Anyone here pretended to be someone else to fit in as a kid?

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This is probably more for those of you who were diagnosed in your childhood, like I (somehow) was. I was diagnosed with AS at 8, and after that I felt so ashamed of having this label and watching all the other kids around me being more able to socialise that I decided to pretend to be someone else. So when we had a school photo done (a big photo, literally of the whole school), I decided to pretend to be a random child, and I looked at the school photo and picked one with a sort of appearance that I liked (quite small for her age, dark hair, green eyes), and she was the year above me. I used to recognise her a lot in the playground but I never knew her and she didn't know me, so I secretly tried to pretend I was her. Obviously I didn't know what she was like as a person, but by looking at her she had a nice little group of friends and seemed average. I made up a name for her, and then made up a family and chose a house where she ''lived''. All my cousins played along, and the little ones decided to copy and make up characters of their own for them to pretend to be. But my older cousins took me more seriously, and quite liked the idea of me being a different person. The real me still existed in our imaginations, but she was just with us, and I was this girl. That helped me to be able to join in games better, and be more cheerful and positive, and not get so anxious or agitated when out, and if I did I always pretended the real me was moaning and whining and we all had to speak to ''me'' (who was thin air) and reassure me and tell me to enjoy myself and everything. It was actually quite fun to do that.

I can't do this so well now, because I've grown up and lost that part of my imagination, but as a kid it was great and nobody thought I was stupid. In fact they liked me being someone else. It made playing more efficiant. Did anyone else do this, or is it just me? Maybe if any of you have children who are already diagnosed with AS or some other disorder (doesn't always have to be AS), maybe you could try to get them to do something similar? Honestly, it can help with their coping skills.

I personally didn't do it, but your description reminds me of an article about self--improvement i've read long ago in some magazine. The author explained that it is a common approach for athletes and artists to pretend they were their chosen model in order to improve their respective performance until they own enough originality and confidence. Therefore, i think it was a brilliant idea of yours.

I was first diagnosed when I was 4 or 5 years old with autistic tendencies. Although, I don't agree with it now as it affects a lot of aspects of my life, not just showing certain symptoms. I never accepted it throughout my time at school as I was frustrated about being different and resented it. I never took on a whole new persona like yourself Joe, but I did adapt myself to different trends and clothing in school in order to get by easier. It still wasn't easy by any means, but I'd imagine my time might have been worse if I stood out like a sore thumb. My idea was to blend in, go undetected, opposed to being well liked or anything.

Now that I have accepted myself for who I am for the most part, I would not comprise who I am for anyone. It might be a lonely existence at times, but I'm more content with myself now than I have ever been. I'm no longer projecting a false identity and refuse to be another sheep of society, blindly following along with others and doing what is expected of people of my generation. Do what makes YOU happy, not what others expect you to do.

Not quite to that level but I did pretend to be something I'm not... just to feel as though I was coping.
Otherwise I just know it would be a lot worse for me to deal with all the stuff I would get from my peers... sure I still did get bullied but had I actually been myself, I reckon I'd be as bullied as the main target who was an NT... I know it sounds bad but I'm glad it was him and not me who was the main one to bully...

I did exactly what the OP did at a certain point in my life. I would pick out a girl who looked pretty or who appealed to me in some way (smelled nice in one case, had nice hair in another) and who seemed to have social charisma and I would pretend to be them, go around all day pretending I was them. I would also pick out a house I liked and pretend she/I lived in it. I would also replay events on the schoolyard and give them a better ending or change them in some way, or pretend to be one of the kids who rejected/bullied me and was pretty and had friends. My fantasy world helped me cope in general.....I was bullied mercilessly and had no friends in primary school so I definitely needed a coping technique to get through the days. Retreat into my fantasy world was complete and constant (even during school) so what happened in my world was all that mattered not what happened in the real world. I think pretending to be a socially successful girl rather than a character in a novel series signaled me becoming more aware of the social world (it was around the time when I started becoming more aware).

I did in high school and it was sheer hell. I couldn't wait to graduate, so I could start being myself again.

Absolutely. I'm of Colombian origin and I used to tell people I'm 100% American so they can talk to me. Oh, I got the accent down considering I lived in the US since I was 5 years old, it made it easier for me to fool them into thinking I'm from the US. Another motive for me to lie about my true nationality was so that no one would assume I'm related to the infamous drug lords and criminals of the time which is totally false. I don't know anyone who's a drug lord, criminal, and the like! Nor do I do that s**t in my life, I already have enough problems being an Aspie as it is. I also lied about myself on other things to kids during my childhood just to fit in.

Why is it that kids refuse to take the time to know your personality before instantly passing judgment on you?

I have done this so often to the point I don't know who I really am.

I wanted to look like a football (American) player, so I went to school one day wearing shoulder pads.

I don't think that I've ever done it literally. I have always tended to "separate" the rational part of myself from how I feel when I'm having a panic attack as a result of my delightful comorbid GAD, though. It's like...well, this isn't normal. Why am I doing this? Why can't I stop crying; I'm an adult what the [insert favorite swear word here]?

I'm thinking that's a form of dissociation more than what you're talking about. It's pretty common among people both with and without ASDs as a result of extreme stress.

