Could my mum have Aspergers?
(I have extremely little knowledge and experience of the autistic spectrum so I apologise if I accidentally offend anybody by my naievety)
My mum has always been different and somebody mentioned Aspergers and I'm wondering if she might have it
- extremely overly friendly e.g my neighbour recently got a dog and she has sent him about 50 messages offering to look after it when he goes out, shes constantly knocking on his door giving him bags of our dogs old toys and whenever she sees him leave the house she runs outside to talk to him about the dog
- she has lots of really weird repetitive behaviours, e.g everyday she cooks 4 hardboiled eggs and leaves them in the sink, then the next day she will throw them away and then cook another 4 eggs. Everytime she goes to the toilet she flushes the toilet BEFORE she uses it. She repeats herself all the time, for example she will come into my bedroom 3-4 times per day just to ask me if I'm doing any laundry. Another example, until I was about 16 she would be obsessed with brushing my teeth and if I slept at friends houses she would ring their parents during the night to ask if I'd brushed my teeth.
- she is funny about smells. Everytime she walks into a room she starts sniffing and then makes a comment about the smell of the room. Before I go food shopping she constantly says not to buy anything garliccy. If somebody cooks garlic bread or something she goes absolutely mental and then for the rest of the week she will constantly moan that she canstill smell it. My dad bought peri chicken yesterday and she went mad shouting at him to never buy it again etc.
- she is funny about noises. I can't count the number of times she has told me to turn my TV down even though it isn't even switched on. In the car she always turns the radio right down and she kicks off if anyone turns it up. Everytime she comes upstairs she will knock on my door and say turn the tv down even though its not on. She constantly tells my boyfriend to speak quietly on his PS4 headset even though most of the time he isn't even using the headset. on the other hand, she has the living room TV ridiculously loud all the time and she is always blasting her music and films etc.
- when she talks to people her facial expressions and eyes are unusual. I can't explain it. when someone is saying something she stares at them and makes her eyes really wide. Also if somebody makes a joke or something she does a really over exggerated laugh.
- shes attention seeker. for example if she gets dressed for a party she will come into my room and say to my boyfriend things like 'dont i look nice? i bet you cant believe im 50 can you? does your mum dress as nice as me? do you think im fashionable?' . during conversations she will interuptpeople, e.g if she tells a colleague her age she will keep talking over them and say things like 'i bet youre shocked arent you, can you believe it? i bet youthought i was younger'
- she says nasty things and doesnt hold back. for example a family member was suffering from depression and had recently attempted suicide, and she told them they were being selfish and if they really wanted to die they would have done it properly. She constantly calls me fat even though im a size 12 and my boyfriend has told her how upset it makes me yet she carries on saying 'miss piggy' etc. I recently went to my GP who rang an ambulance for me and she rang my mum to ask her to meet me at the hospital, and my mum told the GP it was her day off work and she didnt want to spend it at A&E. Then when I got home from hospital she was laughing saying 'did you have fun sat in A&E for 6 hours?'
- she has no friends, she never meets up with anyone and whenever ive seen her with people its clearly obvious that they dont like her but they are just being polite
I could go on forever about her unusual behaviours
Could these be signs of an autistic spectrum disorder?
Or could it be something else?
My mum has always been different and somebody mentioned Aspergers and I'm wondering if she might have it
- extremely overly friendly e.g my neighbour recently got a dog and she has sent him about 50 messages offering to look after it when he goes out, shes constantly knocking on his door giving him bags of our dogs old toys and whenever she sees him leave the house she runs outside to talk to him about the dog
- she has lots of really weird repetitive behaviours, e.g everyday she cooks 4 hardboiled eggs and leaves them in the sink, then the next day she will throw them away and then cook another 4 eggs. Everytime she goes to the toilet she flushes the toilet BEFORE she uses it. She repeats herself all the time, for example she will come into my bedroom 3-4 times per day just to ask me if I'm doing any laundry. Another example, until I was about 16 she would be obsessed with brushing my teeth and if I slept at friends houses she would ring their parents during the night to ask if I'd brushed my teeth.
- she is funny about smells. Everytime she walks into a room she starts sniffing and then makes a comment about the smell of the room. Before I go food shopping she constantly says not to buy anything garliccy. If somebody cooks garlic bread or something she goes absolutely mental and then for the rest of the week she will constantly moan that she canstill smell it. My dad bought peri chicken yesterday and she went mad shouting at him to never buy it again etc.
- she is funny about noises. I can't count the number of times she has told me to turn my TV down even though it isn't even switched on. In the car she always turns the radio right down and she kicks off if anyone turns it up. Everytime she comes upstairs she will knock on my door and say turn the tv down even though its not on. She constantly tells my boyfriend to speak quietly on his PS4 headset even though most of the time he isn't even using the headset. on the other hand, she has the living room TV ridiculously loud all the time and she is always blasting her music and films etc.
- when she talks to people her facial expressions and eyes are unusual. I can't explain it. when someone is saying something she stares at them and makes her eyes really wide. Also if somebody makes a joke or something she does a really over exggerated laugh.
- shes attention seeker. for example if she gets dressed for a party she will come into my room and say to my boyfriend things like 'dont i look nice? i bet you cant believe im 50 can you? does your mum dress as nice as me? do you think im fashionable?' . during conversations she will interuptpeople, e.g if she tells a colleague her age she will keep talking over them and say things like 'i bet youre shocked arent you, can you believe it? i bet youthought i was younger'
- she says nasty things and doesnt hold back. for example a family member was suffering from depression and had recently attempted suicide, and she told them they were being selfish and if they really wanted to die they would have done it properly. She constantly calls me fat even though im a size 12 and my boyfriend has told her how upset it makes me yet she carries on saying 'miss piggy' etc. I recently went to my GP who rang an ambulance for me and she rang my mum to ask her to meet me at the hospital, and my mum told the GP it was her day off work and she didnt want to spend it at A&E. Then when I got home from hospital she was laughing saying 'did you have fun sat in A&E for 6 hours?'
- she has no friends, she never meets up with anyone and whenever ive seen her with people its clearly obvious that they dont like her but they are just being polite
I could go on forever about her unusual behaviours
Could these be signs of an autistic spectrum disorder?
Or could it be something else?
Original post by theJoyfulGeek
It could be. It could be many things, and I don't know: I'm not a professional, I've never met your mum and there are many different forms of autism. Her behaviour sounds unusual though, so there could be a mental health issue.
It’s hard because I have lots of mental health experience but I can’t pin point what it might be. Whereas somebody mentioned Aspergers and I googled it and it explains everything! But because I have such little knowledge about the spectrum I posted on here hoping somebody with good knowledge could help me. I’m just a bit worried I might offend someone because I’m so naive about it. I know you only know what I have written but can you suggest any possible mental health diagnoses it could be? Thanks !
It doesn't sound like she is on the autistic spectrum based on the above. Some things sound a little bit on the anxiety/OCD spectrum, some sound a little like cluster B personality traits. I don't anyone here would be able to tell you what exactly is going on though.
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