What is it Like Being NT?

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I'm sure this question has been asked here before, but I'd like to hear some first-hand accounts from people here about what it's like to be NT. What are your sensory experiences like? Do sounds or lights ever cause you physical pain? Do you ever get the urge to run away from crowded or noisy spaces? If so, what do you do about it? Do you ever use repetition or routine as a means of self-comfort or to reduce anxiety? If not, what methods do you use? How do you read non-verbal and facial expressions? Do you think about them or is it automatic? How effortful is it for you to respond to people's non-verbals? Are you good at it, or do you have to consider your response carefully? Do you find conversations with others inherently enjoyable, or only when you're discussing topics of interest? What does "being interested" in something feel like for you? If you had the opportunity to talk about your interest for long periods of time, would you?

Sorry for the text wall, these are just some of the things I wonder about when I watch the NTs around me go about their lives.

Well you're kind of assuming that everybody who isn't diagnosed with some sort of neurological condition will share the same experiences through life.

Every individual is unique and experiences things in different ways. "Neurotypical" is just another label used for grouping people together. But it's never really that simple.

Well obviously all NT's don't have the same life experiences as one another, just as all autistics or all [insert disability here]'s don't all share the same experiences, but there has to be some similarity between them, otherwise there would be no separation between "normal" and "neurologically deviant". I want to know, broadly speaking, what "normal" feels like.

Hi I'm unsure what NT is like since I have NVLD and possibly Aspergers or now called High Functioning Autism. But yet I found out about this difference in my thinking 4 years ago. If I had been asked this question 4years ago I would have stated that I'm not sure how I read non verbal cues. All my life I have felt socially awkward and now I know why. Strong smellsbotherme to include air freshness or eve trash bags with a "clean fresh scent" and soundsbother me especially if a neighbor has a tv on.

Also does being normal or NT mean that someone likely doesn't think about nonverbal cues and they just automatically know how to respond. Yes I would really like to know what it's like to be normal or NT. (When you are not NT to me it feels like someone who's NT will say "it's great being NT and never feeling socially awkward).

Maybe you should post in the parent's forum. That's probably where most of the NTs are.

I'm a resident NT. I also think about these kinds of things since I study autism. In fact, these kinds of questions are fascinating to me. I wish we could ask everyone in the world and compare their answers.

Only when I have a migraine. Even then I can force myself to function to the point of vomiting. But that never happens anymore because I get botox injections and take Imitrex.

I sometimes (very rarely) have abnormal anxiety in situations because I grew up in an abusive household. I also do a thing where I always place myself facing potential threats and think about safety routes and ways to defend myself. As in, I would leave this way and defend myself with this melee weapon.

No. If I'm upset and need to calm down I spend time alone and either exercise or clean my house. So it's not really a routine but more about physically getting away and making my environment safe. I might watch a soothing TV show after I'm mostly recovered.

I am severely neurotypical. Non-verbal and facial expressions to me are as obvious as reading text. I learned a long time ago that they are not as obvious to other NTs and trying to tell other people what I see sounds to them like I'm talking about some kind of pixie magic. Yes it is automatic. I can't help but see it and it is distracting to me sometimes. Like, it's hard for me to concentrate on faking being friends with people or faking being polite to a professor because I can see their real motives on their faces and movements. It's kind of like how you might not want to know what other people are thinking. There can be real trash in there.

It can be useful if someone is, say, non-verbal. Maybe they're having trouble communicating something but I can understand what they're getting at quicker. I can also pick out that I know this person or that person is good because of their mannerisms or voice.

It used to be easy for me. It was basically a form of lying, manipulating, or putting on an act all the time, to take in all that information and come up with the "right" response, in words, actions, and my face. I purposefully chose to stop doing it several years ago and now I only do it as needed, such as in business meetings. It turns out that I can still do it well, but it makes me feel bad emotionally. It bothers me to know that in some way I just lied to someone's face and they have no idea.

Yes! I am one of those people who starts up conversations with strangers. Usually not because I want to be friends with them, but I'm simply interested in them and want to hear what they say.

Like in an old Mario game when he would eat a mushroom and become Super Mario- he'd be bigger, faster, more energetic. It just brightens me up. I feel something like hunger to know more and I want to delve into whatever the thing is that I'm interested in. However, I am interested in many, many different things. Instead of studying autism, I could have easily studied math. Or construction. Or medicine. Or criminology. Lots of things. I can also be interested in anything else someone is interested in by just asking them questions and making it interesting to me. For example, football. I have no interest in football, but if someone kept talking about it, I would ask them how the game worked, why are the uniforms the way they are, and so on. You know, turn the conversation around to become something that was mutually interesting for both of us.

