Mastodawn

@Some_Person It wouldn't surprise me if you are autistic with these things you've described. I've done *a lot* of research and self-diagnosed. We have a good little autistic community on here that talks about this stuff a lot.

I think "special interests" are often talked about in a very confusing way. They definitely manifest differently for different people. I think it's more about a type of focus and fixation rather than having one specific special interest.

https://www.theautisticadvocate.com/2018/07/masking-i-am-not-ok.html?m=1

@Some_Person You may benefit from reading about masking, which can help people appear non-autistic in social situations.

I've also realized for myself that communication and language/languages are actually a special interest of mine, which had helped me with masking, sometimes even in ways that aren't too tiring.

If you check out the #ActuallyAutistic hashtag here and on Twitter you can talk to Autistic people and see if you relate. If you don't that's fine too!

Here's an article on masking.

I don't have a ton of links on hand, but @stackingstones and @tmorizot always seem to have good resources

Masking: I am not OK

A blog about Autism, Neurodiversity, being Autistic and a parent of Autistic children.

🌻🌼🌱Mar 18, 2019

@Laura_I @stackingstones @tmorizot is it not the norm to rehearse a conversation a couple of times before you speak??? I often have to do it when I have to be polite. My family members often got mad at me for being rude as a child so now I just don't talk in situations where politeness is important and people just assume I'm shy which is more socially acceptable. With people my age it's not as much of a problem because what I do is not seen as rude as often.

@Some_Person @stackingstones @tmorizot

I don't think so? I do it a lot though.

A lot of figuring out I'm Autistic is "wait not everyone does this thing?"

It's hard to know what everyone else does and how their brain works, so a lot of times we don't notice these differences.

@Some_Person @Laura_I @stackingstones Sigh. My experience is that most people would say that's not what they do and it seems a little strange to them.

The past three years I've discovered almost every single autistic person I've encountered does precisely that just as I always have.

So "the norm" is relative. The norm for which group?

cyborgneticz Mar 18, 2019

@Some_Person @Laura_I @stackingstones @tmorizot I have really bad anxiety, so I rehearse conversations especially if they are ones I am going to be stressed about.

@Cyborgneticz @Some_Person @stackingstones @tmorizot Yeah this definitely seems like something common to people with anxiety as well

https://www.theautisticadvocate.com/2018/06/takethemaskoff.html

@Laura_I @Some_Person @stackingstones
I would recommend exploring the #TakeTheMaskOff campaign from last year to see the different yet similar ways we mask. The underlying goal was to try to explain to the allistic world all the work we are doing every moment of every day. The hope is we might receive more understanding and perhaps more acceptance and not have to work so hard. Maybe others could meet us somewhere in the middle.

#TakeTheMaskOff

A blog about Autism, Neurodiversity, being Autistic and a parent of Autistic children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-jnKYjAY4Y&t=2s

@Laura_I @Some_Person @stackingstones
If video works well for you, the kick-off livestream is available here.

#TakeTheMaskOff Live Launch with Do I Look Autistic Yet, Agony Autie and Neurodivergent Rebel

YouTube