My aspie was showing...

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Have you been in a situation like this???

So I'm getting the wires hooked up to me for my sleep study and I come in with me "Just a girl who likes birds" shirt...

Anyway, she's like "oh, you like birds?" And I'm like explaining I used to work with them, etc...

Then she's like "you're like my son! He's very passionate about things too! But... He doesn't know how to handle his emotions well, lacks some common sense and he struggles socially..."

Not once did she say Asperger's or Autism and I didn't say anything... But ummm... Yeah I know what she was getting at...

Did she know the secret handshake?

I have come across this with an upper manager at my work. The couple of times I’ve met with her she has mentioned the spectrum in passing remarks as if she’s fishing for a reaction or disclosure. I have not disclosed my Aspie reality to my employers but I’m sure it shows up at times.

I do my best to let my inner aspie shine as you put it but I woudn't really say that. Idk most people try to hide it but i've never really felt any point in doing it..

Shhh... don't tell them about the secret handshake

^

I had a little kid ask me today "why do you talk wierd?"

Ummm I just said "I don't know" but I'm painfully aware, yes I have aspie characteristics in my voice...

I'm reminded of a scene from the '91 version of Robin Hood. A child asks Morgan Freeman's character "Did God paint you?" Mr. Freeman replies, "Yes" and of course, the child asks "Why?" Freeman says, "Allah loves wonderous diversity."

Skeptics might say it was cheesy, but I--despite being a borderline atheist/humanist/agnostic/whatever--think it's great! At least some NT kids might be satisfied with something along those lines--life would be boring if everyone were exactly the same, and what's "weird" to one person might be normal or wonderfully unique to another. (Nothing wrong with telling them this explicitly, though a really philosophical answer would go right over a little kid's head.) Of course, depending on the child's age and mindset, "weird" might simply mean the kid notices that difference, rather than a malicious judgement. Then you have that phase(s) when a kid can "why" the Dalai Lama to insanity, so there's no limit to the questions--type or quantity--they might ask, and one question leads to another and another and another! I still say it's worth a shot, if you feel like talking about it. IMO, it means a lot more coming from someone who's actually ND.

It's possible--just POSSIBLE--that whether she knows you're Aspie or not, she wants you to feel comfortable there, and she's just hinting that you can talk to her about it if you want, or not talk about it if you don't want to. She may be trying to tell you that she knows masking might be wearing you down and she doesn't want you to feel like you have to do it with her--or your coworkers--if you need a break. She may also be trying to say that you can come to her for help if you need to--in the case of harassment, for example.

I know that "elephant in the room" feeling because of my epilepsy. It's mostly under control but it's still uncomfortable for anyone to talk about, even if we need to. People generally look to me to set the parameters, and whenever I HAVE to tell a new coworker about it, it's one of the hardest things ever. The rest of the time, we try not to talk about it, even when nearly every single person in the whole building knows I had a seizure at work the other day. They want to express compassion or want to understand more (or tell me what they think I should do), but they either don't want to do it unless I signal them (or know they don't actually have the right to tell me how to manage my personal issues).

Yesterday, a woman I was working with told me that I reminded her of another person who is an electrical engineer and highly detail oriented. It was said calmly enough but I don’t think it was said entirely kindly.
I had to laugh, yup that’s me. It’s not by accident both my sons earned electrical engineering degrees.

I thought the "secret handshake" was to pull my arms in and lean away from the other person.

Nobody has ever compared me to another Aspie they know - unless they already know that I have AS.

I remember in college in health class we were searching online for mental or physical disorders to do our projects on. A friend of mine (who I'm not friends with now) stumbled on to autism and she read about it then tapped me and said, "hey look, I think you might have this, as you never stop going on about your obsessions and you are scared of loud noises."
I had to pretend I knew nothing about autism, so I just smiled and said, "ah, yeah, could be."
But she chose her project on something else and didn't say any more about it. I don't think she really thought about it any more, as she was obviously very uneducated about autism and my symptoms were still too complex to actually display much proof.