My favourite response to this when is:
“Oh yeah? So what does autism look like? Go on, do your best impression. I want to see.”
I have a neuromild friend who, when I am on a rant because the world works the wrong way, or explaining something in detail that the milds probably don’t care about, very politely holds up a little sign for me.
It’s like, “Hey friend, this is a 'tism.”
They’ve never stopped me, never cut me off, never sighed in exasperation that the autistic guy is at it again. Just a little note that whatever I’m on about is neurospicier than the milds generally like.
They specifically say train not model of train so I can only assume it is literally every individual train.
I mask a lot better when I’m not depressed. (I’m horribly depressed.)
That said I still mask as second nature pretty well as I consistently get the “I wouldn’t have guessed you were autistic.” response from people a lot. I generally love socializing and I’m pretty good at it from experience and the topic of “people” being an on and off special interest.
I hope you’re doing better, pal.
I hope they’re doing whatever makes the world more interesting, regardless of how it makes them feel.
The fuck?
Sorry for being honest? If they’re suffering i hope it’s at least novel and exciting. If they’re doing well i hope it’s in a way that enables them to make the world cooler.
I dont know this person. They could be a terrible piece of shit or the physical personification of all values i hold dear. Maybe I’d wish them well! Maybe I’d hope they fall in one and die. But i know i don’t want whatever happens to be boring.
Sorry for not lying. I’ll be less honest in the future.
Thank you.
When your ‘thing’ is technology (computers/coding/hosting/fixing electronics) they tend not to label you as much as ask you for help with their tech.
Yeah I was trying to figure out what exactly to say here but I really wanted to reply……
My first thought was something like I’m not autistic but posts like this make me wonder if I’m just not diagnosed.
However I’ll stick with your response. I’m clearly neurotypical because my thing is technology
I’m not diagnosed either, But I’ve got all the flavors of socially awkward and wild unbridled obsession that make me a reasonably decent fit. It took me decades to work out social anxiety sufficiently to hang out with people in public. I’m still not particularly good at it, but if I try really hard, I can tell if others are uncomfortable or bored, and on rare occasion I can even shut the fuck up after they ask me something that touches on one of my obsessions.
The way I look at it, I’ve known people who are rather normal and tech obsessed. They know the features of the latest cell phone, They build beautiful gaming rigs from scratch and build themselves a website, maybe even stand up a Plex server.
But they don’t know what all the pins on the ATX power connector do, or know why there’s so much trouble getting Linux to access the cellular modems in the phones, or the minutia of h264 versus h265, or if ever tried it to hand code a QR code.
I could probably be doing a lot more social or environmentally positive with my life. But I like what I like, and I’ve managed to raise a family. It’s just not a train garden in my basement It’s a 42U rack.
In the post about the new convert your colleagues to your faith in the breakroom memo by the Trump regime, I offered an example of what my spiritual workmates might encounter if they raised the topic of Jesus, several paragraphs about the cosmic horror of reality.
The main thrust is that all spirit, whether another subatomic factor, or a manifold like gravity, is transparent to to the standard model of particle physics. It’s also transparent to relativity, but we expect that.
And that includes human souls, ghosts, afterlife.
My point was I’ve thought about and researched existential philosophy at length, possibly to suggest I’m ASD (disclosure: I’m diagnosed), and my evangelical rivals may as well be walking into the Total Perspective Vortex.
ill read ‘the bible’ if you read ‘blindsight’.
I thought my lemmy client was glitched and showing the comments for that thread here for a second
I’m not necessarily autistic, but when I tell people I’m neurodivergent, they’re like “yup” 😓
I’m not autistic, but if there’s an odd number of steps I have to go up them twice to make them even
Can’t you just repeat the last one?
That would just be weird, who does that
But doesn’t going down them also count? Now you’ve done an uneven
Who counts stairs going down?
For me it’s that I always want to walk on an even number of tiles, planks, or other pieces of flooring with clear and repeating edges.
That’s OCD
If so it’s pretty mild. I don’t do it all the time and I am able to resist doing it even when I have the urge to.
Growing up in the 80s made me ridiculously good at masking.
Which is to my detriment now that more resources are available. Unmasking in front of neurotypicals is quite difficult for me.
