Aspie traits lessen when in a good mood

Yes, I hadn't looked at that angle.

I believe that if you stare into the eyes of an agressive dog, it is more likely to attack. Indeed, I believe some humans behave like that too.

Perhaps we are just genetically different. I believe that certain races have more people with Aspergers. I have researched my ancestry back 300 years, and do have some mixed racial content (wrong word, I think).

Perhaps we are all related.

It's the fact that we are seen as something to avoid that is the most offensive to me.

I don't think difficult making eye contact is illogical though. In many non-human animals, eye contact is seen as a threat, while in others, it is seen as a method of bonding, just like in humans. Personally, I believe that our feelings of being threatened by eye contact relate to certain genetic variations that may not be present in the majority of the population. Does this make us weaker, though? Not necessarily. It makes us different, just like a blonde woman is physically different to a brunette. She does not necessarily lack any other traits over the brunette woman, instead she is simply different - an individual. 

Humans are arguably the most complex species on the planet. We all look somewhat alike - two eyes, two ears, two arms, two legs etc. - yet we have so many different variations in our personalities, our beliefs, our ideologies. If a sentient being visited Earth and classified the different species, autistic people may be seen as different to 'normal' people - we look the same but act differently, just like a jackal looks a lot like a dog, yet it behaves slightly differently

The only people I have made eye contact with, for more than a second, were my children when they were small.

Anyone else, I just can't do it. I cannot even explain why not. It sets off some inexplicable unpleasant feeling.

I once heard that actors findit difficult to maintain, for close up shots on film. The technique some use, is to focus on a near by part of the face, eg nose. I opt for the mouth.

There is something fundamentally illogical about this issue, that I don't understand. The other person can look at our eyes and understand what we think. By not looking at them, we lose out. What do we gain from this inability? We hide nothing, just  lose out by not looking at the other persons eyes. Has any research been done as to why we cannot do this?

I feel exactly the same way when people make eye contact with me! It feels confrontational, like whoever is looking at me is threatening me. I'm never sure how long to maintain eye contact either as some people never seem to break it. The only times eye contact has been really easy has been with people I've been in love with. Come to think of it, making eye contact with females of my age is generally a lot easier than with males. It feels like less a threat from women

@Marjorie195 An experiment was done on Embarrassing Bodies where two people, Dr Christian Jessen and a man with Asperger's, watched the same film clip of a couple acting.  the man with Asperger's wasn't too sure what was going on in the scene, where the DR could guess.  It's because he spent most of the time looking at the people's faces, understanding their body/facial language, etc, where the man with Asperger's spent most of the time looking at the surroundings, avoiding the faces.  I don't like eye contact, I feel like people are looking into my soul, or something weird like that.  I feel violated.

This is true with  me to an extent, but sometimes a happy mood will bring out my autism more. I feel less inhibited and I am overcome by positive energy, so I will feel inclined to jump up and down, wave my arms, and screech with delight. I suddenly don't care so much what people think of me, and it is wonderful while it lasts. I think that the less anxiety I have, the more I can be my 'real' self, and the less worried I am by what others might think.

Thanks all for your replies. I'm still very much in the process of "finding myself" - I'm still quite unaware of my own boundaries as I spent so much of my life trying to focus on everyone else's boundaries - so it is interesting to hear about other people who are similar.

I find it very strange how there is so little research done on sensory issues considering it is something that affects most people, not just aspies. We obviously experience sensory overload to a greater degree than most NTs but I believe that is because we process sensory input differently. I think more research on sensory effects on mood could do a lot of good for society - making working life less stressful for people, improving focus in the workplace and educational establishments, getting more people into work and lots more. After all, if a person is happier with their surroundings, including less intrusive noise etc. then they are much more likely to be more productive in general

I quite agree Laddo. When I am sressed, I don't want to know anyone and snarl at those who intrude, but when I'm happy, I like to be with people.

Eye contact, I keep for TV viewing. The rest of humanity, I look at their mouth. I used to get coments about deafness, but I'm old enough to be a bit deaf now, so I hope people don't find it rude. If you can look people in the eye, then you are strong.

I don't know enough aspies to know if it's normal, but it fits me too.

I think it's the same for everyone, not just people on the sepctrum.  The last couple of months I've been treated for iron deficiency anaemia so I've been a lot more tired and down than usual, and the smalest noise, or someone trying to talk to me, was nearly pushing me over the edge.  But, this morning, seeing the sunshine and feeling generally a little bit better, I'm finding it easier to deal with noise and social interaction.

Unfortunately sensory issues are treated by professionals as an "also ran"; marginal to the triad of impairments. So not enough is being done.

Basically either your threshold for stress is lower than the non-autistic population, or there's a bottleneck that non-autistic people don't have (Digby Tantam at Sheffield University identifies this with a narrower bandwidth for processing information).

So stress build up will decrease your ability to cope with social interaction and sensory issues.

Conversely it should follow that if you are in a good mood, and not stressed, you will be better able to cope. So you will very likely find you can handle social interchange for longer without adverse effects.

This needs more research, but the health professionals (and NAS) are so obsessed with the triad of impairments characteristics that sensory overload isn't researched much. Everyone just keeps adding it on at the end - "oh, by the way, some people experience sensory overload". I think most do in some shape or form, and it underpins the triad, rather than is marginal.