weird reaction

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"I know others here fly below the proverbial radar and don't get recognized as autistic, and others are recognized as different all the time. I suppose I thought I was blending in more than this, but apparently not.
Anyone have anything like this happen? Have an opinion?"

when i was in k-12, especially 6-8. precious lil cisgender neurotypical "people" recognized me as "different". a lot. and they expressed it in a lot of ways. teasing. bullying. and et cetera. lame lil jokes.

the undergrad i went to was in an area that was not diverse racially or in any other way. thus, i had a hard time fitting in.

not to say that i ever did fit in.

when i was 21, a 61 year old in Structural Engineering 125: Statistics, Probability and Reliability class. had the nerve to say that. based solely on his observations of me during class, he diagnosed me as autistic. and he read a book about aspergers. and he diagnosed himself with aspergers. so i told him that the year before, i got an official diagnosis from a neuropsychiatrist. he then told me that he did not think that psychotherapy, support groups, or psychotropic meds would benefit him. he had a really big ego.

in any event, he did not have the legal right to diagnose me with aspergers. b/c he did not have that degree in that subject. and he was not working in that job. and i was not his client. seriously, some idiots truly believe they are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

then around 2014, the aikido instructor's spouse told me that the aikido instructor told her. that i was autistic and clinically depressed. and he somehow "knew" that, based only on watching me during class. the aikido instructor himself was autistic.

but, of course, the aikido instructor did not administer the diagnosis test to me. nor did i tell him about it.

on the other hand, in his defense, though. what is so great about the IQ test. the IQ test does not feature field observation. watching someone in his/her natural/artificial habitat, says. to me. says a lot more than just making someone answer a bunch of random, useless questions. hence, the IQ test.

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when i was 25, some preteens said "run, forrest run". one of them pointed out that my shirt was wet. the other answered that maybe it was sweat from running. the other one said "run, forrest, run". but neither of them saw me run.

It is virtually impossible to tell if somebody is autistic by just seeing them walk around. I bet they were just running up to people and saying random stuff. Maybe they said it because you had a collared shirt. My classmates will go to the mall and do the same thing, look at people's appearance, then run up and make a snide remark. Very petty and cowardly thing to do.

Those dudes are just being immature, you can simply ignore people like them.

+1 interesting post

I can often tell if somebody else is (even mildly) autistic by seeing them walk around.... mind-body connection and all that, certain thought patterns reflected in certain uses of musculature, etc. But its something I've thought a lot about wrt to myself, so its something I'm particularly sensitive to.

Kids can be pretty intuitive sometimes, even if they're just trying to be mean. Maybe especially if they're just trying to be mean.

That said, I wouldn't think "oh man, everyone thinks/knows I'm autistic just by looking at me", seems more likely a freak one-off type thing.

^ Hah no, though that was an interesting article. Ironically due to sensories I can't stand anything tight on me, and buttoned up shirts count. I left the top one undone.
I used to think that childish things were the sort of intellectually disabled telltale the author claims the buttoned-up look creates - adults who wore clothing with cartoon characters on them, carried backpacks designed for young kids, or had keychains everywhere with teddybears on them etc. But now that seems to be acceptable norm for "normal" adults, so I'm not betting on that one anymore either.
PS - on the physical resemblance, I didn't think that was likely either, as Tom Hanks was a grown man at the time, and I look like a child. Plus I thought I look pretty femme - though I may be wrong on that score too.