Look Me in the Eye? People with autism answer “Can you look me in the eye?” | You Can't Ask ...

Trigger warning in video below. People speaking frankly of #Ableism "Grab the blind Person and Bless them" / lack of respect for body autonomy issues

RantWoman is always touched to learn other people have the same issues as RantWoman but for entirely different reasons. RantWoman is talking about eye contact and inability to detect or interact as expected with visual cues, especially visual cues related to interpersonal relationships. See the video at the bottom of this post of autistic people speaking about their challenges trying to look people in the eye.

In RantWoman's case:

--RantWoman probably did not see much her first couple years of life until surgery at age 2 for a hereditary eye condition. This means RantWoman at best learned only very imperfectly all that visual bonding stuff that babies with normal vision are supposed to absorb in the early months of life.

--RantWoman read a study one time, citation what citation, about how in conversation two people's pupils will dilate and contract in certain patterns usually related to relative status. RantWoman's eyes DO NOT do this well at all. Do not do as in it takes about a gallon of dilating drops anytime RantWoman gets one of those dilated eye exams. People tend not to be charmed when their status is not duly recognized and acknowledged to their satisfaction. RantWoman cannot achieve this recognition through eye contact!

--Evebn after getting glasses at just past age 2, RantWoman had suboptimal vision her whole life until the midlife part of DNA lotto kicked in. RantWoman underwent various medical matters and came out with vision substantially blurrier and cloudier, less acute, filled with more gaps as well as more flashers and grow your own lava lamp effects than previously. Plus, it does not matter what RantWoman tries to look at: her eyes itch if she tries to keep them open too long or fixated on any one thing sometimes even long enough to focus on what RantWoman is looking at.

So RantWoman totally relates to many of the issues described in the attached video.

In fact, RantWoman once had a conversation with a friend "on the spectrum." Friend says RantWoman is easy to be around because she does not make eye contact. RantWoman told her friend that the friend is easy to be around because she does not expect eye contact. With that, let us hear from some autistic people about their issues with eye contact.