Extroverted Autists

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In my youth, years before being diagnosed with ASD, I took a personality test which told me I was introverted. It also told me there wasn't much anybody could do to radically alter their personality. I railed against being stuffed with such a label, and set out to prove it wrong. To some extent I succeeded. I really didn't want to throw in the towel and accept that I'd best just stay on my own. Friendship and co-operation have always been very important to me, and I'm perfectly capable of feeling loneliness, which I see as the driver of extraversion. If you're lonely but never outgoing, it's unlikely that you'll ever escape that feeling, unless you have uncommonly kind, patient friends with nothing better to do than give you emotional support. And loneliness hurts.

These days I still don't see myself as an introvert. I see myself as an Aspie with specific traits that hamper my social abilities. So I have to try harder and work smarter than a natural NT socialite. I keep falling back into solitude, but overall I seem to do quite well. I've rarely been partnerless (I put that down to relentless determination and hard emotional work), and my special interest of music has been a tremendous help in opening social doors for me. Is a performer not by definition some kind of an extravert? None of this timidly playing my set and scurrying off, I'm not satisfied unless I've injected a bit of showmanship into the proceedings, though I still feel like a beginner in that respect. I tend to stick to a small number of friends I'm very used to. I wish it were easier, but I've rarely been scared of a challenge, experience has taught me a lot over the years. I like to think that if I'm lonely, it's mostly because I've not tried hard enough. That's not to discount the tremendous help that certain friendly, non-judgemental people have given me, without whom I'd be nothing socially.

Hope that answers the question.

Thanks Ezra ^^^^^

I think my daughter is autistic and extroverted. She has always, like since she could roll, been really interested in other people. Now she welcomes everyone as they enter the door at preschool, introduces herself to strangers (as long as they have good vibes), has to teach everyone everything, and is generally so aware of how others feel so much that she can't function if someone is crying and she can't help fix it. She tends to be so into connecting with people, though, that she doesn't notice if they don't want to talk or hug back, or if she's hurting them. This is soooo not behavior learned from me, introversion for me is an understatement. She processes like me though, which is why I think she's probably on the spectrum--highly sensitive, bottom up thinking, total inability to change activity, encyclopedia-like knowledge of horses and dinosaurs.

I'm extroverted and autistic.

How it works is this: I want to be around people, I want to interact with them, enjoy life. This is no different from a regular extroverted person.

But I'm socially awkward, can't filter out conversations that I'm not involved in, and generally get very anxious when there's lots of noise or very loud music.

So I go to events but often am unable to talk to people, but I get a buzz from being around people. At work functions or where there's fewer people so the noise and conversations don't get out of control, I can manage pretty well, and I'm often so busy talking I'm one of the last to leave!

When I'm not around people (which now also includes home ) I don't just feel lonely. I feel like I'm being crushed. I can put up with it for a while, but eventually I have to go where some people are. I'd like to do things with my friends... but right now I can't say I have any (that's for another time, though).

When I was a preschooler, I was very extroverted and "in your face." I'd just go up to other kids and say, "Hi!" and start conversations. And I adored my older cousin, so I'd always want to hug him and smother him. As I grew older, I fluctuated between introverted and extroverted, which is what I am today. I'm very introverted and misanthropic with the majority of people, but with the handful of people I really like and am close with, I talk people's ears off. The "real" me, meaning the extroverted me few get to see, is still very "intense" and hard for many to take.

I was very social and outgoing as a child, too. As I got older, I grew more introverted. Books became my best friends. Today, I strive for a healthy balance between thinking and socialization.

Wow, this is exactly like me. I am introverted today, but I used to be one of those "in your face" type of people around my friends in elementary school. Then, I lost all my friends . That is why I try my hardest today to not talk too much around people I am really close with. It is pretty hard! It's almost like I'm either completely extroverted, or completely introverted, and there isn't any in between. I prefer the introverted part of me because then I can actually keep friends for a while. The moment I realized why I had lost all my friends was when I stopped being the extroverted part of me.

Or Google. One should never underestimate the power of Google.

I have a Google Degree in many subjects .

I actually can't compute either. I could see maybe as a kid you could start out extroverted but I would think eventually you would become introverted. Like for me, I'm autistic and since I speak differently from NTs I would have to first process everything someone says and then reply. I think I'm depressed at the moment because I really can't understand how NT minds work which is preventing me from making friends!

I find it hard to believe he would be autistic and not be holding back, unless he just ignores what everybody else says and just talks all the time. Either that or he learned how to communicate like an NT really fast!

A few autistics come to mind, not me personally. It is very much the one sided conversation most of the time. I reap both benefits of being introverted and extroverted.