I will run on with a several hour long conversation if I am talking to another person like myself who enjoys both talking and listening. If the conversation goes in just one direction I will not participate as long. I don't have a problem lecturing to students, however. I really enjoy that. That's kind of talking about one of my interests for a long period of time.

Wow, thanks for the response SocOfAutism, that's fascinating! The way you describe just being able to read faces and body language like text really does sound like pixie magic For me it's like reading Chinese. I know the characters are supposed to have meaning, and that the people around me (assuming I'm in China) know what they mean, but I can't for the life of me figure out what they're supposed to mean. It's hard even if there are pictures around the words (like words in a conversation) that can be used as context clues, because the context clues are so vague as to have many different possible meanings, so they don't really help me figure out the non-verbals (or the Chinese symbols).

Do you ever find yourself getting tired or drained after having spent a lot of time in noisy crowds or bright environments, or does the sensory input have no apparent effect on you at all outside of when you get migraines?

Being able to be interested in a topic of conversation simply because talking to people is interesting sounds nice. I get so bored listening to people talk, because most of the time I can't find anything interesting in what they're talking about, and I'm not inherently curious about peoples' lives. I can see why extroverted NTs would get bored and restless with long periods of isolation in a case like this. For them, not having people to talk to and learn from is like not having access to our special interests for us. How fascinating!

I don't know if I'd be considered NT, but I can answer these from an extroverted perspective and tell you about traits that I believe I share with many other people. As background, I don't have an ASD diagnosis, I was born totally blind, and I was diagnosed with GAD and OCD.

I'm not sure if pain would be the right word for me to use, but definitely serious physical discomfort. Good examples would be very loud or screechy sounds, like loud microphone feedback or sitting up close at a rock concert without ear protection. These seem common enough to me, not sure how other people on the forum feel about it?

Also, I have tinnitus and episodes of vertigo, so I've noticed that certain frequencies can be especially unpleasant, more so if they're loud enough. I suspect I've gone to too many concerts because some of this has gotten worse in the past few years.



Not to run away, no. It can be overwhelming though if I get too many people talking to me at once or if I can't forge a path through the crowd with the cane. I've seen some other people get a bit flustered with these situations too. If it's really crowded or noisy, I know I'm also not the only one who wants quiet or fresh air after a while. Of course, that doesn't compare with the fight-or-flight response you describe, so I'm not sure if that's what you were looking for?



I run my own writing business, and I've attended quite a few seminars for business owners. The leaders and instructors consider routine, or at least scheduling, to be important. Routine and scheduling add structure and save people the anxiety of constantly making decisions about what to do and when. Not everyone finds the decisions stressful, but lots of people take some comfort in schedules or familiar routines I think. It's a double-edged sword though, because people like freedom and spicing things up. Bottom line: it depends.

I also take meditation classes, and part of meditation is repetition: focusing on the breath, using mantras, counting, ETC. I find that these techniques reduce anxiety, and lots of other people use them.

One more point on routines: our society has lots of social norms and customs. People take comfort in these because they add a measure of order and predictability. Although I find plenty of these frustrating, I know that other people value them.



Part of being an extrovert involves enjoying conversation and finding it somewhat energizing. The back-and-forth nature of conversation is engaging for me.

I often feel a bit uplifted when someone wants to talk to me, when they recognize me, or when I recognize them. That lasts a few moments usually, and then I often start to feel a little of what the other person is expressing. If they're happy or energetic, it might make me smile too, for example.

I'll strike up conversations with people because I'm inherently interested in how they think and feel. I'm also a very curious person, so that helps me to be somewhat interested in a lot of things. I believe I share that trait with many people, to varying degrees, but my level of interest sometimes surprises people also.

When I'm interested in something, I feel engaged and energized. Even better if I can combine that with conversation! It's awesome to talk about my interests for a long period of time if the other person can go back and forth with me.

Aside from migraines sensory stuff has no impact on me. I don't even notice sometimes.

I am sometimes emotionally drained and need to stay away from people. Or like, ethically drained, if that's a thing, and I'll need to keep to myself for awhile.

I think part of why I stay away from other highly neurotypical people like myself is because I find them emotionally and ethically draining. It's like we can see each other too clearly and it bothers me. Autistic people generally ask much less of me, as a person. It makes me feel like the appropriate emotional boundaries are in place.