Anyone NOT feel like a chameleon?
I don't. I almost don't. I'm too noticeable as far as I could remember. I don't even know why some NTs would go straight to me for whatever reason they have. I tried my best to get everyone to ignore me on the crowd.
Funny, when I actually needed it, they usually ignore me. Was it because I have something they don't need? Hahahah...
Anyway, I don't understand how people generally thinks of me. And why I leave an impression to them. Even if I act all NT, I don't end up being a girl who just happened to be one of the many people who's just passing by here or there... They'll remember me than end up remembering someone else. I don't know why is this either...
As for the issue of being accepted, it's not much. There are some loopholes in the current culture I live in to get away with being myself at all times without someone complaining or going suspicious. If anything, I end up gaining "popularity/reputation" than becoming someone's "laughing stock" regardless of my stance of acting as myself or as an NT.
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I related very strongly to the chameleon thing when I saw it on a list of AS traits. I have different groups of friends/acquaintances that I can not put in the same room - they are so different that they can not communicate with each other. I switch styles for each group.
I have trouble sticking to one accent. I tend to copy whoever I'm with, or if I am feeling childish, to return to the dialect of my childhood, but using words my granny would have used.
The copying is not conscious. It's like method acting, I think. In one mortifying moment, I was talking to a group of colleagues, and I said a joke that made everyone go silent. I immediately realized that not only had I copied their sense of humor, I'd copied the sense of humor of a person who was not present - and I'd copied her voice and way of speaking as well!
I think this has a lot to do with the fact that I was never accepted for the way I was anywhere. I know people with AS who had families who didn't try to change them, and they are not like this. I didn't know how to be, the only thing I knew was that the real me was not acceptable.
I think it's a survival mechanism gone haywire.
I think being like a chameleon probably has more to do with personality than autism.
My Myers-Briggs type is INFP and I can relate a lot to this:
http://personalitycafe.com/infp-forum-i ... ality.html
I feel less like a chameleon as I get older.
I'm an old, tired chameleon. I've been a lot of people. Even my house looks schizophrenic now - one room is retro grandma, another monochromatic modern. I have a collection of videogame memorabilia next to a wall of family portraits. If you want to know who I am, tell me about yourself, first. We're sure to get along famously. Until I get exhausted and have to shut you out, that is.
Most people do this.
I don't think that is being a chameleon.
Being a chameleon is more like thing I read about on some forums, where people say they have a somewhat different persona for different people they interact with.
I don't think I have a different persona around different people, but I still act differently depending on how they treat me. I don't have much control over that. If they seem happy and engaging I will be happy, engaging and a bit silly. If they seem bored and unengaged I will probably end up talking way too much and boring them even more. If they're patronizing I'll be quiet and avoid them.
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Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 82 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 124 of 200
You are very likely neurotypical
I have trouble sticking to one accent. I tend to copy whoever I'm with, or if I am feeling childish, to return to the dialect of my childhood, but using words my granny would have used.
The copying is not conscious. It's like method acting, I think. In one mortifying moment, I was talking to a group of colleagues, and I said a joke that made everyone go silent. I immediately realized that not only had I copied their sense of humor, I'd copied the sense of humor of a person who was not present - and I'd copied her voice and way of speaking as well!
I think this has a lot to do with the fact that I was never accepted for the way I was anywhere. I know people with AS who had families who didn't try to change them, and they are not like this. I didn't know how to be, the only thing I knew was that the real me was not acceptable.
I think it's a survival mechanism gone haywire.
My experience is very similar. I've always thought of it as a form of echolalia.
I admit, I don't quite understand the whole chameleon thing when women are describing their experience with having Asperger's Syndrome. I've subconsciously copied people, but I'm VERY far from being a chameleon. I'm more like a strobe light amongst a bunch of regular lights. My weirdness was spotted VERY easily by bullies when I was in school. I felt as if I was painted with a permanent target on my head. My social issues make it obvious to others that I'm "different," which makes it difficult for me blend in. That doesn't even include my physical appearance!
Appearance-wise, I never blended in. My wardrobe looks like a unicorn barfed all over it. I have a lot of clothes in pinks, blues, greens, and purples with tinges of yellow and orange. I used to want to be popular in elementary school and wear what the "cool" girls were wearing, but I got over that once I was about 12/13. Now I wear whatever I feel like wearing, which is colorful clothing with cartoon characters on them and wacky patterns. I could care less if people make fun of me for it, it's what I like. My boyfriend and his family seem to think it's cute.
I'm pretty much the antithesis of blending in.....
My Myers-Briggs type is INFP and I can relate a lot to this:
http://personalitycafe.com/infp-forum-i ... ality.html
I feel less like a chameleon as I get older.
*gasp* I'm a fellow INFP!

