Honestly, I don't know what to think anymore. I feel pretty "normal" from day-to-day, even if my interests are highly specialized compared to most people's. I interact with co-workers and strangers on a daily basis well enough.
Then again, I can be in a group conversation with a few people and it's a bit more obvious. I will say something that I think is relevant to the conversation, and the other people sort of look at me, give me a little fake smile, and continue as if I didn't say anything. It's then when I know I've said something that was a bit off. Fortunately, it doesn't ever seem to be held against me.
ToughDiamond wrote:
What really intrigues me is that if I happen to trust a person (or a group) very strongly, then a lot of my symptoms seem to vanish. That was very true of my early experiences with that right mix of people - I've often thought since then, they were only people, yet my faith in them at the time was colossal....I was completely convinced that I was among caring friends, and so I felt quite uninhibited sharing my dreams and my warmth with them. They were probably more kind and caring than the average Joe, and I guess I could have been in terrible trouble if they'd turned out to be malicious types, but it seems that I made my liking and trust for them so clear that they in turn took a strong liking to me. If you give love, you tend to receive love, and if people love you enough then it'll take more than a few weird Aspie blunders to make them nose you out of the social circle. Really, under those circumstances, your AS isn't an impairment.
Wow. So well put! I think that's one of the reasons I define my people boundaries so clearly. Outside of that boundary I am more likely to be judged and snickered at (to some degree) for being myself, so I have a tendency to close up and not say much in those situations.
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"That leap of logic should have broken his legs." - Janissy