Lately my young sister was diagnosed with aspergers, I have an aunt (she's 50 years old) and now I'm starting to believe she could have aspergers as well. She don't like me talking about it, for some reasons, so I'm writing her as anonymous in here -

HERE ARE SOMETHING ABOUT HER, THAT MAKES ME WONDER IF SHE HAS ASPERGERS, OR SOMETHING ELSE LIKE THAT?:
-She’s very socially awkward, and she’s very shy when meeting new people. She’s very bad in groups, and not comftable working in groups at all. She often refuse to go to parties where she have to meet new people, and she tells me that one of her biggest nightmares are her going a cocktail party, or disco or something like that.
-She’s a dancer, but when not dancing she can stand or move really clumsy and weird, suddenly she kick with her leg, walk on her own foot, pull her shoulders, stretch her arms and wriggle her wrists.
When she gets exited she often makes a weird giggle, and clap her hands together and rub them.
When she think she often put her finger on her chin, and when she sit, or stand still she feel the need to move from side to site, but take herself in it most of the times. When she just stand she almost always cross her arms in some way.
-She’s obsessed with dancing types, theatre and cats (animals), she can talk about it endlessly.
-She always see details that her husband, and we never see. Like if her husband sees a wood, she sees the trees then the bark then the patterns in the bark.
-She laugh at EVERYTHING, if a person comes running and says “Oh hi *her name*” then she can just crack up, and she can even laugh so hard that she overturne. In a conversation you can sometimes see she is about to crack out in laughter (when there’s nothing to laugh about), but she often try to take herself in it.
-She is a bit camera shy, and don’t like the lights from a camera. When I was with her at my friend’s wedding, she, me, my friend, and 5 other girls had to pose infront of 7 cameras, suddenly when the cameras started flashing my aunt took herself to her head and covered her eyes, like she had said something wrong or was having a headache, that has happened several times now and she never says why afterwards.
-On pictures she often have a weird/awkward/forced facial expression.
-She does get meltdowns, but they are often quiet once, where she lock herself in. Sometimes she get loud meltdowns and people get afraid of her. She get frustrated if things don’t go her way, and she have this idea that she MUST take a 1 hour nap everyday, at around 4pm I think. If she don’t get that nap she’s PISSED and you don’t want to be near her.
-Some people who have just briefly met her find her rude, weird and up-in-herself.
-She have a unusual deep and at times monotone voice.
-She's certainly reticent/reserved, and very independent.
-When she’s in crowds she often avoid talking to people she don’t know, and she often rush through crowds and wanting to go home. She avoid small-talk, and if people ask her something like “How are you?” she often reply with just “Fine thank you”, and move on. Most of the times she very polite, and pretty gracious too, but she can also answer very unpolitly, if people ask like “Can I help you?” , she can answer “Uh, no!?”. If something get her interest though, she can talk on and on about it, even with strangers.
-She sometimes insist on wearing the same clothes for days.
There are some other traits, I just can’t think of them right now.

THESE ARE SOME “TRAITS” SHE HAVE THAT I DON’T KNOW IF A PERSON WITH ASPERGER CAN HAVE?:
- She's good at making eye contact (especially in interviews and when she's talking about stuff she know a lot about).
- She's always been a great "actress" when she's dressed up in a costume doing "another character". When she's in a "character" she's great at performing, even on stage for crowds. (She's a dancer as I wrote before).
- She can talk/teach in front of big crowds, but only if it's a topic she knows a lot about. (Like dancing).
- She have some friends, though I don't know how good friends they are and how often they see each other.
- She can show feelings for other people, and sympathy sometimes, not always.
Last year she married a man who is 15 years older than her (she've had several boyfriends through her live, most older than her, and she's been married before but ended in divorced).

I doub I'll ever get her to a person who can diagnose her on proffesional level, so I'm asking you here about what you think. Do you think she could be asperger, or something like that?
I will much appreciate your answers, please!

Sounds like she does. I'll let others fill in the blanks.

My unprofessional opinion?  Yes, she does sound like she might be.  Even the traits you've detailed as being possibly not autistic are actually pretty commonly associated with autism.

If she doesn't like talking about it, then I don't think you should do anything about this.  It's very common after a child has been diagnosed for family members to recognise autistic traits in themselves and other relatives.  If she wants to take it further, then that is entirely up to her and she will no doubt be aware of all these aspects of herself anyway.

And...welcome to AFF!

This post was last modified: 08-15-2010 02:48 AM by Marcia.

Okay thanks for your answers so far!
No I wont really do anything about it if she dont want me to, i was just wondering if she might too now that my sister is diagnosed.

Wow, she sounds just like me (well almost)!...
I can't tell if she's AS or not, but she likely could be,...

Okay it could just be interesting to know.

Autism is genetic so it makes sense that some other people in the family will have it too.

I just don't think that you should confront her about it.

i would say very likely, some of the non-aspie traits are common among aspies too (as stated before).
I know many aspie performers who are great actors or musician and regularly perform on stage in front of people...