restless. I began with a soap opera about a vampire named Barnabas (Dark Shadows). Then, there was Search for Tomorrow, As the World Turns, and One Life to Live. During the summer, out of school, I had one life -- soap opera city. I watched them from like 11 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon. It was comfort food. I'd pace the floor, going into my make-believe world, with soap opera characters in my cast.

I haven't watched soaps in years. I have other pecularities. Like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Pinterest.

 

[NLD?]

I actually did this too. I used to watch martial arts movies with my brother and I would always fantasize about being the protagonist. I liked the old Cynthia Rothrock movies because it was easier to imagine myself because she's female. After a time, I would fantasize to music all different scenarios. Fantasy worlds are big for me, even now.

I did this too, and I'm really into martial arts so especially then, but being a little kid in the 80s rather than 90s, I was and actually still am obsessed with cartoons from that era.

If any of you are, look up Kidd Video on Youtube.

It's a non-NT/Aspie's dream come true if you like cartoons haha.

Music videos from the 80s embedded into cartoons haha.

I was really into king kong and godzilla movies or with any movie where someone was fighting I would jump up and down in front of the TV and ring my hands in excitement.

I used to swing things around, anything that was good to swing, usually it had to have a string or rope of some kind or be flexible for this.

My parents affectionately called them my "swingy thingies" haha.

When I was only 4 years old I was REALLY into looking at this big book of famous paintings, something WAY beyond most kids my age would be into, and one of them TERRIFIED me and gave me nightmares and to this day, even though the picture no longer scares me, I have wanted to fully explore with therapists what that truly means.

I was told by the inventor of Family Systems Therapy who visited my college that it was an "exiled" part of myself...and I'm still searching for answers on that one but haven't found a FS therapist to explore it with...It was a BIG deal for me.

I also used to walk around thinking in my own world, still am off in my own world a lot.

And one very odd thing I found out I said when I was very young, which my parents only told me I did a few years ago, was that when I was about 5 years old I either asked them or one of my teachers (not sure which) "do people know that they are going to grow up to be strangers?"

While I am sure they still warn kids about "not talking to strangers", for some reason I think that message was especially prominent in the Reagan area and some commercials about watching out for "strangers" scared me that I still vaguely remember...or at least the general theme in TV of those days...

My parents said that at first a few people laughed at the strangeness of my comment, but that then when my mother told her therapist friends (she is a Psychoanalyst) some of them said "WHOA...that's not really funny, that's pretty serious"....that I was concerned with "growing up to be a stranger..."

I find that quite fascinating to this day...as I sort of feel like I am one lol...and part of me likes that, and the other part of me doesn't...I'd say I like some of my "stranger" qualities and not others...

I don't TECHNICALLY have Aspergers, but I am VERY likely on the spectrum, and my last therapist was CONVINCED I have Non Verbal Learning Disability/Disorder which is supposed to be VERY closely related to Aspergers (also Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Depression, some mild OCD and possibly some other stuff...)

I don't even think it is in the DSM yet, and hasn't been fully recognized, and I'm REALLY hoping someone on this site has NLD or knows someone who does so I can talk to them.

But some of the stuff you guys are mentioning DOES make sense to me.

If someone wouldn't mind responding to this post in some way that would be great, as I like the conversation and not just posting and not getting a response...but then again, I'm new here, and not everyone has the time to respond to a random person's posts haha...