I use to do this when I was little too. There were some girls that I would copy by wearing similar things to what that they were wearing and would I also try to mimic their mannerisms to try to seem more normal. I don't really do it much now though because it probably creeped out the people that I was trying to act like and it also didn't feel right.

I was born in British Columbia to a family that has a British last name. Before the Summer of 1986, I drew pictures of mounties, listened to Oh Canada before every NHL hockey game and I was also in love of a second country, Germany. Starting at the age of 11 in the Summer of 2006, I started doing things the British way in order to wow my British Canadian father and all of my peers at school. I flew the Union Jack and listened to The Beatles and The Kinks daily. I was always in denial that there was a certain country that I liked better than the one crowned with the Queen's glory. I pretended that everything I did was directly under the British crown. I also acted delighted when I found out that Canada is part of the British Commonwealth. My sister was always looking at me in disbelief. A year later when I likened myself to Peter Newkirk of Hogan's Heroes my sister said, "You remind me of Schultz."

You were in your 30s in 2006. I think you mean 1986.

Also if that wasn't the real you it was pretty convincing. You had no reason to lie in this context, it wouldn't have made an difference on WP. I think you go through phases of what you are interested, and maybe revisit them.

You liked Flushed Away, Bowie, kknks, etc.

You are placing too much significance on liking a character that was entirely fictional, not even written or played by a German compared actually identifying fully with a culture based on knowledge.

There is nothing wrong with liking Germany or even German history. It is a different matter is it is liking Nazi ideology though.

I personally think you are more obsessed with Hogan's Heroes than Germany. What can you tell me about Germany?

I think it is unlikely your family care about that so much as how the obsession manifests. Having an obsession is one thing, but we can't all share the same interests.

i wasn't diagnosed until i was 13, so while i didn't pretend to be someone else, i did adopt a personality that most already saw as me due to my behavior during meltdowns, that seemed to get most of the jerks in my class to leave me alone. i already had a widely known reputation in the school district for my temper, so i took advantage of it and used it in my "public" personality, when graduation came and i've been doing it so long it's part of who i am now. which is to say an arrogant jackass/sarcastic smart-ass with an instinctual knack for unconsciously knowing just the right way to piss people off, and a habit of showboating. Most kids think their school life was hell, but when the principal tells your parents to their face the kids bullying you couldn't possibly be involved because "their such good kids" despite a police order to leave me alone already being on file due to egging your house, it's pretty obvious your not getting any slack from the administration. High school was only better because most kids in my class were too worried about the rumors going around about my absence beginning at spring break 7th grade after one of my worst meltdowns in my entire life until freshman year 2nd semester, than again sophomore year due to trying online schooling. That by the time i returned Junior year they didn't even have an interest in bothering me, only the underclassmen tried, and even then it was only 4 of them. My reputation at the middle school still floats around even though i graduated high school 4 years ago, and haven't been to the middle school in almost 10 years. Thinking about how much my personality changed just to get my classmates to leave me alone is kind of depressing, but at the same time a sobering reminder of how lucky i was that they did start to leave me alone. My personality made the biggest change after one of friends hung himself three weeks before the start of freshman year, i still won't forgive my classmates for how they treated him which was nearly identical to how they treated me. They may have forgotten but i never will, it'll have been 8 years come August. Prior to that i considered suicide, seemed my entire class either hated me or ignored my existance unless we were at school and i started a conversation, most of the teachers were against me, my older sister kept getting by rumors or stories about me, my mom had to leave her job due to my problems in school. After that day, i swore i would never put anyone through what my friends family/other friends went through nor would i stand by and let another friend ever think he was that alone again. I used to be the type of kids that every class has, the kid always trying to be friends with everyone, happy and always having fun, but come 5th grade i started changing into the person i am now, though most of that change only happened after middle school. I've spent more time than i care to admit wondering what could have been, and regretting that i lost that innocent positive view on life and the people in it. Now every time one of my friends begins to question the benefits of their positive, optimistic, generous, kind, trusting personality i'm the one who can give the honest advice that once they do lose that viewpoint, they'll spend more time regretting it and wondering what could have been than not. I accepted my altered personality back when i was a freshman, and never looked back until after i graduated.

So if you take away anything from this, i hope you take this little piece of advice with you. Don't change who you are to fit someone else's views, or to try changing their opinion of you. It's not worth it, and if you do it long enough you forget what you were like beforehand, eventually losing track of what was fake and what was real. So if you have a positive, kind, and trusting personality, do yourself a favor, don't question it and never lose it. You'll spend the rest of your life regretting it if you do. I'm only 22 and I've spent the last 4 years regretting it, and wondering what could have been, and i don't see myself stopping anytime soon.

I had a similar problem with this in high school, though what you went through sounds much, much worse. Most of the people that bullied me were well liked by a lot of teachers and when I would tell the faculty about it most of them wouldn't seem to believe me or take it seriously at all. It was frustrating because I wasn't really trying to get anyone in trouble and was mostly just wanting some advice to deal with it or make some arrangements to avoid them. The school system seems to do a really poor job dealing with bullies.

I used to do that all the time. I was embarrassed and afraid to be myself. I would try to be more like the "typical" kids and I worked really hard to hide who I really am. I was still made fun of a lot. Since graduating, I have found it easier to be myself and it makes me happy to not pretend anymore.