when i was a child i was not a chameleon in a "blend in with the group" sort of way, but i did have two distinct best friends, completely separate from one another, and i found myself adapting to each in subtle ways most likely because they had very strong personalities and i was unsure of my personality. i moved at age 12 and had to start all over in a completely new place, and the people in this new place were a lot more "culturally ahead" than the people who lived in the rural mountain town i moved from, which made me feel extremely alienated. from then until about age 15 i tried on a lot of different masks because i was unsure of my identity. as my confidence in myself further degraded, i increasingly sought approval from others, and tried to assimilate myself with my peers because i was already depressed and anxious, and i thought my life would be so much harder if i didn't try to fit in.
in early high school i began to realize that my core identity was existing underneath all the extraneous spin-offs the whole time, and as i've gotten older i've become increasingly self-aware and at this point i would not consider myself a chameleon. i think i have an intuitive sense as to how i could adapt to each person i interact with in order to get my desired outcome, but it's filed away in my brain for specific and impersonal situations that call for it..like when negotiating payments with customer service representatives, interacting with my bosses, or writing papers for different professors .
MY MOM DOES THIS. i've even brought it up to her a few times because i wasn't sure if she was aware or not, and i thought that with certain people (mostly foreign people), it could be taken as rude or patronizing and i didn't want my mom to unknowingly come off that way. but i eventually found out that she is actually perfectly aware of it, just has a lot of trouble monitoring it in the moment, and definitely doesn't mean any insult by it. if anything its self-insulting :/
i also realized that i tend to do a similar thing, in that i unconsciously mimic other people's laughter. i think a lot of it has to do with how laughing seems alien to me, and i've conditioned myself to laugh to the point where i automatically know to do it but i still don't fully understand it. i often laugh at inappropriate, preemptive, or post-acceptable times, and so by integrating my laughter with others i feel like it goes more unnoticed and doesn't disrupt the interaction.
When I was younger, I didn't care if I fit in/was accepted or not. I figured that them that liked me could like me and them that didn't could not, and it was a big world and I'd get by.
Then I got older, and found out that my personality was a disease, and realized that if I wanted to make it I was going to have to kiss a lot of ass.
So-- chameleon it became.
Now I'm pushing 40 and trying to remember who the hell I am.
Because chameleon didn't work either.
Being forced to be a chameleon is one of the worst things. Sometimes in the right setting I can pull this off- if the dialogue is scripted enough or enough if I have memorized enough scripts. However, if something like- another language or people I don't know or something of that sort comes into play- it throws me off, and I can't remember what I should say or I can't think of all things I should be saying.
Although, I'm starting to come to the woeful realization that playing "normal" might not be healthy in the long run. It makes me feel split in two and just feel very/more shameful.

I think for those of us who tend to be a chameleon, it doesn't necessarily mean we are always good at it. I have a way of blending in, but people still notice little things about me that are different or odd to them and they do comment on it.
The_Face_of_Boo
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Joined: 16 Jun 2010
Age: 43
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 33,452
Location: Beirut, Lebanon.
My Myers-Briggs type is INFP and I can relate a lot to this:
http://personalitycafe.com/infp-forum-i ... ality.html
I feel less like a chameleon as I get older.
According to Yippy, this is a femaleAspie-only thing, so the stories in your link must be all lies.
/sarcasm.

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