Non-autistic ways to be considered "weird"

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No way to prove this, but in "my day" if you knew somebody who was generally considered "weird" but did not have something obviously wrong with them, there's a good likelihood they were on the spectrum although in those days nobody was aware of the concept except for very "low-functioning" autistics who weren't able to manage on their own.

My question has to do with situations where a person is probably not autistic but is still considered weird by most people who interact with them.

For the sake of full disclosure, this question is motivated by my memory of a girlfriend I had in the late 70s whom everybody I knew told me was weird. In fact I thought she was weird when I first met her but after enough time spent with her it just seemed she was being "herself". When I first joined WP, I asked a couple of times whether she might have been on the spectrum, but nobody seemed to want to offer an opinion (an opinion being all I was asking for). Given the conclusion that she was indeed "weird" (she was inarguably atypical) could she have nevertheless been neurotypical? Or was there some other neurological explanation e.g. a form of schizophrenia so mild that the patient never recognizes that anything is wrong?

Non-ND ways to be weird:
-Be a foreigner or an alien Or adapt culture/ways outside norm.

-Nonconformist by choice. Done so against nature and/or nurture, which either requires certain disciplines or some form of apathy without slipping into anti-conformity

-Having strong outside-the-box thinking tendencies or intense fascinations (that includes personal obsessions, conventional or not)

-Being unpredictable; like, say, deliberate violating common sense or react in unexpected ways (that includes no resistance for bringing up taboo topics)

-Being in a situation just as weird where few could've relate (that includes going through forms of trauma, abuse and health issues)

-Having beliefs that cannot be related with others at large (that includes anything that would cause emotional and mental issues)

-Being less sober (that includes being in a different states of consciousness)

-Having peculiar preferences, tastes, habits, way of doing things that others don't develop or relate; in otherwords, having quirks



Non-autistic yet more or less ND ways to be weird:
-Being an ND itself

-Having any more or less something important than the norm

-Having different developmental trajectories in general, particularly having mismatching trajectories across typical development (GDD/Giftedness/LD/spiky profiles/etc.)

-Having different sensory processing in general (sensory issues/synthesia/aphanthasia/etc.)

-Having chronic physical, mental or emotional health issues in general (that includes growing up with anything that constitutes as disability)

-Having significant emotional and contextual response (alexithymia/BPD/etc.)



How to be 'weird' in any way yet 'relatable' or at least interesting/approachable?
-Natural charm

-Being surrounded by cultures with the right type of empathy, tolerance or inclusion to match personal peculiarities.
Or being in a niche or being known to be reliable to get a pass in general

-Having a wider range of empathy AND able to execute around it accordingly, which is a form of competence social mobility and flexibility

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Oddly enough, the same behaviors that NTs might consider as "weird" are often the same behaviors that NTs have...

• Always in motion / constant fidgeting.
• Babyish/Childish behavior.
• Behaving really loud.
• Behaving really mean.
• Behaving really nice.
• Behaving really quiet.
• Believing that crypto-creatures are real.
• Believing that ghosts are real.
• Believing that psychic abilities are real.
• Believing that UFOs are piloted by extraterrestrial aliens.
• Bringing up a disgusting subject in polite company.
• Constantly complaining about feeling miserable.
• Constantly expressing personal religious beliefs.
• Constantly making false statements.
• Constantly trying to impress others.
• Disclosing too much personal information at inappropriate situations.
• Esoteric attire (i.e., Emo, Goth, Star Trek/Wars, et cetera).
• Expressing "too much" trivia and esoteric knowledge.
• Expressing an opinion on everything.
• Expressing contentious beliefs (i.e., conspiracy theories, et cetera).
• Inappropriate responses to questions.
• Inappropriate sense of humor.
• Making little or no eye contact.
• Making too much eye contact (i.e., an unblinking stare).
• Monosyllabic answers to complex questions.
• Repeatedly asking "Why?" long after the question has been answered.
• Speaking in a monotone voice
• Standing too close.
• Unkempt hair, obvious toupee, et cetera.
• Unnecessary and unjustified bragging.

There's no way for us to know because you haven't given any details about her or even explained what you mean by "weird."

In sociology we call this “deviance”:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/labeling-theory#ref1232223

Like others have said, it comes in many forms. Some minor and unremarkable.

But an overwhelming sense of deviance is discernible in some people. A person could always be doing whatever it is on purpose, but often it seems as though the different person is in an alternate society reality than the rest of us.

There are countless ways to be "weird".

Neurosis, or bad parenting can cause folks to have behavioral idiosyncracies.