Me I guess? I mean even I didnt know I was on the spectrum until I was 36.
I somehow managed to avoid it my entire miserable life. But then I caught the autism from my daughter at age 41.
Beat 48 😉
(it’s not a competition though, just having fun.)
60! Just now talking the time to figure out what it all means.
Nice and congrats!
May I ask on which country? I’m currently trying to get diagnosed in Germany and its really impossible so far.
I’m in the US. Not a formal diagnosis, but tested on embrace autism, and a few other sites. I’m the multiple retakes I get very close to the same results. I’ve talked with my wife (surprising to her the many things I do and things that she had no idea about) and son, and I’ve talked with a counselor (going regularly now). For me, I don’t see the value of a neuro psych eval.
Thanks!
I always thought I was different and struggling in waves so to say without being able to pinpoint the issue - but I excel at analyzing things.
The cliche held me from considering autism, which is different now and explains everything left over or a few contradictions. Wishing you the best!
I didn’t consider that I am on the spectrum until my son and then wife told me I could be. That started my investigation. I also don’t have obvious outward characteristics, but I’ve been hiding it since I was in 3rd grade. Lots of things on my head and concealed.
The stereotypical German acts autistic (humorless, ruthlessly efficient, blunt), so I’m not surprised you’re having difficulty!
It isn’t, indeed! Everything about my life is unusual in the big picture, I am a very untypical German for too many factual reasons to list here.
I hate the train meme for its accuracy… I dispise trains but I ended up working on the railway anyway.
Who hates trains!? Before you worked on the railway, I mean.
Car and oil companies?
Hey, my country has decided giant corporations are people, and profits are speech. STOP OPPRESSING THEM!
I hate ads but I work in advertising.
lol my grandfather has model trains xD
I’m still pissed off that my older brother got my Dad’s model trains even decades later. Now that I’ve been spending a lot of time on home automation, and considering 3d printing, model trains are what could connect them
I have the kind of AuDHD which almost completely disappears with the right dose of alcohodderall. In fact I can be downright witty and gregarious when that equilibrium kicks in just right, so the true awkwardness is reserved for those who exist in those unfortunate, but necessary windows of sobriety.
My wittiness just comes out as almost like a tic. Usually a sharp one-liner barb that presents itself in conversation. It’s very circumstantial, and often mean. Alcohol basically takes the sharpness and meanness out, and spreads the humor out more evenly. So I’m not silent for 20 minutes and throw in a hardcore jab, I’m just far more sociable, and generally likeable.
“Bazinga”
audience laugh track
I compiled a list of 4000 color names and their rgb values.
I’ve often been told I’m too nOrMaL to be autistic but never that I don’t look autistic. Have you all been told the latter? I see so many memes about that.
I’m autistic enough to fuck me over but not autistic enough to get any real benefit.
Normie here. Those two phrases can mean the same thing. There’s a lot of body language processing and behavior processing that all gets lumped into someones “look”, if they say “you’re too normal” it means the same thing as “you don’t look autistic”.
You could probably get nitty gritty and find that someone who is more familiar with you might be more likely to say “you’re too normal” because they are basing it off of more than just appearances, but in the long run it’s all just based on observations anyway and certain cultures might lean toward one phrase over the other.
na, thankfully i look normal. you seem the be a rare kombination.
I don’t know how well received ‘Love on the Spectrum’ is in the community but I have to say it was mesmerizing when the one lady was on a date with the DJ guy and they we listing off song after song and the key it was in.
I couldnt watch it because i recognised my own mannerisms so much from that one blonde girl. I couldnt get through it realizing that i’m probably more visually neurodivergent than i thought and it cringed me out LOL (nothing against it, just felt too much like watching myself on tape haha)
I’d say that most people don’t mask as well as they think they do, it’s just that people also don’t pay attention to others very much.
I couldn’t finish that one, chunks of it were infantilising as hell
I typically abhor dating shows, but I really enjoy that one. I felt like that DJ guy was a bit aggressive, but I guess she was happy… 🤷♂️
I know it’s a joke but this literally is my brother. Not always easy to deal with but he is super awesome in all his own ways
