Making sense of past behaviour

When I was a child living with undiagnosed Asperger's, I engaged in some behaviour that I am struggling to understand. I have limited insight into what motiviated me at the time, and why I did the things I did. I often run over the events in my mind, trying to rationalise them and think about what they might say about myself as a person (see my other thread about my problems understanding who I am).

I will describe some of the events here - I am interested to know if any other people with AS on this forum can relate to these experiences.

When I was 6 years old, I used to walk around the classroom with my skirt tucked into my tights. In the same year, I took a magnifying glass, walked out of the classroom, and threw it into one of the toilets. When another child told the teacher that a magnifying glass was in one of the toilets, the teacher got the children to sit down on the carpet and asked them who had used the middle toilet. I did not put my hand up so I never got into trouble; it was assumed that someone in year 3 was responsible!

When I was 7 years old, I walked round the classroom pretending to be a train, and I tried to get the other kids to form a line behind me and be the carriages.

Age 8, I would wet myself in class in order to get a reaction from the other kids. I would wet myself while sitting down at my desk, and the other kids would go 'urggggg', and this made me laugh!

I would pull my skirt up really high while sitting down, showing off my knickers, and the teacher would tell me to cover myself up. I am not sure why I did this?

I would go up to random people in the street and say things like, 'would you like some chicken?'. I was amused by their reaction to my random question, and I would run off in fits of laughter. This was a game I used to play, and I also used to touch people's hair on buses and enjoyed witnessing their reaction.

Sometimes I would partially strip naked in front of passing cars!! I did this until I was about 12 years old, but not when I was with my parents, so I never got told off for this inappropriate behaviour.

I once copied the exact way a girl pouted her lips at school. I remember sitting on the carpet in year three while sticking my bottom lip out, after having seen a girl do this during school assembly.

In the playground I would sometimes scream at the top of my lungs while near the teachers, and I would run right through other children's play, with my arms outstreched.

In year 2, I remember repeatedly pinching a girl's legs while sitting on the carpet during story time. I was later friends with this girl, but the friendship was inconsistent. I would only be friends with her for a couple of days at a time - if she played with anyone else, the friendship was over.

At secondary school, I once told the class that hair on my hair-brush was pubic hair, which was not true!. Again, I liked to see their reaction. I also pulled my knickers down when I was with a group of girls, and their reaction made me laugh.

I am aware that the above makes me seem really strange and weird. As a 27 year old, I am completely different on many levels to how I was back then, but I have no sense of self. I am wondering how the past and present connect, and what my past behaviour might say about my personality and how I coped with things?

  • PS: If you want to look into learning theory more, a good starting point is 'Don't Shoot The Dog' by Karen Pryor.

    On the neurochemistry stuff I'm quite proud of having managed to read most of 'Affective Neuroscience' by Jaak Panksepp.  But you really need to have months and a lot of motivation to read that as it's a very hard book! Basically 'dangerous stuff' is rewarded chemically through what he calls the 'SEEKING' system in the brain. That's what motivates grazers to go out and graze, and hunters to hunt in spite of risks.

  • Sometimes taking a risk can be rewarding in itself. Again it's going to vary from person to person, but an 'adrenaline rush' can be adictive, which is why some people like extreme sports. In evolutionary terms, sometimes we need to take risks.  For example a lion risks getting killed when it jumps on a buffalo, but it needs to take that risk to get food.  Our brains can produce a chemical reward in some situations like that.

    There's also the effect of intermittent reinforcement, which means that if we only get rewarded sometimes, it makes us try harder than if we get rewarded every time.  For example imagine a car that starts every time the key is turned. One day it doesn't: the owner takes it to be repaired. Now imagine an old car that usually takes a couple of goes to get to start.  One day after two goes it hasn't started: the owner keeps trying longer than the owner of the car that usually starts every time.  This can be why gambling is adictive.

    (I'm a qualified companion animal behaviorist... but the basics apply for all mammals).

  • I think that learning theory sounds like a plausible explanation for my behaviour - I had not thought of this before, but it now seems obvious!

    Yes, I certainly found the kid's reaction very rewarding, but is there an explanation for why I threw the magnifying glass iinto the toilet?  The only reaction that came out of this was possible punishment, which thankfully I was not subject to, because the teacher believed that someone else was responsible. I just walked out of the classroom while holding the magnifying glass behind my back, and it was just luck that no-one caught me in the act.

  • I think that it  is quite commendable what you did in the last year of primary school. It shows the ability to think for yourself and not follow the herd. When I was younger, I was far more non-conformist than I am now, and I do miss those days of blissful oblivion to social norms and conduct. I am now trying to re-discover who I am after years of pretending to be 'normal' and trying to blend into society.

  • If you are trying to work out motivation, a little bit of learning theory might help.  It's a basic rule that actions that are rewarded tend to increase, and actions that are 'punished' tend to decrease. In reality actions might have a mix of 'rewards' and 'punishments'.  Eg peeing in front of other kids might get rewards of being funny, getting attention, and relieving discomfort if you really needed to go, and 'punishments' of them not liking you.  What the rewards and punishments are might vary from person to person: e.g. some people find loud thumping music rewarding, others don't!

    I had a few incidents of nudity and a poo phase which I don't think I'll say more about!

    I am still quite proud of the time in the last year of primary school I decided it was unfair that the boys were allowed to do gym topless when it was hot, and turned up topless myself.  I did obey the teacher and go get dressed though.

  • I did some seriously embarrassing things as a child - we would have been quite a double act!

    Remember going through a striptease-on-table phase age 8ish, another time making a bra in needlework, stuffing it with newspaper and wearing it outside my clothes in class. Went through a kleptomaniac phase, stealing pens and hiding them behind a bookcase (when I wasn't hiding behind there myself), and offering one girl 50p to be my friend (it worked for about a week!) Oh and there was the poo-graffiti - Tracey Emin would have been proud.

    And I still love dancing :-) 

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Hope said:

    I wonder if anyone else on here sometimes find themselves jumping up and down, almost involuntarily, because of some deep need to release energy?

    Isn't that what you young folk would call dancing?

  • I like your interpretation Laughing

    It is strange, though, because I have now gone to the other extreme, in so far as I am now very inhibited and socially aware. I think I must have had some dawning realisation when I was a late teen that my behaviour was inappropriate, and I began to want to fit into society. But this new desire to fit in and conform creates a lot of stress and inner tension; the silly side is still there, but I have to repress it, and there is a lot of pent up energy within me. Sometimes, in a safe place, all this energy will be released in the form of almost involuntary jumping and shaking of arms.

    I wonder if anyone else on here sometimes find themselves jumping up and down, almost involuntarily, because of some deep need to release energy?

  • Former Member
    Former Member

    Kids do all sorts of things to test the boundaries and to find out what is acceptable or unacceptable. You were non-coformist and outrageous and blissfully unaware of any shock and outrage. Some people like Tracy Emin get paid a lot of money to be outrageous and to be a spectacle. Just think of it as an amateur adventure in being shocking and avant garde.

    Look back with a laugh and smile about the things you did. It sounded like more fun than my childhood!