Social anxiety, social skills and ASD
Hmm. Interesting question.
I'd have to say no, not entirely, at least. When my anxiety levels are fairly neutral, my social skills are improved, definitely, but by no means "normal."
No matter how relaxed I am, I'm always capable of committing some inadvertent faux pas, which will send my anxiety level shooting right back off the scale in an instant.
And being anxiety-free is even more likely to cause me to go off on an Aspergian Monologue, babbling nonstop about a personal obsession without realizing I'm boring the person or persons that I'm talking to.

I'd have to say no, not entirely, at least. When my anxiety levels are fairly neutral, my social skills are improved, definitely, but by no means "normal."
No matter how relaxed I am, I'm always capable of committing some inadvertent faux pas, which will send my anxiety level shooting right back off the scale in an instant.
And being anxiety-free is even more likely to cause me to go off on an Aspergian Monologue, babbling nonstop about a personal obsession without realizing I'm boring the person or persons that I'm talking to.
This.
The days of yore, the glorious past when I was happy, was the time in my life when I'd decided that I didn't care.
Would that I could bring myself to do THAT again.
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"Alas, our dried voices when we whisper together are quiet and meaningless, as wind in dry grass, or rats' feet over broken glass in our dry cellar." --TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men"
I think it's possible depending on who has social anxiety and what other problems they might be struggling with, since social anxiety itself has nothing to do with social skills. It's fear, worry, and apprehension towards social settings, especially where one feels they might be judged or evaluated. This might be because of bad experiences and those experiences might have been because of poor social skills, but that's not necessarily true for people who don't have Autism or Asperger's. If they do, well... they had more affecting their way of socializing from the start.
I'm going to say no, at least not for me.
Sometimes, when I'm really, super comfortable with someone, especially someone I like, my social skills are, I don't know... I guess pretty strange.
I definitely picked up on abstract, improv conversation, as a defense mechansim in conversations because I'm so bad at relevant reciprocation (or where the other person is pretty offbeat like me, because those people typically find me pretty aloof and interesting hahahaha), and that doesn't fly well with "normal" people. Or with people who are painfully insecure about anything different. That's a summation I'm uncomfortable with because it really doesn't cover all of the possibilities, but I hope you get what I mean, anyway.
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Your Aspie score: 186 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 13 of 200
You are very likely an Aspie
This. Unfortunately, social anxiety and ASD can fit hand to glove. Two separate entities though.
Personally, I have the impression that my lack of social skills cause my social anxiety. Well, it definitely work the other way around too and creates a self-reinforcing cycle, but I feel that initially, what makes me anxious about social situations is that I lack the social skills to handle them in a way that is pleasant for me (and others).
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ouroboros
A bit obsessed with vocabulary, semantics and using the right words. Sorry if it is a concern. It's the way I think, I am not hair-splitting or attacking you.
I would say they can pass for normal most of the time, but not actually be normal.
For example, I don't have nearly as much anxiety as I used to when I was a teenager in social situations, but I still suck at small talk. I just don't see the point of going on endlessly about the weather, or other inane things. When I speak, it's usually to tell someone something they need to know, or some interesting bit of information (like when you meet someone new and you're getting to know each other). Something like "cold out there, huh?" is so pointless that I find it annoying. (No sh*t, Sherlock. It's winter. Of course it's cold. )
I've been getting better at it, but I still find small talk pointless and annoying. I quickly run out of things to say, and then my anxiety starts to creep in, because I can feel the conversation getting awkward because I have nothing to say.
People will still be able to sense that there's something off about you, I think.
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