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Impairments in social skills are the primary impairment in Autistic Spectrum Disorders. My difficulties with social skills are profound and pervasive. I lack an intuitive understanding of appropriate behaviour or how I appear to others. I also struggle with the social aspects of communication including figurative language and non-verbal cues. Although I have learned some social rules, these things will never come naturally to me and I must learn each skill separately.
- Approaching others: I do not like to talk to strangers under any circumstances and become anxious and upset if I attempt to do so. Even when I want or need to, I am often too fearful to approach others even when I want to. When I do overcome my anxiety and approach someone, my manner can cause them to have difficulty understanding me or shy away, thinking I am odd, aggressive, or rude.
- Anxiety: Being autistic places me in a world of my own. Social situations are traumatic and lead to stress.
- Social Communication: When I am relatively comfortable with someone, my communication becomes more relaxed, but still odd. I will go off on long tangents.
- Non-verbal communication: I have a great deal of difficulty both using and understanding non-verbal communication such as inflection, body language, and facial expression. This can cause me to misinterpret a situation because I only understand the words and not necessarily the intent behind them.
- Literal understanding: I do not automatically understand figures of speech. I take everything literally, therefore am confused by a lot of common everyday phrases. I do not understand or respond appropriately to jokes.
- Appropriate behaviour: I am not always aware of what I can and cannot touch/fiddle/play with in shops. I often drop items I am looking at or knock things off shelves as I pass. Due to my social skills difficulties (lack of awareness of acceptable behaviour), I sometimes engage in these behaviours in inappropriate places.
- Appearance: Due to both autism and depression, I do not always give much regard to my appearance. Even when I want to look good, autism means I am unable to recognise what is appropriate.
- Interference: It is difficult for me to ask for and accept help. I find it extremely difficult to tolerate someone interfering with me and how I do things, being in my environment, and touching my things. Despite my need for frequent prompting, I find such prompts intrusive and always resist. I will become stressed, argumentative, and very resistant if I am prompted excessively. I would not want any help if I didn't need it so badly in order to accomplish basic self-care.
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