Do any of you mimic so called 'normal' people?

Post Reply New Topic

Until recently I did this quite often.

In order to understand people I compare their personalities to archetypes that I have constructed from friends/acquaintances with similar personalities, and determine how they will act in a given situation. If I am unsure how to act in a certain social situation, I would usually draw upon one or more of these archetypes and adopt mannerisms of the people that comprise them. It's not something that I consider dishonest, however problems arise when I misread the situation (or people in said situation) and I do something that is apparently inappropriate.

Now I just keep to myself and observe everyone in the group until I have worked out the rules for that context.

Yes I have, and still do. I am an excellent mimic, especially voices. I can mimic the voices of famous paople on t.v., like movie stars, almost perfectly. Including tone, accent, inflections, etc. I don't know what to make of it, because I have always done this. If I feel like mimicking someone, I will spontaneously do it.

I like Pistonhead's Borg analogy!

I do seem to have absorbed certain mannerisms in my attempts to 'pretend to be normal'; facial expressions and postures tend to be the most useful things to mimic. I guess a lot of my affectations come from De Niro (an actor I've admired for a long time) and even Morrissey! Not that my persona is that of a slightly camp mafiosa... :s

It's made life feel like a bit of a performance, but it's been useful in the long run, although I'd like to be a bit more sponaneously 'me' if that's even possible now.

Ho-hum.

Mimicking is a survival technique. I have often found myself to be trapped, ergo, I mimic to escape and to survive.

Now that I am older, I am more confident of surviving without the mimicry, but old habits die hard

Mics

I pick up words and phrases from my friends, but everyone does that. When I was a child, I used to imitate people (and I was really annoying because of it ) as a way of winding them up, but I never seriously tried to act like other people because I was happy with who I was. Now that I'm more aware of social norms, I try to put on a NT-front so that I might pass as normalish to new people, so that I don't scare them off. I do that by observing the way other people speak, what they talk about, how they start and finish conversations and what mannerisms and body language they use. Unfortunately I'm not good at mimicking other people's body language, and still have huge difficulties in initating and maintaining conversations with people I don't know very well, so it's very much a work in progress. And of course I don't want to turn my back on my innate Aspieness; my NT mask only stays on for so long before slipping off.

I never noticed it and thought it was even normal. But it isn't so normal when it's not how you are and is a confliction of your own personality! My boyfriend's personality is absolutely on an opposite end of my own. I tend to mimic him without realizing it, just as I did around others. I never really do it by choice, but I guess it really does get you far when you have problems with communicating.

I've also found myself to be mimicking people from movies and books as well for awhile after watching or reading them. Sometimes it lasts a day, sometimes it lasts an hour to two hours. Now that I've actually noticed this one, since it's easier to realize, it's easier to kind of wrap up the storyline in my head and then move on, so I don't become all emotional from it. lol

I mimic others to a certain extent, when it's in my best interests to do so.

Yeah I use to mimic the people I hung around with in high school.
I still change to fit in with different groups.
For the longest time I really did not know who I was, wonder if I even have
a genuine personality. I just allways seem to be acting.
I really just rather be by myself and take the world in and not
give anything back. Find it just to much efford to have to act or mimic to fit in.
It seems like I am looking at myself from somebody elses view.
Maybe a stupid question but is mimicing an aspie trait?

My social adaptability was always rooted in acting like everyone else.

The problem that posed was that doing what others do doesn't mean I'm doing what's appropriate. Two people who know each other act different from two who do not. Mimicking what I see and thinking it will be acceptable caused more than enough troubles for me.

I vocaly mimic other people from time to time to their face, and am not all that fabulous at controling it. They sometimes don't like it very much. I have payed for this hard to control vocal copying issue a few times. 'sigh'