nick007 wrote:
I just make up an excuse like you did OP & if I cant think of a good one quick, I may say I have ADD. it is technically true & people with AD[H]D tend to have some stimming/fidgeting behavior. My dad has ADD & stims some like by tapping his fingers alot.
Funny you should say that.
I got caught out today, I was standing on a job site watching the guys working, and someone asked me to stop fidgeting. Apparently I'd been swaying backwards and forwards without realising and was making him feel seasick!
I just said the first thing that came to mind and told him I have ADHD.
But afterwards I felt a bit dishonest, because as far as I know I don't have ADHD, only ASD. For some reason, my mind had jumped to ADHD as being a more acceptable explanation.
It was probably a good call, actually, because he went on to tell me how he didn't believe things like ADHD are real conditions, that we shouldn't be babying modern kids by inventing all these disorders and it should just be called fidgeting.
So who knows what he would have thought/said if I'd told him I was autistic.